Many have looked to the U.S. president for words condemning “white” supremacy in the wake of neo-Nazi terrorism in Charlottesville, Virginia. The president should have disavowed “white” nationalist violence immediately. Instead he gave delayed and ambiguous statements, and eventually blamed anti-racist protestors for being just as guilty as those on the alternative right (alt-right).
We should no longer look to the 45th U.S. President (hereafter 45) for leadership on this issue because our president is a racist and supports “white” nationalism.
He has told us so over the past two years, in many ways. He has appointed “white” nationalists in his administration and takes advice from them. “White” supremacist ideology has helped shape his executive orders and his administration’s policies.
None of these actions, or the president’s responses to the Charlottesville attacks, should be news to anyone. What should be remembered and commemorated is the life of Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old woman who was “passionate about justice,” and died standing up to race hatred. Heyer and other victims in these attacks are examples for us to follow, not our president.
Whether we decide to participate in pulling down a Confederate statue, attend a solidarity march for equality, or simply have a conversation about bigotry with a friend or family member, all of us can make a difference.
Make America Great Again, Like When?
It was somewhat ironic to see a group of mostly Euro-American men appropriate Polynesian tiki torches as they tossed up “Heil Hitler” salutes, yelled racial slurs, and chanted “White Lives Matter” along with traditional Nazi slogans. The night scene on Friday, August 11, of around 100 “white” nationalists marching on the University of Virginia was also a frightening throwback to Jim Crow-era lynch mobs. In 2017, they came to spread the “pro-white” views of the alt-right.
The alt-right group’s message was clear that night and on Saturday when around 1,000 people planned to protest the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville. They were calling for all those with right-wing political beliefs to unite around “white” supremacy and the “pro-white movement in America.” (Granted, most people who consider themselves on the political right do not openly advocate these views.)
Clashes between the “Unite the Right” protest and anti-racist protesters broke out even before the event began, but it’s what took place hours later that has been memorialized in our nation’s history. An alt-right extremist and Nazi sympathizer drove his car at high speed into a group of anti-racist protestors, killing Heather Heyer and seriously injuring many others.
There is no mistake about it: our president has revived “white” supremacy in the United States of America by giving it a renewed voice. “Make America Great Again” has always been thinly veiled rhetoric for “Make America White Again” – a slogan that “white” nationalists have used in the wake of 45’s presidential victory.
45 ran an election campaign that stirred the pot of racial hatred in this country and he has had no qualms placing “white” nationalists in his presidential administration.
His chief strategist and senior counselor, Steve Bannon, is a “white” nationalist who supports a United States run by wealthy Euro-American men. His Attorney General Jeff Sessions refuses to enforce civil rights laws that address police brutality reforms and has stepped up the deportation of immigrants. Stephen Miller, one of 45’s senior advisors, has helped author travel bans against majority-Muslim countries. Miller also helped craft a plan that cuts legal immigration in half and prioritizes wealthy foreigners who are already proficient in the English language (take the test to see if you’d qualify).
Our current president and his team have been standing for “white” nationalism for a while now. This is why alt-right “white” supremacists have embraced his administration and he embraces them.
Rebranding “White” Supremacy
Alt-right groups have become more sophisticated in branding “white” supremacy, replacing racial slurs and swastikas with coded language and symbols that promote “pro-white” nationalist beliefs. The current presidential administration has done the same, so it’s easy to see why neo-Nazis support 45’s anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and pro-police brutality policies.
Trump and his team reach out to these extremists with their language and legislation. He spoke directly to the alt-right after the Charlottesville attacks when he chastised “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides.” “White” supremacists saw right through the coded language – everyone is to blame equally, so no one’s really wrong.
One alt-right commentator praised 45’s comments: “He [45] said he loves us all. [He] Also refused to answer a question about White Nationalists supporting him. No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good.”
Two days later, 45’s stronger statements against “white” supremacist extremism appears to have come because others forced him to do so, not because he genuinely wanted to speak out against it. He once again refused to answer any more questions from the press.
When he finally took questions a day later, he went into a verbal tirade, saying, “I think there’s blame on both sides.” He further refused to denounce the alt-right and placed anti-racist protest on the same level with neo-Nazi violence, which communicates to “white” nationalist groups that he accepts them.
What other signals does the president send with his daily hateful rhetoric? For example, when 45 openly advocates police brutality, “white” supremacists get the message that he’s on their side. But words have real consequences.
The Consequences of Racist Rhetoric
Heather Heyer has now joined the ranks of hate crime victims in the era of 45. “White” supremacists also injured dozens of others in Charlottesville, and would have killed Deandre Harris, a 20-year-old African American man, if others hadn’t disrupted his brutal beating.
In past months there have been several others victims of deadly “white” nationalist attacks. Their blood is figuratively on the president’s hands.
In February, a man in Kansas yelled “get out of my country” in a bar before opening fire on three men and killing Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an Indian man. Another man stabbed to death Richard Collins III, a 23-year-old African American student, in an unprovoked attack at the University of Maryland. Prosecutors decided not to pursue hate crime charges, but the assailant reportedly belonged to an alt-right Facebook group.
Just days later in Portland a “white” supremacist yelling Islamaphobic slurs stabbed three men, killing two of them: Ricky John Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche. The men stepped in to assist two Muslim women who were verbally attacked by the assailant. Then the right-wing extremist took out a knife and slashed the men who protected the women.
In March, a man who self-admittedly “hated black men” traveled from Baltimore to New York City just to kill. At random, he chose Timothy Caughman, a 66-year-old African American man, whom he stabbed to death with a two-foot long sword.
Is the president to blame for this violence?
In the weeks after 45 secured the Republican primary nomination for president, a man with “skinhead,” “white power” and Confederate flag tattoos stabbed an African American man and Euro-American woman kissing on the streets of Olympia, Washington. The couple’s sign of affection apparently enraged the man, so he assaulted them with a knife. Luckily their injuries were not life threatening and the police arrested their attacker.
After his arrest, the self-avowed “white” supremacist refused his right to remain silent, telling police straight out that he had stabbed the couple and that he came to Olympia to help them fight African Americans on the streets. He proceeded to tell the officers that if they let him go that night “he planned on heading down to the next Donald Trump rally” and vowed to “continue the fight against all of the Black Lives Matter people.”
Even though Euro-American men initiated all of these attacks, there have been many involved in anti-racist and anti-sexist activism, and they have come to the aid of others as allies. We need more of these men to step up as we continue to build bridges of understanding between communities.
Joining Together Across the Aisle
It’s something many of us have known for a long time and now there’s no denying it: our president instigates “white” nationalist terrorism, strengthens their political agenda, and emboldens their recruitment of Euro-American men to the warped and dangerous cause of “white” supremacy.
We cannot wait for a president who continues to incite racial violence to fix this problem. He has shown little interest in truly addressing “white” nationalist extremism because he refuses to turn away from policies that further race, class, and gender divides in our country.
Granted, there were many good-meaning Republicans who have spoken out against race hatred after the Charlottesville attacks. They immediately identified right-wing extremism for what it is: domestic terrorism. Still, the GOP will have a much more difficult time disentangling their party from a faction that it has courted for far too long.
Republicans have stoked the fire underneath the alt-right for years, graciously collecting their votes with little to say about its rising extremism. Now it’s time for moderate Republicans to figure out the mess that many of them have helped create.
Despite our nation’s political divides we must all come together to speak out against the alt-right and “white” supremacy. We must also be willing to work on this issue with anyone committed to this goal, no matter where they are on the political spectrum.