Black History Month in the Trump Dystopia

This year's Black History Month Theme meets the reality of the Age of Trump.

It is Black History Month again.  You remember.  It is when TV networks suddenly pop up with Black History tidbits mouthed by stars of their shows, PBS breaks out documentaries, and actors get work showing up at elementary school assemblies portraying Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, or some other safe and approved hero.  All in all it’s a good thing, but not uncontroversial.  African-Americans are meant to feel uplifted and honored.  Whites, hopefully, get their eyes opened to both some harsh realities and have some stereotypes shattered.  

Typically the President issues a Proclamation, makes a speech, or invites iconic Black figures to the White House for special events. Under President Barack Obama—remember him?—there was perhaps understandably a whole series of events every year including concerts and reunions with surviving Civil Rights Movement veterans.  In his last year in office last year he and Michelle had a touching moment with a 100 year old plus proud woman voter.

For Black History month in his first year in office Donald Trump trotted out his administration's star tokens--Omarosa Manigault and HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson.  Omarosa has since departed and written a scathing book,  This year Carson was evidently sleeping in the Groundhog burrow.

This year Donald Trump posted one of those Tweets that was obviously written by his staff—no spelling errors, mystifying ramblings, self-pity, or attacks on his real or perceived enemies and it was posted mid-afternoon Saturday, not in a middle-of-the-night Tweet storm.

@realdonaldtrump

National African American History Month is an occasion to rediscover the enduring stories of African Americans and the gifts of freedom, purpose, and opportunity they have bestowed on future generations…

To say the least, nobody was fooled by the charade.

The Resident also issued the obligatory Black History Month Proclamation written by someone on staff who once cracked at text book or at least Googled Black History Month 2020.  

… The theme of this year’s observance, “African Americans and the Vote,” coincides with the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment, which gave African American men the right to vote.  This Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, prohibits the government from denying or abridging a citizen’s right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”  Today, this guarantee is enforced primarily throughout the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an enduring legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights movement.

This year also marks the 150th anniversary of the first African American to serve in the Congress.  In 1870, Hiram Revels, a Mississippi Republican, served a 1-year term in the Senate, where he fought for justice and racial equality.  During his lifetime, Senator Revels served as a military chaplain, a minister with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and a college administrator.  But it was Revels’ tenure in the Congress that truly distinguished him as a trailblazer.  He made history serving our Nation in a building that had been constructed by slave laborers just a decade earlier.

My Administration has made great strides in expanding opportunity for people of all backgrounds.  Over the past 2 years, the poverty and unemployment rates for African Americans have reached historic lows.  Through the transformative Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, more than 8,700 distressed communities battling economic hardship have been designated Opportunity Zones, creating a path for struggling communities to unlock investment resources and create much needed jobs and community amenities.  I also signed into law the historic First Step Act, which rolled back unjust provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which disproportionately harmed African American communities.  The First Step Act provides inmates with opportunities for job training, education, and mentorship.  We want every person leaving prison to have the tools they need to take advantage of a second chance to transform their lives and pursue the American dream after incarceration.  Additionally, last December, I was proud to sign into law the groundbreaking FUTURE Act, which ensures full support for historically black colleges and universities over the next 10 years.

Note how even in this official document the Cheeto-in-Charge can’t resist tooting his own horn while ignoring the systematic attacks on Black voting rights by his administration and its allies in state governments who are doing everything in their power to purge Black voters, throw up daunting obstacles to registration, making it difficult and expensive to obtain required identification, closing registration offices in or near Black communities,  and shortchanging black polling places with adequate voting machines and supplies creating long and discouraging lines.

Discouraging Black voters with hours long lines by manipulating polling sites and short changing them on voting machines and supplies is a tool in the voter suppression kit.

Those kinds of actions helped shave black votes in 2016 and may have contributed to his victories in some states.  Despite several successful court ruling against those policies, Republicans are boldly ramping up new efforts for this year’s election and are confident that Trump appointed Supreme Court justices will reverse decades of precedent and approve all or most of the new laws and regulations.  

It’s all about stealing the election in plain sight and is probably as a heinous an attack on democracy as the House Impeachment charges.

Trump looked a little overwhelmed and frightened when Kanye West visited him in the Oval Office.

Although Trump could not be much bothered to make gestures to Black History Month on Saturday—he dared not make another shoddy three minute pilgrimage to the Martin Luther King Memorial on the Mall or a visit to the Smithsonian’s Black History Museum.  He did not even bother for an Oval Office photo op with designated administration token Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, fellow megalomaniac Kanye West, or any of the handful of Black athletes and celebrities that have been photographed in MAGA caps.

