
America in Black and White: “Is Trump a Racist?”
Anyone who happened to be in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2009, remembers the joyful exuberance of the crowds as Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States. That a man, with an African-born Muslim father, could be elected as the leader of the free world filled the streets with hope. This was a “new” America — the America that could reinvent itself, rise to the moral high ground, and move closer to true equality.
Eight years later, the pall that descended on our nation was surreal. Donald Trump, a man, supported by members of the Ku Klux Klan and who in turn expressed support for them, ascended into the hallowed halls of the White House — an event that effectively turned the clock back fifty years.
At the annual Hutchins Forum on Martha’s Vineyard this past August, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. told the crowd, “Historically, for every step forward for black people, we’ve been forced back at least two steps.” This year’s discussion, “A Single Garment of Destiny: MLK’s Dream in the Age of Trump,” moderated by PBS commentator Charlayne Hunter-Gault examined this phenomenon. Hunter-Gault asked Jelani Cobb, staff writer at the New Yorker, “Is Trump a racist?’ He answered simply, “Absolutely…and for more reasons than we could articulate.”
Any sense of disbelief that a racist could win an American presidency in the 21st century reveals our collective misunderstanding of the past. Why should we be surprised by Trump’s racism when America was founded upon it? Harvard historian Gates explained, “White supremacy rose out of the ashes of slavery, was codified anew, and finally went rogue.”
While extolling the virtues of freedom and equality, twelve of the country’s presidents owned slaves including founders Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. Gates reminded the audience of the “naked unapologetic system of white supremacist ideology” was created “by the powers that be, still largely white, still largely male, still largely of the ownership class.” Lest we forget, in 1776, white women, children, and unpropertied men were not born equal either. Freedom, as our founders constructed it, was the privilege of the propertied few.
Preserving property rights lies at the heart of white supremacy in America. From the birth of the nation, two parallel ideologies existed — one comprised of racial and gender superiority and another of pure unadulterated greed. As Gates wrote in 2010, “slavery was a business.”
Barnard College economics professor, Carl Wennerlind, calls American slavery “the purest example of capitalism we have.” Early America’s embrace of “unfettered” capitalism was the founding contradiction in our democracy. Capitalism without a moral or social component operates in direct opposition to democratic ideals of equality and justice. There is no equality in winner-takes-all capitalism.
Defined as an economic system in which private business and property ownership are “largely free of state control,” the general public has accepted the false doctrine of “free markets” and “free enterprise” for centuries.
Yet, this is clearly not true.
Our history proves that from 1776 through 2018, “markets” are only “free” if favored by the state. Gates reminded the audience of the post-Civil War period of “Redemption.” Using civil rights legislation intended to support democratic ideals of equality, American leaders chose to protect the ownership class at the expense of a formerly enslaved people. “Confederate States redeemed their lost cause by systematically rolling back the gains in black rights under the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments,” he explained.
This practice of government officials choosing winners and losers at the expense of democracy continued throughout the 20th century. In a book called, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, historian Richard Rothstein describes New Deal and Fair Deal programs under FDR and Truman that effectively prevented working class and middle-class African-Americans from obtaining home loans.
The 1960s began with fresh hope to reverse centuries of social and economic disparities under Kennedy and Johnson. It ended with Nixon’s racially targeted “war on drugs” and continued unabated until Obama’s election. Even under Clinton, friend to African Americans, criminal justice and welfare reforms “decimated Black America” according to author Michelle Alexander.
Despite all of this, somehow we thought that the past was well…past.
Gates told the Vineyard crowd, “None of us would have believed it possible under the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency” that the policies of Andrew Johnson would be “haunting the White House again.” The thing is Obama’s job wasn’t done. Eight years is not enough to roll back four hundred years of efforts to demoralize and disenfranchise an entire population.
In February 2016, Alexander, author of the powerful treatise The New Jim Crow, encouraged black Americans not to support Hillary. Nine months later, when the choice became Hillary or Trump, a record number of Bernie Sanders’ supporters and African Americans stayed home rather than vote.
The critical question is not whether Trump is a racist; clearly his policies are racist. The most important issue is what are “we” — Americans who care about democracy and social justice — going to do about it? President’s can do a lot of good; they can also do a lot of harm. The Trump administration is rapidly dismantling every Obama era social advance. Meanwhile, a co-opted Republican Congress stands mutely by protecting their personal economic interests.
What do we really believe in as Americans? Does a savage survival-of-the-fittest capitalism take precedence over democracy or is it the other way around? The November midterm elections are approaching. A slate of traditional and nontraditional progressives are vying for congressional seats. If elected, the shift in power could stem the tide of current efforts to undermine our democratic ideals.
American democracy depends largely upon the balance of power between the president and Congress. Trump’s election revealed that apathy can be our greatest enemy. Whatever you do this November, don’t stay home and not vote.

@dreamstoryus
#democracy #America
