ESSAY
The Trump administration and his ascension into power was a direct backlash of the Obama presidency. A more accurate description would be to call it a white lash, a term coined by CNN political commentator, Van Jones. His election represents a lapse of reason and respect for basic human decency. Our country is at an incredible crossroads in our history. No longer can we be idle in allowing racism into the highest of canons of American society.
American Society and the Origin or our Racism
Where does it begin? They say education begins at home. If this great nation is our home, then we need to analyze our history and see exactly what we’re dealing with. In 1865, the civil war ended, with the victory of the North and the preservation of our union. But here is where the problems really began. Quickly it was understood under enlightened Northern political circles that since, the South was defeated, all the slaves freed, that the new slaves would need political and social integration. This was of course, their birthright as Americans, now, just recognized as free human beings and not chattel property. A new political system of inclusive and representative democracy was introduced. Black representatives and senators were elected. But what happened? Well, the army and the federal government, tired of policing the South and forcibly integrating it, pulled out of the Reconstruction, with Federal troops no longer protecting black society and their new political status, they were forced back into the shadows. The South implemented new laws, legally separating the races, Jim Crow Laws. These laws prevented Blacks from voting or having any kind of social agency. They were cut out from public life. White political groups vowing to restore order formed, the most sweeping of these were the Redeemers, who were swiftly voted into power and would later become the southern Democratic base. White militias were formed, the most infamous of these, the Ku Klux Klan, terrorized black people all over the south, ensuring that they had to conform and be subservient to white social laws, unspoken laws of control that in many ways had far more effect that any singular piece of legislation. (Blake)
The South had lost the war, but they were not about to lose this war. White southern society was able to keep black people in fear and politically unrepresented for almost a hundred years. Then a miracle happened, a black southern preacher named Martin Luther King Jr. started a movement to free black people all-across America, particularly in the south, and end this system of American apartheid by adopting by Civil rights legislation, legislation whose sole purpose was to protect Black Americans and end legalized segregation in this country. The Civil rights movement was born. And like a wildfire it spread quickly to the furthest and most remote corner of this nation. The whole country was ablaze, violence, protest and the greatest social upheaval in this nation’s history ensued. But like the mythical phoenix, from the ashes, a new nation was born. Civil rights legislation was passed, legally protected racism was abolished, and our multiracial democracy was born and codified into law. And racism like the disgusting venomous leech of yesteryear was stripped from our nations neck, never to be seen again.
Or so we would like to think. But just as the south adapted to the reconstruction by implementing new laws and customs to suppress Black people, so has the rest of the nation. Racism did not end, it merely adapted.
The war on drugs was implemented by the Richard Nixon administration. It was taken to its glorious height in the 1980’s under the Reagan administration.
The war on drugs quickly became a war on poverty. Cocaine was not the enemy, but Crack. The inner city became a war zone, police invaded every inch, they went above and beyond to arrest every low- level drug dealer or addict they came across. The war on drugs, did not however dismantle the cartel system, the real enemy supplying America’s addiction. Reagan instead focused his troops on the inner city, often to the devastation of the over-policed local communities. But with an entire generation of black men under bars, white America finally felt safe.
The Obama years, post racial society?
Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. Barack Obama, a junior senator from Illinois, a lyrical public speaker, whose policy emphasized a vision of hope as well as a renewed sense of interaction and relationship with the government and the American people, defeated by a large margin his Republican opponent, John McCain. The country was in a fervor, finally since the death of President Kennedy, progress had a new king. And his name was Barack.
But quickly the racism this country has always been reticent to address was quickly flooded back into the mainstream. He was called a communist, a Muslim, a socialist, the bringer of end times, an agent of the devil, the devil himself and some Americans plainly did not try to hide how they felt and called an ape or a n*****. (Blake)
And just like their forefathers, when faced with the onslaught of a changing country, an America now dedicated to racial and social reform, a mob was formed. The Tea party, a right-wing faction of Republican party, the first incarnation of the alternate right, was formed as a direct response to the election of Barack Obama. They named themselves after the Boston Tea Party, after a group of patriots that leading up to the American revolutionary, dumped tea into the Boston harbor in protest of King George’s high taxes on the sweet leaf.
