Trump's War Against Inclusive America

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. If there is no struggle there is no progress.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

( Frederick Douglass, Aug. 3, 1857)

The Trump administration recently elevated the issue of white oppression as one of its priority causes, much to the chagrin of an incredulous nation.

But, this latest effort to protect the power of white supremacy from assaults of incremental progress toward multiculturalism should come as no surprise. Despite Trump’s pathologically lying, misogynistic, bullying public personality, he remains popular among a solid base of millions of supremacists, nationalists and right-wing Christian evangelicals precisely because he has demonstrated an undeterred willingness to lead a resurgent political battle through which victory might restore the nation’s white populace to the strength of full dominance it once possessed. 

All attempts to rationalize and excuse Trump's anomalous behavior, and subsequent acquiescence by enablers in the Republican Party which have emboldened it, fail to address the common thread of logic that runs consistently through this historic episode in American history. Today, we are experiencing a backlash borne out of continuation of an internal conflict steeped in the original sin of our nation: white supremacy.

USA: THE FIRST 92 YEARS

From 1776, when white supremacists declared the US a free and sovereign country, to 1868 when they added a 14th amendment to the constitution, there was no debate that this was a nation for white citizens built upon the foundation of white supremacy.

After the Civil War, millions of newly freed black slaves caused a new question to arise that fueled a political war among the white political and economic power structure which has yet to be fully decided: What should be done with black people?

The contentious passage of the 14th amendment fanned flames beneath smoldering sentiments in the white hot south (that smolder today), still combustible following the release of the last slaves a few years prior.

The return of political power to the states enabled and emboldened white Americans at local and state levels to wage war upon the new black Americans.

Oregon’s constitution even authorized the beating of any black person within its borders every six months until they departed. Despite the 14th and 15th constitutional amendments, black people were not considered by white supremacists equal to whites in stature, power, legal protections or by any measure of intellect and humanity. History records many ways in which the US government itself joined in the abuse of black Americans, which was pervasive throughout the private sector.

100 YEARS LATER

From 1868 to 1968 (when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated), black Americans were routinely and systemically victimized in every nook and cranny of society by the sacrosanct “private sector” and dismissed by the public sector, which kowtowed to the whims of the private sector. 

It was a war by any measure: economic sanctions, propaganda, protests, government spying, legalized kidnappings, imprisonment, torture, rapes and murders.

Mass destruction of communities and infrastructure produced masses of black refugees fleeing from a sizzling frying pan of hostilities in one area only to fall into a fiery backlash in another. Systemic institutional biases favored white supremacy in every area of society, from education to economic opportunity. 

For black Americans, there was nowhere to run or hide from the war. 

In 1963, Dr. King gave his most iconic speech in which he encapsulated a century of the chronic condition plaguing the landscape of black Americans, which endured a consistent onslaught of white hostilities upon their intact families: 

“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

“But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free.

100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

100 years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”

Dr. Martin Luther King ( excerpt from "I Have a Dream") 

That “shameful condition” has been dramatized repeatedly every year in myriad ways to try and penetrate the bubble of privilege that enables many white Americans to live in relative ignorance, oblivious to the battles raging just outside the sanctity of their privileged environment. 

It was Lincoln's Republican Party that moved Congress to pass the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution, each establishing legal authority that outlawed slavery, established black people as US citizens (black "Americans") and provided black Americans the right to vote. But the establishment of law did not necessarily translate into broad practice and protections due to institutions of power and influence under control of white supremacists at every level of government, littered across all political parties and saturated throughout the nation's private sector business landscape.

By the time Dr. King offered his famous speech in August of 1963, blacks could depend upon neither party for protection or empowerment. Segregation ruled the land. And it did so at the will of both political parties.

The Republican Party would evolve during this period of outright white hostilities targeting black Americans, choosing to marry itself to segregationist policies and practices in the 1968 presidential election that featured Richard Nixon (R), Hubert Humphrey (D) and segregationist George Wallace (I) who ran on a campaign message of "Law and Order."

Wallace was previously a Democrat but ran as an Independent after his segregationist agenda was rejected by mainstream supporters of the Democratic Party, which embraced Humphrey (who had previously championed the Civil Rights Act of 1964).

Nixon would deploy his "Southern Strategy" to eventually capitalize upon recruiting the orphaned electorate after Wallace's failed campaign. The Republican Party would embrace the disaffected voters and welcome them into the Grand Old Party, thereby solidifying America's present-day political division and racial attitudes.

