Nicole Cardoza Nicole Cardoza Nicole Cardoza Nicole Cardoza

Vote Trump out of office.

Hi everyone,
 

Yesterday was a tough day. I sat down to write an email about the debate and the news that's unfolded since, but realized that I've already written it. In fact, the current news is four years (and decades more) in the making. Trump did not condemn white supremacy Tuesday night. And he hasn't condemned it throughout his presidency. In fact, he's encouraged it.
 

Today's email is an adaptation of what I sent back in June when Trump shared a white power message on his Twitter. It outlines just a little of the terror white supremacy has inflicted in this country. As you read, consider how you can counter the hateful rhetoric you may hear beyond the debates. Racism doesn't end when Trump is out of office. Ending it starts with tough conversations with your friends and family.
 

Thank you for all your support! As always, you can support the newsletter by giving one-time on PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe monthly on Patreon.

Nicole 

TAKE ACTION

  • Vote for Biden/Harris this upcoming election. Remember: not voting is a vote for Trump.

  • Join #DefeatbyTweet, an initiative where you can donate $0.02 every time Trump tweets (about $18/mo) to Justice Fund, a group of Black-led grassroots political organizations working in swing states to get people to vote.

  • Have a conversation with a Trump supporter you know about this newsletter.

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

At the first presidential debate Tuesday night, Trump chose not to condemn white supremacy (Blavity). But if you've been listening, you may not have been surprised: Trump has actively supported white supremacy throughout his presidency.

Take for example, on Sunday, June 28, President Trump retweeted (and deleted) a video of a Trump supporter yelling "white power," thanking the "great people" in the footage (via NPR). After the tweet was deleted, White House spokesman Judd Deere released a statement that “President Trump is a big fan of The Villages [the community where the video was filmed]. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters" (via AP News).

Before we start, I need to make one thing clear: President Trump is racist. This is not up for debate in my inbox. Whether he has deep-seated beliefs that white people are the superior race, incites racism solely for his political agenda, or is consistently unintentionally racist makes no difference to me. When it comes to this work, it shouldn't matter to you. These types of arguments center Trump's character instead of the social and political harm he creates. And as we discussed in an earlier newsletter, impact, not intent, needs to be our focus as we dismantle white supremacy. He is also bigoted, sexist, islamophobic, homophobic, and xenophobic (to name a few), and the intersectionality of these often come into play in his rhetoric. No anti-racism work includes voting for Trump in 2020.

The tweet mentioned above follows a series of hateful comments and actions from Trump over the past few weeks – and frankly, the past few years – which feel in strict defiance of the movement reshaping our nation. Remember that feelings on racism are rapidly shifting left in America (NYTimes)! Meanwhile, just over half of America considered him racist back in 2019 (USA Today). Here's a running list of Trump's hateful commentary since the 1970s (Vox).

I don't want to say that one comment is "worse" than another because they're all terrible. But sharing and thanking someone for saying "white power" is egregious. The term "white power" is a popular phrase used by “white supremacists,” people that believe that white is the dominant race and should have power over other races (more via ADL).

Side note: the Anti-Defamation League has a glossary of definitions on terms you'll see reflected here and in the articles I've referenced. Read more >

The slogan was chosen a counter-rally to the term "Black power," a positive phrase used by activists during the Civil Rights Movement. It united not just those uncomfortable with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but also the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Southern Poverty Law Center). But the white power movement grew to become not just a racially-motivated organization, but a politically-motivated one. Kathleen Belew, author of The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, cites that the Vietnam War was a significant motivator to organizing and activating this group against one enemy – the government.

Remember that up to this point, the government was actually the ones purporting racist policies. It relied on like-minded vigilantes that were willing and able "to reinforce official policies like slavery and Jim Crow" (NYTimes). The Civil Rights Movement was received as a threat; it demonstrated that the country was adopting more equitable views, and allowing more power and privileges to non-white communities. 

This group took arms against the government in smaller, isolated incidents, but culminated in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and other anti-government racists parked a truck of explosives under the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building’s daycare, killing 168 people – including 19 children leaving hundreds more injured (History). The Oklahoma City bombing was "the worst terrorist attack to take place on U.S. soil" until 9/11. The youngest survivor of the attack is 26 years old, and his family reflects on the experience in The Buffalo News.

“Ideologies are sometimes not just ideologies. They result in awful actions and we need to be vigilant about that.”


Dennis Purifoy, survivor of the Oklahoma City Bombing, for the NYTimes

And violent acts of white supremacy continue. It inspired Dylann Roof in 2015 in South Carolina, and James Alex Fields Jr. in Virginia in 2018 (read about both of these murders in our newsletter re: Confederate symbols). A Coast Guard lieutenant and "self-defined white nationalist" was charged in 2019 for stockpiling weapons and planning to start a race war (NYTimes). Twenty-two people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, TX, by a white supremacist against immigration (Axios). In 2019, a U.S. State Department report named that racially and ethnically motivated terrorism from white supremacists is “on the rise and spreading geographically" (Forbes).

When the protests over the murder of George Floyd began in June, many cities started to question whether white supremacists have been intentionally disrupting the demonstrations from the past month, inciting violence and looting (examples from NBC Chicago, NYTimes, and CBS News). The unrest aligns with a critical white supremacist concept called "accelerationism" – inciting and encouraging violence to draw more people into a war (Brookings).

One of these groups is the Proud Boys, a male-only far-right organization that was most prominent at Portland’s protests. They see themselves as a counter to the “terrorist group Antifa” and often arrive at protests carrying firearms and donned in body armor to support the President, law, and order, and police (CNN). Their chairman, Enrique Tarrio, says that the group does not discriminate (Tarrio himself is Cuban American). However, the group consistently centers misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant views in their approach to "reinstating a spirit of Western chauvinism” (CNN). Tarrio said he interpreted "stand back and stand by" to mean that they should just keep doing what they're doing. He also made t-shirts with the words “Proud Boys Stand By” in honor of the President’s remarks (Blavity).

There is no justification for the racist rhetoric Trump shares. Inciting violence and terror as a president encourages others to repeat the violence and terror of our past. Our democracy doesn’t deserve another four years of this.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Trump has a long history of hateful and racist rhetoric.

  • Throughout our history, government officials have encouraged white supremacists to spew violence.

  • And the rise of violence from far-right groups like the Proud Boys is simiilar.

RELATED ISSUES

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.

Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza

Read More