If I step back for a moment, I can clearly see why President Biden says we are in a battle for the soul of America. We are currently deciding whether we will be a democratic republic that values truth, voting, and fairness or if we will be an autocracy that uses propaganda, lies, and violence to oppress minorities under the guise of preserving freedom.
During the years when President Obama was elected and then re-elected, many white political conservatives and under-educated whites which included many white evangelicals, began to feel threatened by progressives pushing an agenda for diversity, inclusion, and equity that demanded access to opportunities and seats at the decision-making tables for people whose access had previously been denied, first through overt discrimination, then through covert tactics. In order to maintain power and superior wealth, the political conservatives needed a unifying strategy.
Before I get to that strategy, let me say again how many white university students came to school wrongly believing that we were a colorblind society and that discrimination ended with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Because they believed these myths, they attributed poor education, generational poverty, mass incarceration, and widespread unemployment among people of color to personal failings among members of these groups. They also viewed Affirmative Action as reverse discrimination because they honestly believed that urban public schools with high concentrations of black and brown students were comparable to their wealthier and heavily resourced suburban or private schools. They honestly believed the falsehood that prisons were full of black and brown people simply because they were the ones committing all the crimes. Through education and exposure outside their segregated neighborhoods they learned the reality of the systems of oppression at work in our country.
I credit the persistent work of academics, activists, and journalists for exposing the ongoing inequities in education, employment, housing, banking, and criminal justice. This information has fueled demands for diversity, inclusion and equity for women and minorities across the country. It became evident to a lot of educated citizens that the U.S. was not a colorblind society, that women had been subjected to sexual harassment with impunity along with lower pay, and that black and brown people were unfairly and routinely targeted and brutalized by police. The term, “white privilege” became a catch phrase to explain the ongoing inequities. And I saw firsthand how things became very uncomfortable for white males upon learning that a system was in place to boost their success while disadvantaging others. I knew the pushback was coming. I repeatedly asked why white males would be eager to change a system that favored them. So, I wasn’t too surprised to see young white males marching in Charlottesville, including a student from my own university.
I argue that having President Obama in the White House served as both a trigger and a red herring for white political conservatives, closeted white supremacists, and white evangelicals who desperately wanted to end abortion and stop LGBTQ rights. In a perverse way, President Obama’s presence provided a moral cover for white evangelicals who stubbornly clung to a mythical colorblindness to deny ongoing racial injustice while joining the camp of conservatives with white supremacist leanings. But the conservative leaders knew that abortion and gay rights were not enough to enrage to actively engage white evangelicals and the socially liberal in their ranks. They needed to unite white people by reinforcing that mythical colorblindness while simultaneously stoking a fear of losing 1) their job opportunities to illegal immigrants, 2) their religious freedoms to discriminate against LGBTQ folks, and 3) their right to protect themselves against those dangerous black and brown people. And today, the conservatives have added the false fear of losing their “right” to make their own healthcare decisions by not wearing a mask nor getting vaccinated during a pandemic (and just how is this pro-life?).
It could be argued that supporting the immoral and bombastic Donald Trump was perhaps a bridge too far, but they did it anyway because he promised judges and a return to covert discrimination that would keep white people firmly on top without the inconvenient exposure of an unfair system of white privilege. He and the conservatives attacked the Black Lives Matter Movement as racist and unamerican. They cozied up to white supremacists as good people who love their country. They promoted conspiracy theories to gain additional supporters no matter how ridiculous. And now they are banning books and the teaching of Critical Race Theory which they equate with the racist parts of our history. They want to erase the widening knowledge of the system of white privilege that serves them so well. To rake in high ratings and the accompanying dollars, Fox News and conservative radio are happy to serve as the propaganda wing of the Republican Party, pushing stories that stoke these fears and support Trump and his lies.
As cynical as it may seem, I’m convinced that their primary motivation continues to be both power and money for the few conservative white males holding the reigns. It no longer matters that they are leading the country towards autocratic leadership, Covid-19 deaths, shortages, inflation, racially motivated violence, book bans, voter suppression, and who knows what else. Their motives are sinister, lacking morality and patriotism, but empowering bad actors.
Last week, a Neo-Nazi group hung banners over a freeway overpass in my county that read, “Honk if white lives matter” and “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” These bigots are pushing the propaganda that white people are in danger when it continues to be black and brown people who are struggling for equity.
I would never have guessed just a few years ago that U.S. citizens would become so vulnerable to the kind of propaganda that pits Americans against each other over issues like public health, fairness, equality, science, history, decency, the rule of law, and common sense. But here we are.
And we’re here because there are greedy white men willing to mislead and arm enough uneducated, frightened and sometimes bigoted white people to help them stifle equity and fairness to preserve their continued superiority in wealth and power.