Wallace would return to the Democratic Party and resume his gubernatorial leadership of Alabama, eventually renouncing his segregationist past during his last term as governor (1983-87). But, note Wallace's return to the Democratic Party. Today, it also has its fair share of white detractors who prefer not to operate under a national banner of "Inclusive America" despite the vast majority of white supremacists opting for the GOP.

Sadly, white supremacy isn't a marginalized, fringe, extreme ideology, as journalists and politicians, pastors and educators promote on a daily basis. White supremacy in America is a broad mainstream ideology that manifests itself in varying ways along a spectrum ranging from individual belief to organized hostile activities. And decisions made by individuals in seats of power, wealth and influence, based on white supremacist ideology, have significant deleterious affects upon nonwhites. I would concede that white supremacist hate groups, such as the KKK and neo-Nazis, are marginalized as organized groups. But such marginalization of one side of the spectrum serves as cover for the entire rest of it, which allows whites who subscribe to supremacist ideology to disavow extreme groups that promote hate and violence.

White supremacy at its core isn't solely about violence against others. It typically manifests in seemingly innocuous decisions that are biased in favor of whites, with a belief that others are inferior. We see the manifestation of such beliefs throughout American society today. All we need to do is review the data.

America is a segregated society, intentionally designed and built that way uniformly from coast to coast by white supremacists. Evidence of the white supremacist mindset is ubiquitous. And it is measurable if we focus on disrupting segregationist policies and practices across industry sectors rather than pointing out racism.

Nearly 50 years have passed since Dr. King was assassinated and the chronic condition to which he pointed continues to worsen, even as the voices pointing to it have risen to a crescendo. What's preventing those voices from being heard? What's preventing a measurable response with accountability for measurable progress? White supremacy also manifests in willful ignorance and quiet dismissal of legitimate complaints. Imagine what kind of mindset is required to ignore 50 years of athletes and entertainers elevating the crisis in black America perpetrated by white America.

50 YEARS OF ACTIVIST ATHLETES AND ENTERTAINERS

Just a year prior to that fateful election of 1968, legendary NFL running back Jim Brown assembled high profile athletes in Cleveland for the “1967 Ali Summit,” to show support and solidarity for the legendary boxer whose unabashed activism cost him years of economic opportunity due to being banned from the sport he would return to dominate. 

Fifty years after the Ali Summit, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is experiencing similar treatment, blackballed by the NFL for daring to display a peaceful protest that points to the “shameful condition” that persists today.

Between the protests of Ali and Kaepernick, there have been many casualties of the war spanning those 50 years. Many have suffered losses of jobs and careers; too many have lost their lives. Women, children and the elderly have not been spared. 

If the nation’s incremental march toward an inclusive society is to continue, the progress of which culminated in one black man ascending to the office of the presidency, then the current supremacist backlash that rose up to hoist an obviously unqualified man into the Oval Office must be defeated. 

THE BATTLE FOR INCLUSIVE AMERICA

War is hell. Many innocent victims are caught in its snare. And in order for one side to win, the other must lose (or acquiesce). In order for an Inclusive America to be born, white supremacy must die.

But, as Frederick Douglass warned (much to Trump's chagrin), such power can never be expected to graciously concede. There must be a demand made by the citizenry across all races. And within that demand must be a determined resolved to disrupt segregation and build a “fair, just and inclusive America,” as President Barack Obama directed us to do in his farewell speech six months ago.

The next election is just around the corner. And while President Trump is eagerly whipping up his base of support at rallies and on Twitter -- distracting from the serious investigations that threaten to dethrone him, his family and his regime -- the rest of America must turn its attention toward the future.

Americans cannot afford to ignore the ugly racial war that rages across the nation in every nook and cranny. We must accept the fact that any disruption of segregationist policies and practices, established over many generations by white supremacists, will not organically dissipate. There must be an intentional, sustained disruption in every part of our society.

In order to defeat the backlash of white supremacy, which fears the encroachment of a multicultural, multiracial society, we must elevate a strong political and societal message of building an Inclusive America, wherein all citizens are afforded equitable access to economic opportunities, prosperity and an improved quality of life. It is under the banner of building an Inclusive America that the next occupant of the Oval Office will be determined.