Highbrow Magazine - white supremacy https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/white-supremacy en From the Fringe to the Mainstream: The Disturbing Rise of American White Supremacy https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11038-fringe-mainstream-disturbing-rise-american-white-supremacy <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 11/16/2020 - 19:03</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1whitesupremacy_cool_revolution-creative_commons.jpg?itok=HSX_SptO"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1whitesupremacy_cool_revolution-creative_commons.jpg?itok=HSX_SptO" width="480" height="318" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>On April 8, 1988, a jury in federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/04/08/13-white-supremacists-acquitted-in-arkansas-murder-and-sedition-trial/21c30cbe-c120-40ac-8fec-33420d1b0d2e/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">acquitted</a> 13 white supremacists who had been charged with conspiring to overthrow the government and murder a federal judge and a federal agent. Jurors heard testimony about how the defendants allegedly planned to use gallons of sodium cyanide to poison the water supply of major U.S. cities, illegally acquired military-grade weapons, and their plans to form an all-white nation in the Pacific Northwest. After a two-month trial, the all-white jury acquitted all defendants of all charges.</p> <p> </p> <p>One of those acquitted was Robert E. Miles, a former Grand Dragon of the Michigan Ku Klux Klan and still considered one of the most influential American white supremacists (more on his Christian Identity movement later). When asked how the Fort Smith trial would affect the white supremacist movement, “Pastor” Miles <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/08/us/13-supremacists-are-not-guilty-of-conspiracies.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">replied</a>: “Who knows? What movement? What’s left of it after this?” </p> <p> </p> <p>The question is important, more so than the response, which of course turned out to be unprophetic babble. This is because, especially now and possibly on account of the Fort Smith trial, we often fail to see white supremacy as a social movement. One in which leaders emerge, groups are formed and disbanded, different ideas are floated, carried out, and discarded; much the way any modern social movements work. Instead, we tend to think of white supremacists as single actors, as “lone wolves” who maybe read the wrong literature once or were bullied just a bit too much or rejected by a woman just one too many times who then go on to commit heinous acts of domestic terrorism and hate crimes. But the truth is that white supremacy is just an umbrella term for the many different sects and groups that subscribe to some theory or concept of race supremacy, and for some of them, the term doesn’t even apply within the semantics of their beliefs. </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2whitesupremacy_anokarina_-_wikimedia.jpg" style="height:570px; width:570px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>When we think of white supremacy in America, we tend to visualize the obvious conceptualization of the term. Something like the Ku Klux Klan with their immediately recognizable robes and pointy hats and their fantasy-themed titles of dragons and wizards and orcs. The Klan first came into the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">scene</a> during the Reconstruction era, as a direct response to the results of the American Civil War and the emancipation of Black slaves. Back then, it was confined entirely in the South and it was found mostly in rural areas.</p> <p> </p> <p>From then on, the Klan has had a steady presence in the American landscape, although its influence seems to ebb and flow depending on the needs of the time. The Klan virtually disbanded shortly after Reconstruction, but reemerged in the 1920s immediately following the First World War. This time, its national presence was in response to industrialization, urbanization, and the first huge wave of immigration to the U.S. that resulted from World War I. While African-Americans were always their source of affliction, the Klan now also targeted immigrants, Jews, and Catholics who migrated to the U.S. The 1920s Klan were mostly men who basically sought to terrorize anyone who wasn’t white and Protestant. The famous <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b39318/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">pictures</a> of Klansmen freely parading through Washington DC are from this era, as the Klan enjoyed widespread national support and political clout. <em>Birth of a Nation</em> was a hugely popular <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-worst-thing-about-birth-of-a-nation-is-how-good-it-is" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">film</a> that was sympathetic to the Klan that even had a private screening in the White House.</p> <p> </p> <p>These comings and goings of the Klan reflect some of the most basic ways in which America deals with white supremacy, in that the Klan only popped up when it thought the country needed saving. In fact, <a href="http://pages.wustl.edu/files/pages/imce/cunningham/owens_et_al_social_problems_2015.pdf" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">analyses</a> have shown that most Klan chapters emerged in areas where police activity did not enforce Jim Crow laws; in other words, the Klan did not go where it was simply not needed because the government was already fulfilling its goals by enacting and enforcing racist laws. This, along with anti-Klan protests and campaigns launched by social organizations and Catholic and Jewish congregations, are some significant reasons that the Klan practically disappeared in the late 1920s. They would remerge again in the 1960s to fight against the Civil Rights Movements that was overtaking the nation. And it seems they are having another renaissance now during these modern times of social unrest and fierce civil activism. </p> <p> </p> <p>And in many ways, the Klan and its origins offer us a study on the most visceral ideologies of American white supremacy: an irrational hatred of non-whites (particularly Blacks), and a deep-rooted desire to return to and maintain the social hierarchy of the Antebellum South and keep Blacks subjugated. For the Klan, there was no literature to be inspired by besides some <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/04/08/the-preacher-who-used-christianity-to-revive-the-ku-klux-klan/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Biblical</a> passages specifically selected and contextually twisted to fit its narrative; no (unfounded and disproved) theories of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/column-the-false-racist-theory-of-eugenics-once-ruled-science-lets-never-let-that-happen-again" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">eugenics</a> to base their ideologies on; and, at least in their genesis and not as one of their founding principles, no fear of the “others” that were coming to take jobs away from hardworking white Americans. Their raison d’etre, in essence, was that they missed a time when white men could make money off unpaid labor and rape women of color with impunity.