But on Sunday his presidential campaign did air two commercials during the Super Bowl intended to show him as not racist and a friend to Blacks.  One touted the release from prison of Alice Jackson, the middle aged non-violent drug offender whose cause was touted to the President by West’s celebrity wife, Kim Kardashian and claimed that he was supporting “reuniting families” by his signing the First Step Act which passed Congress with bi-partisan support to expedite the release of drug offenders caught up in the draconian war on crime Federal minimum sentence guidelines.  

The ad was offensive on two counts.  First, Trump can hardly be said to be a champion of family unification when his signature war on immigrants continues to tear children from their families and holds them in concentration camp conditions.  Secondly his Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr is actively fighting release of inmates under the First Step Act.  It isn’t a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, but a typical Trumpian shell game.

By the way, the commercial was conveniently bracketed on either side by Fox TV ads to prevent it from bumping into any contrary messages.

And, of course, there was the not-so-subtle irony of Trump airing ads during the NFL’s big event after trash talking the League for allowing their players to take a knee during the National Anthem in protest of police murders of Black citizens.  If rich white team owners had their feathers ruffled over the criticism, Colin Kaepernick and other Black players were at risk of physical violence at the hands of those stirred up by Trump’s racist vitriol. 

Drawing on centuries of struggle Black Americans know how to fight back.

Of course African Americans do not want or need Donald Trump’s approval or pat on the head.  They know who their enemy is.  And they can draw from the powerful lessons of Black history for inspiration in resisting this current manifestation of American racism and attempts to restore Jim Crow.

Black History Month and the Jim Crow Zombie Apocalypse

It is Black History Month again.  You remember.  It is when TV networks suddenly pop up with Black History tidbits mouthed by stars of their shows, PBS breaks out documentaries, and actors get work showing up at elementary school assemblies portraying Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, or some other safe and approved hero.  All in all it’s a good thing, but not uncontroversial.  African-Americans are meant to feel uplifted and honored.  Whites, hopefully, get their eyes opened to both some harsh realities and have some stereotypes shattered.  Typically the President issues a Proclamation, makes a speech, or invites iconic Black figures to the White House for special events. Under President Barack Obama—remember him?—there was perhaps understandably a whole series of events every year including concerts and reunions with surviving Civil Rights Movement veterans.  Last year he and Michelle had a touching moment with a 100 year old plus proud woman voter.

This year Donald Trump took a moment out of his busy schedule of dismantling American civil society and picking fights with the world to observe the occasion.  Having already been told that he would not be welcome at the Smithsonian’s Civil Rights Museum on Martin Luther King Day, he kept it simple and did not risk being snubbed by famous and admired Blacks.  Instead he called a breakfast “listening session” with a handful of Black supporters and members of his administration.  He invited the press, too.  Big of him.  Of course he did almost no listening at all.  He launched into a patented semi-incoherent ramble in which he praised and congratulated himself for doing so well among Blacks in the election.  “Next time we’ll triple the number or quadruple it. We want to get it over 51, right. At least 51,” he said hardly realizing that he had outed himself for his pathetic support.

Most notably he made word hash and displayed profound ignorance out of his attempts to cite some of the most famous and important figures in Afro-American history.

Last month we celebrated the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose incredible example is unique in American history. You read all about Dr. Martin Luther King a week ago when somebody said I took the statue out of my office. And it turned out that that was fake news. The statue is cherished. It's one of the favorite things — and we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson, and we have Dr. Martin Luther King. And we have other. But they said the statue, the bust, of Dr. Martin Luther King was taken out of the office. And it was never even touched. So I think it was a disgrace, but that’s the way the press is. It’s very unfortunate. 

I am very proud now that we have a museum, National Mall, where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things, Frederick Doug — Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job that is being recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made Americans what it is today. Big impact. I’m proud to honor this heritage and will be honoring it more and more. 

Huh?

The Cheeto in Charge celebrated Black History Month with in house sycophants  Omarosa and Dr. Ben Carson.

Many of his remarks were aimed at pointing out the token Blacks in attendance and in his administration.  “I want to thank Ben Carson, who's going to be heading up HUD, and it's a big job, and it’s a job that’s not only housing, it’s mind and spirit, right? And you understand that. Nobody’s going to be better than Ben.”  Ben grinned, nodded, and kept his mouth shut. 

The Cheeto in Charge closed his remarks with high praise for the woman sitting next to him, the villainess star of his old reality show Omarosa Manigault who is now his official Director of African-American Outreach.  Omarosa, you will recall, made headlines during the campaign when she said, “Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him—it is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”  No wonder Trump admires her—he highly values such loyalty and recognition of his supreme greatness.

The whole thing would have made a hilarious Alec Baldwin Saturday Night Live sketch guest starring Tracy Morgan as Ben Carson and Maya Rudolph as Omarosa.

