Black History Month in the Era of Trump
As we celebrate Black History Month this year and the heroic leaders and movements that have advanced racial justice, let us remember that the struggle for justice for African Americans is but a part of the history of movements for racial justice in this country.
As the State of Florida was eliminating Advanced Placement African American History, conservatives complained that we should avoid teaching history in a way that might make some students feel bad about themselves or the country. This reveals the way educational systems, which are controlled by localities and states are also part of the system of national state security.
International relations scholars define security in two ways. International security is the defense of state institutions from foreign usurpers. Domestic security is manifest in sustenance of those same institutions from overthrow from insurrectionist elements among the home population. With the nation increasingly polarized since the 1990s domestic security has become a more pressing problem for our nation-state. The problem for the political establishment is how the educational system functions to reproduce patriotic citizens.
As is the case with the nation at large establishment elites are divided on this question when it comes to matters of race. The conservative wing, which is overwhelmingly white, is itself divided between white assimilationist and white nationalist. White assimilationism seeks to sweep race under the rug and see America as a place where hard-working individuals can ultimately succeed, regardless of race. White nationalists believe the country should always be controlled by only what the majority of white people want.
As the country careens toward the day when racial minorities will become the majority, white nationalists have been reacting with increasing violence. White nationalism (also known as white supremacy) was at the core of the Christian Patriot and Christian Identity ideologies of Oklahoma City federal building bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in 1995. And white nationalist were prominent among those storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.[i]
The Republicans are the party of the conservative establishment. They had historically pandered to white nationalists to get their votes. But when Donald Trump opened his campaign with vitriolic anti-immigrant rhetoric, the racist genie of the Republican base was let out of the bottle.
With Trumpism the white nationalist blue collar faction of the party has overrun the white assimilationist country club establishment. Domestic security for white nationalists means border walls to keep brown folks out, banning books about our sordid racial history, and no reform to policing and criminal justice practices that mistreat working class and poor people of all races.
The left side of the political establishment who I’ll refer to as liberals, after twists and tuns over the years basically agree with progressives that “a more perfect union” in the US would be multiracial democracy. The leader of that establishment, President Biden, has used the term systemic racism to describe our country’s racial ills since taking office.[ii] There is broad consensus on the left that that we should learn about our tragic racial history and face our multiracial future courageously.
This has certainly happened inside the Democratic Party, which gave us our first African American President. Democratic presidents have appointed many more people of color in cabinet and other administrative positions and to federal judgeships than Republicans since the 1970s.
Perhaps more profoundly, one can see that shift taking place across civil society. Cultural institutions such as museums and the film and television industries often under pressure have racially diversified their personnel and programming. The advertising and marketing industries have joined the party. I can’t turn on the TV today without seeing interracial couples and families in ads, probably now to a greater extent than we find them in the real world.
In professional sports National Basketball Association pushed out the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers ten years ago over racist remarks. The Washington D.C. pro football team and the Cleveland baseball team have both discarded their old Native American names under popular pressure. The majority of the employee/entertainers who make billions of dollars (some for themselves, but most for the owners) in pro football and basketball are African American.
Led by universities, many civic and cultural institutions have adopted land acknowledgements in which they recognize that they sit on indigenous land. Often such statements refer to the land as stolen.
The left establishment has already decided, through a combination of political pressure, the profit motive, and yes, some old fashion goodwill, that its version of domestic security lies in servicing the aspirations of an ever more racially diverse society.
We thus, have two versions of national security and identity before us today. Sure the right has racked up federal court appointments and rulings. It has tampered with voting laws and legislative districts. They ban books. They even rally around a former president who has said that if re-elected he would be “dictator for a day” while referring to immigrants in Hitleresk fashion, as “vermin.”
This is all because conservatives are scared to death of 21st century America. They’re going to such great pains to control the political institutions, because they feel they’ve already lost control of cultural institutions.
This Black History month let us ponder “where doth a durable consensus on our national security lie?” In a white nationalism that can only be realized via authoritarianism, or in a multiracial democracy promising only that we continue to have the space to work our problems out.
[i] Christine Fernando and Noreen Nasir, “Years of white supremacy threats culminated in Capitol riots,” AP. Accessed February 9, 2024 at https://apnews.com/article/white-supremacy-threats-capitol-riots-2d4ba4d1a3d55197489d773b3e0b0f32
[ii] Joseph Biden, “Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” The White House. Accessed February 9, 2024 at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/