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3whitesupremacy_shawn_breen-creative_commons.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>But of course, white supremacy goes beyond your local Klan chapter. And perhaps because the KKK is a distinctively American faction, it may be easy to dismiss it as sort of a fool’s white supremacy group; dangerous and violent to be sure, but disorganized, underfunded, plagued by endless in-fighting, and with silly-looking uniforms. When in truth, many members of the Klan committed some of the best known acts of domestic terrorism and figure in many historical events of the nation, some with worldwide reach.</p> <p> </p> <p>We have several examples of this far-reaching influence from the defendants of the Fort Smith trial alone. <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/david-lane" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">David Lane</a>, for example, became an iconic figure in the global white supremacy movement after he penned what is perhaps the best-known slogan of their crusade, commonly known as the “<a href="https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/14-words" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">14 Words</a>.” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/jewish-center-shootings/jewish-site-killings-death-sentence-white-supremacist-frazier-glenn-miller-n461071" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Frazier Glenn Miller Jr.</a>, who was a key witness of the prosecution during the trial, had previously founded the White Patriots Party, ran for governor of North Carolina (he placed third in the primaries) where he also started the state’s KKK group, and would later go on to murder three people in the Overland Park Jewish Community Center shootings in Kansas; he was 73 years old by then and accidentally ended up killing three Christians when his intended targets had been Jews.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/08/18/Former-KKK-leader-Robert-Miles-dead-at-67/7854714110400/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Robert Miles</a> himself had run George Wallace’s Michigan campaign for presidency in 1968 (yes, <em>that</em> George Wallace), and after the trial would go on to found The Mountain Church of Jesus Christ the Savior, a site of numerous cross-burning events that preached, among other things, <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-bloody-history-of-americas-christian-identity-movement" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Christian Identity</a>, another form of white supremacy with some pretty unique ideologies, such as the belief that white people—specifically of Caucasian descent—are the real Israelites favored by God in the Bible, and that only Aryans are capable of blushing (Christian Identity is pretty niche and its presence has been diminishing, and yet there are still at least 11 <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/christian-identity" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">active</a> Christian Identity groups in the U.S. alone).</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.thv11.com/article/news/its-been-35-years-since-a-white-supremacist-killed-an-arkansas-state-trooper/91-7c3bb432-94b3-4875-9c26-ce1da76e266e" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Richard Snell</a>, who also subscribed to the Christian Identity ideology and was already serving a life term in prison for the murder of two people (a black trooper and a store clerk he mistakenly thought was Jewish), would be executed the same day of the Oklahoma City bombing -- which is almost certainly a coincidence and a bleak display of the universe’s sense of irony. Timothy McVeigh himself said that he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995 primarily as retaliation against the government for the Waco Siege that had taken place exactly two years prior. And apparently, Snell himself had <a href="https://extras.denverpost.com/bomb/report7.htm" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">planned</a> to bomb the building back in 1983 because he was angry at the IRS, which is almost certainly another coincidence, although McVeigh never did explain why he targeted specifically the Alfred P. Murrah building.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4whitesupremacy_microchip08-wikimedia.jpg" style="height:467px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>All of these seemingly random acts point to the fact that white supremacy isn’t just a “white is better” belief ingrained in misguided and stubborn opinions; but rather that white supremacy takes many forms. Some white supremacy groups are specifically anti-government; others don’t mind other ethnicities too much, but despise Jews; others are rooted in religious fanaticism (see Christian Identify above); while others still renounce the rigidity of religion (see Hitler and his ambivalent stance on Catholicism and religion in general).</p> <p> </p> <p>So we have groups like the KKK and the Aryan Brotherhood, your classic white supremacist groups, if you may. There’s also the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20120625/racist-skinheads-understanding-threat" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Racist Skinheads</a>, which originated in Great Britain in the 1960s and 70s and are now a major facet of the movement worldwide (and this refers to the actual Racist Skinheads groups, not the whole subculture of skinheads in general, of course). There are the <a href="https://www.vox.com/21313021/trump-white-nationalism-supremacy-miller-bannon-immigration" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">White Nationalists</a>, who crusade for an all-white nation to promote the interests of whites. <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/glossary-terms/white-separatism" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">White Separatists</a> are a cousin of the Nationalist, but they would be OK with either an all-white nation or just removing all non-whites from their midst somehow. Although many civil rights advocates consider these pretty much <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/03/27/facebook-says-it-will-now-block-white-nationalist-white-separatist-posts/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">indistinguishable</a>, there are rhetorical discrepancies that have landed even tech giants in hot water.