The Tea party was born because the members wanted to reduce government spending and cut taxes, which according to them had entered unconstitutional waters under the early Obama administration. Government spending had increased significantly under Obama. He had inherited an enormous national debt and a country on the verge of bankruptcy and economic collapse. The Obama care act, a milestone piece of legislation, did require an increase in spending, but it has since saved countless lives, not to mention introduced a new standard of medical efficacy into this country.
Spending was up, but who had caused it? The previous administration had embarked on two fruitless, bloody, and costly wars. They cut taxes on the rich, while keeping everyone else’s nearly the same. Wars and no taxes equal debt. It’s a simple equation and yet a large portion of the country only looked to blame one man, Obama. Why? Well, I wish, I could tell you, it’s because he had big ears or because he’s from Chicago and deep-dish sucks, but no, in all honesty, with all the hindsight of the administration’s years behind us, it can only because he was black.
Because he represented something they didn’t want to acknowledge, because he was the genesis of something they wished to ignore, he was a black man in America, who had risen from virtually nothing and had conquered the hearts and minds of an entire nation to ascend higher than any black man had ever ascended.
He was president, he was historical artifact, proof positive that racism can never win. But he was also in a sinister way, they’re poster boy. A new president for a post racial America. But anyone who has survived the Obama years knows that the post racial part never came to fruition.
Racism like any else, adapts. Even Obama himself could not entirely dismantle the shackles of racist legislation and institutional racism operating inside every facet of this country. The great thing about America, is that for better or worse, it’s almost exactly as the founding fathers envisioned it, everything is decentralized, everything operates independent of each other. Yes, there are laws protecting black people. Yes, there are black police officers. But if the system itself is flawed, then no amount of good work or community policing can stop this epidemic of institutional racism.
Then the angry white horde found its man, progress had a new public enemy; and his name was Donald Trump. The presidency of Donald trump was a direct reaction to the Obama administration and all the progress leading up to it. He is the poster child not only for racism but this country’s sordid past. Just like after the reconstruction, the south quickly moved to pass Jim Crow laws, America scrambled to elect a white man, unfortunately on their path towards White social redemption, they picked a man just north of hell, his red hair frazzled from the bowels of the fires below.
Trump doesn’t represent the best in us, he does however represent our flawed history. His view of other countries, particularly poor ones as “shithole countries” is American jingoistic foreign policy at it’s best. But Trump at least is honest, unlike other administrations that planned their racist strategy very carefully, Trump brought everything out into the open. He was a lighthouse for all the diseased that we’ve ignored in the country. His political rallies were white power rallies without the nagging guilt. He didn’t have any respect for people different than him, when referring to Mexicans, "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best. They're not sending you; they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems, they're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting." (Gamboa)
Yes, our southern border is on fire, and yes, a lot of drugs are coming into our country and yes, a lot of the drugs are being dealt by Mexican cartels. But ordinary Mexican people cannot and should not be held responsible for the actions of a criminal organization, the same way all Americans shouldn’t be held responsible for the bombings and assassinations, both public and private, perpetuated daily by our government. You can’t hold all individuals accountable for the actions of some. We tried this before, with Japanese-American citizens during world war two, we sent them to internment camps, it was wrong then and it is wrong now.
Trump didn’t respect democracy, he threatened to lock up his opponent, Hilary Clinton, with a chant that has now become infamous, “Lock her up, lock her up.”
