By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published on October 29, 2018
It was bound to happen after prestigious research institutions predicted several years ago that whites would become a numerical minority in the U.S. population by the year 2044. Somehow, some way, we expected a new drum major for white nationalism in America would emerge in light of this prediction.
Our premonition was correct, and the new drum major's name is Donald J. Trump. White nationalism groups around the country are ecstatic because Trump occupies the White House as the 45th President of the United States.
America’s White Population is Declining
Excluding native-Americans, the U.S. population has been predominantly white since the founding of Jamestown in 1607. In 1950, whites accounted for about 90 percent of the nation’s population. Today, whites make up only 61% of the nation’s population and their numbers in the total population are steadily dropping.
Accompanying the drop in the white population is a corresponding rise in the number of hate crimes. Nationally, levels in 2014 were the lowest since national reporting began in 1992, according to the FBI. Since then, hate crimes have steadily increased. In 2016, the last year with FBI totals available, hate crimes were up 11.7 percent compared to 2014.
According to the FBI, the six most frequently targeted groups in 2016 were African-Americans; lesbians, gays and bisexuals; whites; Jews; Latinos; and Muslims. Race continues to be the most common category, comprising 57 percent of all hate crimes.
Except for whites, the remaining groups have been the targets of Donald J. Trump's hate speech as a presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016 and as America's President. He trashes high profile members of these groups on a regular basis.
Trump’s Aims to Stop or Slow the Browning of America
Trump’s primary goal as president is to stop or slow the browning of America, by any means necessary. To accomplish this goal, Trump and his political allies in state and local governments have deployed a number of tools that are popular with conservative white voters.
First, they have declared war on people of color who are seeking legal entry into the U.S. White Europeans who seek green cards and/or U.S. citizenship have become Donald Trump’s preferred category of immigrants.
This year, First Lady Melania Trump showed the world how Trump’s white-privilege immigration preference works. Her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, took their oaths to become Americans in August after she sponsored their green cards. They benefited from the “chain migration” that Trump has repeatedly criticized for non-white immigrants. Under “chain migration”, a single immigrant who becomes a U.S. citizen may sponsor an unlimited number of other relatives for green cards and citizenship.
Second, Trump began separating babies and young children from their migrant parents much like the Nazis did to Jewish families during World War II. In fact, the architect of this family separation policy is Steven Miller, a wayward Jewish presidential adviser who serves the same function in the Trump administration that the Jewish Ghetto Police served under Adolf Hitler.
Third, Trump has declared that a U.S.-bound caravan of migrants from Central American countries will not be allowed into America even if they qualify for political asylum under applicable U.S. immigration laws. Trump and his cronies view these migrants as "invaders."
Fourth, Trump has encouraged Republican officials in state and local governments to employ (a) unlawful gerrymandering of political districts, (b) discriminatory voter ID laws, (c) illegal signature matching laws, (d) the questionable purging of voter rolls, and (e) a host of other voter suppression techniques that are designed to disenfranchise voters in African-American and Latino communities.
Fifth, Trump has fanned the flames of violence against African-Americans; lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people; Jews; Latinos; Muslims, and mainstream media organizations. He has also signaled that it is okay to sexually assault women. Trump calls people in these targeted groups “dogs”, “pigs”, “rapists”, “criminals”, “lazy”, “fake”, “low IQ”, “mobs”, and “thugs.”
Sixth, Trump has used the Oval Office to energize and legitimate a resurgent white nationalism movement. Last year, a violent group of neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia took to the streets and chanted, “Jews will not replace us.” One of the neo-Nazis murdered Heather Heyer, an innocent counter-protester. President Donald J. Trump quickly proclaimed that there were “good” people among the neo-Nazi group.
Seventh, Trump has placed two Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who are committed to reversing Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that recognizes the legal right of a pregnant woman to choose an abortion. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, fifty-one percent of the women who exercise this right are white. Under Trump’s white population preservation plan, white babies MUST be brought into the world, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the mother's pregnancy.
Trump’s Hate Speech is Popular in Southern States
Trump’s hate speech is popular in Southern states. Race baiting and the dehumanization of women and people of color have always been popular political themes in Southern states.
Today, these states are under solid Republican political control. If you look at the faces in the crowd at Trump rallies in some of these Southern states, they remind you of the gleeful faces shown in old photographs that capture African-Americans being burned alive and lynched during the Jim Crow era.
For the most part, candidates running for public office under the Republican banner in Southern states today have no political agenda other than to support President Donald J. Trump. These candidates may be drunkards, wife beaters, child molesters, sexual abusers, adulterers, thieves, tax cheaters, veterans of bankruptcy proceedings, serial liars, bigots of every sort, and social misfits. Yet, these shortcomings do not matter as long as they qualify as Republican candidates and pledge their staunch allegiance to Donald Trump.
After all, Donald Trump is the new drum major for white nationalism and racial hatred in America. White hate groups are surging under Trump’s presidency. Trump cannot denounce white nationalism because he is their de facto leader.
PHOTO: President Donald J. Trump (right) and neo-Nazis protesters at Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 (left).