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/16/charlottesville-neo-nazis-vice-news-hbo" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Neo-Nazism</a>, a favored facet of white supremacy gaining more popularity around the world, reveres Adolf Hitler and tries to emulate the beliefs, economy, and social structures of the Third Reich wherever they happen to be in the world. Neo-Nazism is probably one of the easiest ideologies to fall into; the trappings, symbology, and mythology of the Third Reich can be easily alluring: a racist doctrine claiming the superiority of the white race with (debunked) scientific legitimacy, the extermination of the lesser that could lead to another Holocaust, and there are no more Jews. Because let’s remember that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/are-jews-white/509453/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Jews</a> are never white, they’re Semitic. And let’s also remember that if you think that it’s a weird contradictory dilemma that a tenet of white supremacy is that Jews have too much power and are secretly running the world for their own benefit and are definitely not white, but white is the actual master race, it’s because it is indeed a weird contradictory dilemma. Similar to how Christian Identify supporters somehow managed to keep Jews as resolutely Semitic and make themselves the actual descendants of the <em>Levantine</em> Israelites but still remain very white, thank you very much. It’s… just best if we don’t think too much about it. </p> <p> </p> <p>Then, of course, we have the modern <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/15/16144070/psychology-alt-right-unite-the-right" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">alt-right</a> movement, now part of mainstream political platforms, news organizations, and the everyday American design of life. Shrouded in the guise of civility, the alt-right rejects mainstream conservatism in favor of a more direct approach to racism and anti-semitism, but with mostly kind words and white boys clad in chinos and loafers. In short, they mostly demand that white people (read: white men) be given a fair share of the capitalist pie (read: the economic systems that already benefit white men), since minorities are becoming non-minorities and they see their way of life (read: systemic structures that mimic the Antebellum South) threatened.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5whitesupremacy.jpg" style="height:500px; width:300px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2020-10-22/right-wing-extremism-the-new-wave-of-global-terrorism" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Extremists</a> go even further and usually seek radical changes in the nature of government and social structures, although it is perhaps best to label this specifically as right-wing extremism, since not all extremist movements are bad (the abolitionist movement was extremist at the time in that it sought radical changes in the nature of government and social structures as well, after all). <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/patriot-front-preparing-after-trump" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">The Patriot Front</a> is a three-year-old extremist organization that has grown into one of the most active hate groups in the nation. Their leader is 20 years old, and they like bomber jackets and Mussolini.</p> <p> </p> <p>White supremacy comes in all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/anti-immigration-cordelia-scaife-may.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Cordelia Scaife</a>, a philanthropist and heiress to the Mellon banking and industrial fortune, funded a new translation of <em>Le Camp des Saints,</em> a French novel loved by white supremacists for its explicit racism and fictional tale of the fall of Western Civilization due to mass migration. Ms. Scaife was also an ardent environmental activist and funded early birth control initiatives, although that may have been largely to invest in population control as she became increasingly preoccupied with nativism and immigrants who “breed like hamsters.”</p> <p> </p> <p> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/books/stephen-miller-camp-saints.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Le Camp des Saints</em></a> has been praised by the likes of Marie Le Pen and Stephen Miller (yes, <em>that</em> Stephen Miller). Dr. William Luther Pierce, an American physicist educator, famously penned <em>The Turner Diaries</em> and founded and led the National Alliance until his death in 2002. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/how-the-turner-diaries-changed-white-nationalism/500039/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>The Turner Diaries</em></a> has become a seminal piece of literature for the white supremacy movement. It depicts a fictional overthrow of the American government that eventually leads to a race war in which all non-whites, including Jews, are exterminated. The novel has inspired numerous hate crimes and terrorist acts, including the Oklahoma bombing committed by Timothy McVeigh—he was found with pages from <em>The Turner Diaries </em>after the attack. “The Order,” the group at the center of the Fort Smith trial, is named after the political organization discussed in the novel and the book was the motivation for the murder of Jewish radio host Alan Berg orchestrated by The Order. The 1999 London nail bombing perpetrator was inspired by the book. The list goes on.