Trump ran on the promise, to make America great again. But for who? For him, and his rich friends, his psychotic pseudo fascist army of loyal followers. And I say fascist, not because I mean to throw that word around, to make myself look smart or to make other people look evil or maybe impress you, with my political commitment. Because truth be told, I’m not entirely political. But Trumpism represents the birth of a new form of American supremacy, fascism in the modern age. He is the American bully pulpit taken to it’s bloodiest. He is the closet thing we have ever had to a dictator in this country. And just like a dictator, he remains popular, no matter what is brought to life, his mindless soldiers prop him up. After he was defeated, by Joe Biden, on the day that the election was to be certified in Congress, he called upon his followers to invade the Capitol building, and they did, they attacked and flooded congress while its members were still ratifying the vote, in the first open attempt at sedition in our nation’s history.
Why? Because he knew they would, he had brain washed them to that point. They would follow him anywhere, even into open civil war. Why is our country this divided? Why did we have to resort to this?
Because America is a great country and if we’re great at anything, we’re great at the art of sweeping things under the rug. We don’t want to recognize our sordid past or fix the problem of our racist present. And who can blame us? It’s hard. Racism is a monster with many tentacles and it’s hard to know where each one comes from, some attack and go and recede back into the swampy mist where from whence they came, as if they were never even there.
It’s not impossible not to talk about the election of Donald Trump and race. Yes, he could have won on other things, the economy, bringing back jobs, industry, gun rights, healthcare, but none of these issues really matters in this election. And you could tell, because Hilary had to give real answers to these questions and Trump didn’t. He just had to mock her and immigrants to win. Because this race, was just that, it was about race. It was about the future of this country and it’s changing demographics. White Americans are not going to the majority for much longer, Hispanic, and other minorities are the future of this country and will one day be the majority. And this is scary. Because it’s different. Because it makes a whole section of the country feel vulnerable and out of place, like their way of life is dying or as if they’re wrong. But there’s nothing wrong with change. I don’t know what this country is going to look like in fifty years, maybe if will be blacker and browner and more progressive, but also it can just be America. America is a place for everybody, where anybody can feel at home and welcome.
Whatever happens, we need to move forward with some sense of truth and maybe a little dignity. Maybe this country will be less white, but that’s alright, I’ll take a democracy over an apartheid state any day.
I know that race wasn’t the only factor. To say that all of Trump’s electors are racist, is not only untrue but it is alienating and ridiculous. The midwestern blue wall collapsed, but not overnight. Rust belt states, like Michigan and Pennsylvania were torn apart by the 2008 recession and the disappearance of manufacturing jobs. Those strong democratic voting states had been ravaged since most American production has gone oversees. These people didn’t feel connected to their party, they felt left behind. Trump campaigned heavily in these states, promising them to bring them back their former manufacturing jobs and their former glory. Hilary and her campaign didn’t see this coming, while she was out campaigning in Arizona, Trump swept the Midwest and won the election.
It wasn’t all about race, at the end, the vote comes down to economics and likeability, and for a businessman with a certain swagger behind him, those seem to go hand in hand. Many Trump voters weren’t racist, they were enchanted by a very charismatic liar, he promised them jobs and growth and American dignity again. And they bought it. But not because their stupid, but because they wanted to believe, we all want to believe that our lives are going to get better and sometimes hope comes in mysterious ways. Just like Obama ran on a platform of “Hope and Change”, so did Donald Trump, hope for the future by trying to revive a glossed over racist past. Make America Great Again, it’s a great slogan, who doesn’t want to make America great. But the problem with this is that it’s misleading, because America is great, but it has to become great for everyone, we have to lead ourselves into the future with our feet firmly planted in the present and our eyes stretched to the boundless horizon in front of us, we know who we are and we know what we must become, that is our destiny and the destiny of every American who wishes to live free and prosper without fear.
Works Cited
Blake, John. “This Is What 'Whitelash' Looks Like.” CNN, Cable News Network, 20 Nov. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/11/11/us/obama-trump-white-backlash/index.html.
Gamboa, Suzanne. “Donald Trump Announces Presidential Bid by Trashing Mexico, Mexicans.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 7 Nov. 2016, www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/donald-trump-announces-presidential-bid-trashing-mexico-mexicans-n376521.