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6whitesupremacy_paul_m._walsh-wikimedia.jpg" style="height:600px; width:393px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The idea of white supremacy, of course, isn’t new, and it’s likely going to stick around for a while. In fact, there has been a <a href="https://time.com/5555396/white-supremacist-attacks-rise-new-zealand/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">rise</a> in hate crimes, and who knows what kind of race wars 2021 has in store. But what it’s important to remember is that these hate crimes are not one-offs; they are not random acts of violence committed by a sad and angry lone wolf. They are part of huge, well-structured systems -- organizations with bylaws and specific sets of goals that are funded by multimillionaire philanthropists and your next door neighbor.</p> <p> </p> <p>White supremacists are not only out on the streets protesting with tiki torches, but are also in our governments driving and cementing policies. We do ourselves (and especially our BIPOC brothers and sisters) a disservice when we lose sight of that, and discard groups like the KKK as mostly misguided white people in funny clothes. This will be important especially as we crawl past the first term of the Trump presidency, whatever comes next.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Angelo Franco is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief features writer.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><em>--Cool Revolution (</em><a href="https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/ae39e390-9d8e-4a66-a69b-cbc463b8d11b" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Creative Commons</em></a><em>)</em></p> <p> </p> <p><em>--Anokarina (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_Supremacy_Is_Terrorism_(37368748214).jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> <p><em>--Shawn Breen (</em><a href="https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/14e66511-a44f-4fd7-afe8-86a6a7debde8" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Creative Commons</em></a><em>)</em></p> <p> </p> <p><em>--Microchip08 (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Children_with_Dr._Samuel_Green,_Ku_Klux_Klan_Grand_Dragon,_July_24,_1948.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> <p><em>--Paul M. Walsh (</em><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KKK_Burn_resubmit.JPG" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Wikimedia</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-supremacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white supremacy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-supremacists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white supremacists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/neo-nazis-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">neo-nazis</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/alt-right-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">alt-right</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hitler" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hitler</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/skinheads" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">skinheads</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ku-klux-klan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ku klux klan</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/charlottesville-rally" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">charlottesville rally</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/confederate-flag" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">confederate flag</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/right-wing-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the right wing</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jews" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jews</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/blacks" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">blacks</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/catholics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">catholics</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white race</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Angelo Franco</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 17 Nov 2020 00:03:05 +0000 tara 9982 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/11038-fringe-mainstream-disturbing-rise-american-white-supremacy#comments Why Doesn’t South Carolina Have a Hate Crime Law, Given Its Past? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5079-why-doesn-t-south-carolina-have-hate-crime-law-given-its-past <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 06/22/2015 - 13:20</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1scchurch.jpg?itok=PaEileEn"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1scchurch.jpg?itok=PaEileEn" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://fusion.net/story/153144/why-doesnt-south-carolina-have-a-hate-crime-law-given-its-past/">Fusion</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>A few hours after a white gunman walked into a historic black church in South Carolina and opened fire, killing nine, authorities held a press conference.</p> <p> </p> <p>“I do believe this was a hate crime,” Charleston Police Chief Gregory Mullen told reporters.</p> <p> </p> <p>The comments were applauded by observers glad to see authorities not mincing words when talking about the mass shooting. The FBI and the Department of Justice quickly announced that they have opened up a hate crime investigation for the shooting. The only issue is: South Carolina is one of only five states in the nation that doesn’t have a hate crime law on its books.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s not for a lack of trying. State Representative Wendell Gilliard has pushed the state legislature to pass a bill for the last few sessions, including a bill he introduced during the last session in 2013, which would have created special penalties for crimes committed because of someone’s race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin or sexual orientation. His district includes the church where the shooting took place on Wednesday night.</p> <p> </p> <p>“It fell on deaf ears,” he told Fusion, referring to the failed attempt to pass the bill, which got stuck in the House judiciary committee.</p> <p> </p> <p>Although there are federal hate crime laws on the books, having a state law allows a state to issue harsher sentences if a local crime is committed that was motivated on the basis of a protected class. The South Carolina bill would have added a felony charge to crimes motivated by race, sex, age, national origin, or sexual orientation, which would carry additional prison time and fines.</p> <p> </p> <p>“I strongly believe in in-house rules. We can’t depend on federal government for everything. We need to be stewards within our own state government,” Rep. Gilliard said. “The federal government can’t be any and everywhere, and to duplicate what they already have — it would reinforce the message.”</p> <p> </p> <p>There are currently nineteen hate groups actively operating in South Carolina.In 2013, the latest year for which the numbers are available, the FBI listed 51 reported hate crimes in South Carolina. There are currently nineteen hate groups actively operating in the state, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.</p> <p> </p> <p>“If you look at some of our statistics when we talk about race and gender violence, even with the homeless population here… It’s all centered around race,” said Rep. Gilliard, noting that he has tried to make crimes against the homeless a hate crime. “I want to create a penalty to send the message to treat everyone with dignity and respect.”</p> <p> </p> <p>South Carolina, indeed, has a deep history of racial violence, dating back to the days of slavery. At the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, the scene of last night’s shooting, a planned slave revolt was foiled in 1822, resulting in the execution of 32 black men. Violence continued through the bloody Civil War, when South Carolina fought as part of the Confederacy, and right through the Reconstruction period, when massive race riots took place in 1870. A report from the Equal Justice Initiative, released earlier this year, tallied a total of 164 black men who were lynched in the state between 1877 and 1950.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/racistshooter.jpg" style="height:352px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In April of this year, North Charleston made international headlines after a white police officer was captured on video shooting a black man in the back as he tried to run away, following a routine traffic stop. That officer was indicted for murder earlier this month.</p> <p> </p> <p>All this while the state continues to fly the racially-charged Confederate flag next to its state house building.</p> <p> </p> <p>A reason that so many states have passed their own hate crime laws is that the standard for prosecuting a federal hate crime is at times very high, said Madihha Ahussain, staff attorney for Muslim Advocates, a group that has tracked U.S. hate crime legislation for years.</p> <p> </p> <p>“If it’s a misdemeanor crime that was motivated by hate towards a particular group, that would not likely be covered by federal statutes under a federal law,” she told Fusion. “But with state laws, which usually have a significantly lower standard, you might be able to prosecute it at the state level.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The other states that don’t have hate crime laws are Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, and Wyoming.</p> <p> </p> <p>The federal government has likely opened their own hate crime investigation into Wednesday’s shooting because “the state doesn’t have any grounds to do it on its own,” she said. At some point in the investigation, the federal and state governments will have to decide whether the suspect, who was taken into custody this morning, will be tried in federal court, she added.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Why states are not passing [these laws], it’s really hard to say,” Ahussain said. “It could have to do with the composition of their legislative branch at the time, or it could be because people think it’s irrelevant because there’s a federal hate crime statute now.”</p> <p> </p> <p>But, the federal hate crime statute has only been around for about five years.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Prior to that, I’m not sure what these five states have been thinking. It’s a really important question for state legislative branches to consider,” she said.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://fusion.net/story/153144/why-doesnt-south-carolina-have-a-hate-crime-law-given-its-past/">Fusion</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hate-crime" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hate crime</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/south-carolina" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">south carolina</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/emanuel-church" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">emanuel church</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-supremacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white supremacy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dylan-roof" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">dylan roof</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Daniel Rivero and Collier Meyerson</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 22 Jun 2015 17:20:21 +0000 tara 6115 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5079-why-doesn-t-south-carolina-have-hate-crime-law-given-its-past#comments New Report Finds 4,000 Lynchings Took Place in the South From 1877-1950 https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4665-new-report-finds-lynchings-took-place-south <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 02/23/2015 - 11:26</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1lynching.jpg?itok=uBNzfU3u"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1lynching.jpg?itok=uBNzfU3u" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/02/report-nearly-4000-african-americans-were-lynched-in-acts-of-terror-by-whites.php">The NorthStar News</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media:</p> <p> </p> <p>Nearly 4,000 black men, black women and black children were lynched between 1877 and 1950 in 12 Southern states, and their violent murders were celebrated, attracting huge crowds including some who used the occasion to hold picnics.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Equal Justice Initiative on Monday published, “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror.” They reported that 3,959 African Americans were victims of terrorist lynchings in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.</p> <p> </p> <p>More than 90 percent of terrorist lynching victims were black men, and some of the victims were boys as young as 12 and 13, Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative told NorthStar News Today.com and BlackmansStreet.Today. EJI is based in Montgomery, Ala.</p> <p> </p> <p>The study noted that at least 700 more African Americans were murdered in lynchings than had been previously reported. The report focuses on racial terrorist lynching, which whites, including the police, elected officials, ordinary citizens and federal bureaucrats participated in the murders or condoned them to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation.</p> <p> </p> <p>“These lynchings were not frontier justice because they generally took place in communities where there was a functioning criminal justice system that was deemed too good for African Americans,” the report stated. “Terror lynchings were horrific acts of violence whose perpetrators were never held accountable….Indeed, some of public spectacle lynchings were attended by the entire white community and conducted as celebratory acts of control and domination,” the report said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Terror victims were murdered without being accused of any crime; they were killed for minor social transgressions, including bumping a white person, wearing their military uniforms after World War I and not using the appropriate title to address a white person.</p> <p> </p> <p>For example, General Lee, a black man, was lynched in 1904 by a white mob in Reevesville, Ga., for knocking on the door of a white woman’s home. In 1919, a white mob in Blakely, Ga., lynched William Little, a soldier returning from World War I, for refusing to take off his uniform.</p> <p> </p> <p>And in 1916, white men lynched Jeff Brown in Cedarbluff, Miss., for accidentally bumping into a white girl as he ran to catch a train.</p> <p> </p> <p>In one newspaper report, between 3,000 and 10,000 individuals attended the lynching of John Hartfield in Ellisville, Miss., on June 26, 1919.The mob murdered Hartfield for allegedly assaulting a white girl.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mississippi Gov. Theodore G. Bilbo, one of this nation’s most racist governors, ordered police to hold Hartfield in custody before releasing him at 5 p.m. to the mob. The NAACP asked Bilbo to intervene, but he, the sheriff and federal officials said they were powerless to stop the lynching.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2lynching.jpg" style="height:414px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p><em>New Orleans States</em>, a newspaper, described Hartfield as “sullen and jerky” hours before his lynching.</p> <p> </p> <p>The study reported that most terror lynchings resulted from a wildly distorted view of interracial sex, casual social transgressions, and allegations of a serious violent crime. The murders included public spectacle lynchings, lynchings that targeted entire African-American communities and lynchings of sharecroppers, ministers and community leaders who refused to be mistreated.</p> <p> </p> <p>The data and stories for the report were gathered over four years by Equal Justice Initiative staff.</p> <p> </p> <p>The report names the states that were particularly terrifying for African Americans. Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana had the highest statewide rates of lynchings. Georgia and Mississippi had the highest number of lynchings. And Phillips County, Ark., and Lafourche and Tensas parishes in Louisiana were sites of mass killings of African Americans.</p> <p> </p> <p>Fearing they would be lynched, African Americans fled the South for the North and West during the first half of the 20th Century. Ironically, the state of Rhode Island was the epicenter of the nation’s slave trade.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Black people living in Oakland, Calif., Chicago, and New York are refugees from terror. They fled the South to escape lynching,” Stevenson said.</p> <p> </p> <p>“The history of terror lynching complicates contemporary issues of race, punishment, crime and justice,” the report stated. “Mass incarceration, excessive penal punishment, disproportionate sentencing of racial minorities and police abuse of people of color reveal problems in American society that were framed in the terror era.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Stevenson said EJI intends to place markers where lynchings occurred.</p> <p> </p> <p>“I live in the South and there are all these statutes honoring the Confederacy and the defense of slavery. Now we want some truth and reconciliation about the real consequences of what happened to blacks after the Civil War,” he said.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-history" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black history</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lynchings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lynchings</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/terrorist-lynchings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">terrorist lynchings</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-supremacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white supremacy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-racists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white racists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Frederick Lowe</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:26:01 +0000 tara 5754 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4665-new-report-finds-lynchings-took-place-south#comments The Godfathers of G.O.P. Racism https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1138-godfathers-gop-racism <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 21:08</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumstromthurmond%20%28AP%29.jpg?itok=msyAjgzP"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumstromthurmond%20%28AP%29.jpg?itok=msyAjgzP" width="480" height="290" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> Lee Atwater, the late Republican operative, is described by his numerous detractors as the godfather of contemporary xenophobic dog whistles to the baser instincts of a vastly Caucasian political party. </p> <p>  </p> <p> Atwater (1951-1991) made his professional bones as chief dirty trickster for the 1978 U.S. Senate candidacy of his own godfather——fellow South Carolinian Strom Thurmond (1902-2003), a white supremacist who secretly fathered a child with a 16-year-old black housekeeper.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Given the color-consciousness of many contemporary Republicans, the godfathers may well be smiling from wherever they are, above or below. Neither mentor nor protégé was shy about candidly expressing racial sentiment in political context.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> Thurmond came to national prominence during the presidential contest of 1948, in which he was standard-bearer for the short-lived Dixiecrat party. According to the archives of National Public Radio, he declared in that campaign:</p> <p>  </p> <p> “[T]here’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the n****r race into our theatres, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> As quoted in <em>Southern Politics</em> magazine in 1990, a year after he became chairman of the Republican National Committee, Atwater explained the historical evolution of certain talking points he recommends for G.O.P. office-seekers:</p> <p>  </p> <p> “You start out in 1954 by saying ‘n****r, n****r, n****r’ [but] by 1968 you can’t say n****r. That hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like ‘forced busing,’ ‘states’ rights,’ and all that stuff.”</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumatwater.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 337px; " /></p> <p> The highlight of Atwater’s years of slinging “all that stuff” was the so-called Willie Horton spot he commissioned for the presidential campaign of 1988. Notable for its glaring jailhouse mug shot of Horton, an African-American felon who briefly qualified under Massachusetts state law for weekend furloughs from prison, the TV commercial was calculated to scare the bejesus out of white voters——and to a large extent did so.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Atwater’s client in the ’88 election was Republican nominee George H.W. Bush, who won a convincing victory over Michael Dukakis, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts. The Horton spot inferred that Governor Dukakis personally allowed a decidedly unattractive black male convicted of homicide to run wild through the streets of Boston, whereupon he raped a pretty white female and stabbed her white fiancé.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Atwater died of brain cancer in 1991 at age 40. Perhaps he was unacquainted with a younger man who at the time was president of the <em>Harvard Law Review</em>. But had Atwater known Barack Hussein Obama, he probably would have failed to sense White House prospects for a literal African-American of black Kenyan and white Kansan parentage.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Some see the godfathers’ ghosts at play all these years later, busily spooking the rude precincts of America’s white electorate. But in lieu of saying “n****er,” as Thurmond would and did, euphemisms applied to Mr. Obama have a mostly Atwaterian ring:</p> <p>  </p> <p> • “America’s food stamp president” was among Newt Gingrich’s numerous racial pejoratives during his bid to serve as Great White Hope of the Republican party.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> • “Skinny ghetto crackhead” tripped smirkingly from the tongue of Fox News commentator Brent Bozell.</p> <p>  </p> <p> • “Government nig…” was an especially disturbing slip by Rick Santorum.</p> <p>  </p> <p> • Texas Governor Rick Perry, once considered odds-on favorite to oppose Obama in November, frequently hosted Republican moneymen at his <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rick-perry-familys-hunting-camp-still-known-to-many-by-old-racially-charged-name/2011/10/01/gIQAOhY5DL_story.html">family’s hunting camp</a>, known for years by its stone marker at the entry gate: Niggerhead.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> • As April came to a close, it was clear that Mitt Romney would be the Republican nominee come November, due in part to a nostalgic catchphrase used in TV ads on his behalf during the primaries: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/12/the-trouble-with-keeping-america-american/249960/">“Keep America America</a>,” just one letter removed from “Keep America American,” the venerable Ku Klux Klan slogan. Coincidence?</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumbozell.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 404px; " /></p> <p> First Lady Michelle Obama, whose parents are both black, is victim to her own share of coy bigotry.</p> <p>  </p> <p> With reference to her crusade against childhood obesity, white G.O.P. <a href="http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/12/22/jim_sensenbrenner_michele_obama_wisconsin_republican_to_say_he_s_sorry_for_saying_first_lady_has_a_big_butt_.html">Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner</a> of Wisconsin complained of Mrs. Obama, “She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself.” This prompted Mary Curtis, the <em>Washington Post</em> columnist, to ask, “Can you imagine how the incident would play out if an African-American congressman made a crude remark about First Lady Laura Bush’s body?”</p> <p>  </p> <p> A fervent California supporter of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul apparently considered even the Obamas’ two daughters as fair game for crudity, and fatal violence, at least rhetorically.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In a February rant via Facebook, <a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-12-19/news/30535938_1_facebook-profile-tea-party-president-obama">Jules Manson</a> of Carson City, a failed candidate for local office, advocated the assassination of the president and his “monkey children.” Subsequently, the Secret Service paid Manson a home visit, with the result that we’ve not heard further from him.</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to journalist Ronald Kessler’s book, <em>In the President’s Secret Service,</em> threats against President Obama’s life have increased by 400 percent over those of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Significant cuts to the agency’s budget were made when Bush folded the Secret Service into a new bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security. The cuts remain in place. </p> <p>  </p> <p> To document each and every racist locution heard across America on a given day is impossible, of course. But even those duly recorded by television cameras——as on March 20, 2010, when African-American Congressmen John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) were spat upon in a shower of “n***r” epithets howled by <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/20/AR2010032002556.html">Tea Party loiterers</a> on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.——is pugnaciously denied by Rush Limbaugh and other Republican luminaries.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In an interview with a reporter for the McClatchy newspaper chain, Cleaver said of the spitters, “It was a chorus. I feel sorry for those people who are doing this nasty stuff. They’re being whipped up.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Americans of ecumenical outlook might find it easy to despair of the racist beat that still throbs in the hearts of some white Republicans——candidates, wingnut voters and broadcast apologists alike. All might reference the clownish, one-off Republican primary candidacy of black pizza magnate Herman Cain or the loopy pronouncements of black Congressman Allen West as proof that their party is color-blind.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediummauricebergerbook.jpg" style="width: 296px; height: 441px; " /></p> <p> But Maurice Berger, author and scholar in the field of white racism, is not to be deterred from his prediction of a relatively fair-minded political future, one that could arrive as early as November’s presidential election.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Older white voters are dying off and being replaced by Hispanics, others of color, and progressive young white voters,” Berger told <em>Highbrow Magazine</em>. “I’m not sure [race baiting] will work. This rhetoric will turn off many, if not most, independent voters. </p> <p>  </p> <p> “This is a country that has changed dramatically over the past 50 years. This is becoming a country of so-called minorities, and Obama represents that——dynamically,” said Mr. Berger, who is also a University of Maryland professor and consulting curator for New York’s Jewish Museum.</p> <p>  </p> <p> He added, “We may see the Obama presidency as the beginning of a trend, not just an anomaly.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> In his April 16 column for the <em>Washington Post</em>, Charles Lane underscored Berger’s view.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “It’s hard to see much future for a G.O.P. that has minimal support from blacks and Latinos…[P]arty racialization is approaching the point of diminishing returns,” wrote Lane. Of the Republican brand, he intimated in a closing line, “[T]he losing party in 2012 will conclude that it must broaden its base, or die.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Berger suggested that the Democratic party, too, has power to lose unless liberal white adherents own up to their brand of nuanced racism. By way of example, Mr. Berger spoke of a liberal acquaintance——an art critic who published a Facebook screed about the dearth of black people in studio audiences during the seemingly endless series of televised Republican primary debates.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The thing about this critic,” said Berger, “is that I’ve been to parties at his home, and I’ve never once seen a black person there.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> The incipient optimism of Lane and Berger aside, today’s Republican campaign discourse “hurts, it really hurts,” said <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/13/toni-morrison-home-son-love">Toni Morrison</a> in an April 13 interview with <em>The Guardian</em>. The African-American novelist and Nobel laureate said the G.O.P.’s hateful language is a “very deliberate vocabulary of [racist] code” that is “embarrassing for my country.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> More and even greater embarrassment looms on the horizon.</p> <p>  </p> <p> One of Romney’s campaign wise men——Larry McCarthy, president of the Washington, D.C., ad firm McCarthy-Hennings Media, Inc.——now heads “Restore Our Future,” the super PAC responsible for the presumptive Republican nominee’s effective slash-and-burn TV spots that vanquished his competitors during the primary season.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Larry McCarthy has been responsible for some of the most negative ads in American history,” Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/super-pac-ads-mitt-romney-rick-santorum_n_1314880.html">Huffington Post</a>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Back in 1988, it was McCarthy whom Lee Atwater hired to create the infamous Willie Horton spot, which Mr. Dukakis remembers only too well.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “McCarthy’s playing an important role” in the Romney campaign, said Mr. Dukakis in the Huffington Post report. “So it’s obvious what’s going on.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Indicative of obvious TV spots to come, NBC Television news recently reported that super PAC contributions to the Romney cause exceeded $52 million, compared to $9 million for the African-American incumbent.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Thomas Adcock, a contributing writer at </em>Highbrow Magazine<em>, is an independent journalist, novelist, and editorial consultant based in New York City. His articles have appeared in U.S., Canadian, Mexican and European newspapers, magazines and websites, as well as American University publications. His critically acclaimed crime novels and short stories have been published worldwide.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong><em>​Photos: AP (Strom Thurmond, 1957); Fotopedia (Lee Atwater); Fox News (Brent Bozell); Barnes &amp; Noble (Maurice Berger book)</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/strom-thurmond" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Strom Thurmond</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-supremacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white supremacy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lee-atwater" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lee Atwater</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/gop" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">GOP</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republican-party" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republican Party</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">President Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michelle-obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Michelle Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rick-perry-family-ranch" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Rick Perry family ranch</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Thomas Adcock</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">AP</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 04 May 2012 01:08:28 +0000 tara 886 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1138-godfathers-gop-racism#comments