But, minstrel show was a distraction from the full court press assault on every gain Blacks have made since the Jim Crow Era.  Trump rode racism to the White House like a white charger in a Ku Klux Klan parade.  He plucked every string of resentment barely bothering with the code words with which Republicans have masked their appeals since Nixon’s Southern Strategy.  Now all of those markers have been called in and Trump is producing on cue.

Here are just a few of the actions that signal a headlong rush to a vicious past.

Steve Bannon, the not-so-secret power behind the golden throne.

·        Steve Bannon, former Breitbart honcho, Alt-Right propagandist, open neo-Nazi and racist was Trump’s pick as Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist.  In a nanosecond he gathered all of the reins of power in the administration foreign and domestic. He supplanted Vice President Mike Pence, who was supposed to oversee daily government operations while Trump concentrated on the Big Picture and public swagger, as all powerful Grand Vizier to the Trump’s figure head sultan.

·         Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, in a heated contest to be the most right wing member of the Senate and an arch foe of voting rights protections was tapped as Attorney General.  He is as open an old style Southern segregationist as it is possible to be without actually proclaiming himself as one.  

·         Trump floated outrageous and easily disprovable allegations that millions of votes were cast illegally in the last election to downplay his loss in the popular vote by more than 3 million.  He has organized an “investigation” of those charges headed by one of the liars who made up the original allegations.  They will publish conclusions affirming their fantasies to lay the groundwork for national legislation mirroring the most extreme voting suppression laws enacted by Southern states and GOP hostage states in the north like Wisconsin. 

·         During the campaign Trump went out of his way to attack the Black Lives Matter movement and to call for more aggressive policing including the widespread use of racial profiling and stop and frisk.  He backed draconian sentencing and would expand the already vast American Gulag stuffed with Black inmates.  His continued threats to intervene in Chicago does not mean stepped up assistance to the Chicago Police by Federal law enforcement agencies, but is widely understood to mean the use of troops as an occupying army. 

·         Education Secretary Besty DeVos dedication to smashing public education and replacing it with private charter schools will not only destroy the main educational system for Black children and put millions of middle class Black educators out of work, but will largely complete the re-segregation of American education with Blacks isolated in poor and underfunded schools.

·         Trump plans to remove monitoring white nationalist, militia, neo-Nazi, and Klan groups from the prevue of the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) inter-agency task force to concentrate on Islamic Terrorism despite the fact that right wing domestic terrorism has been much more deadly in the United States than attacks by Muslims.  It is a wink-and-a-nod to Steve Bannon’s people to unleash violence and night riding. 

I could go on.  There is an attack of many cuts, some small and as yet unseen, in the general attack on all administrative regulations across scores of agencies.  The hope is that the victim—Black America—will bleed to death without noticing a fatal wound.  

The Rev. Willliam Barber and the Moral Mondays movement represent the New Civil Right Movement.

Of course Black America does notice.  It has noticed alarming trends in this direction long before Trump emerged as the savior of white America about to slip into a demographic minority status.  And it has been building powerful responses including the so-called New Civil Rights Movement represented by the Moral Mondays organized by the Reverend William Barber and the newly re-energized North Carolina NAACP.  Especially important has been the Black Lives Matter movement organized a young generation of self-motivated activists—most of them women—in response to the wave of police shootings and murders of Blacks.  They shunned the charismatic leader model and hierarchical organization in favor of flexible and responsive collective direction of a movement.

Both of these have accepted and encouraged support and participation by white progressives while setting boundaries.  The have dramatically educated white activists, often against resistance and denial to be supportive allies rather than see themselves as saviors or dictators of style, language, and tactics.  It has been hard, but it broadened the movement.

Black Lives Matter represents a fresh vision and response to oppression.

There are many targets of Trump era oppression.  Each has organized in response.  It would be very easy for each to fight alone or even allow themselves to be divided against each other the way many working class whites have been turned against natural minority allies.  It has been far from perfect, but there is a growing sense of intersectionality between these target groups—Blacks, immigrants, Muslims, women, Native Americans, labor, the disabled, the LBGT communities and others.  Not only do memberships in all of the labeled groups overlap in multiple ways like Venn diagrams, but their oppression is related and enemies the same.  They are learning—slowly and painfully—that the old American Revolution maxim applies to them to—“We must all hang together, or surely we will hang separately.”  It is the reinvention of the neglected virtue of solidarity.

The recent Women’s March on Washington and it hundreds of sister marches like the one I attended in Chicago were far from perfect but they were not just assemblages of middle-class white women like the ERA demonstrations of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.  Not only were the crowds much more diverse, so was the leadership and speakers reflected the broad concerns of intersectionality to roaring approval.  Millions involved that day now seem ready for continued commitment to a long, arduous, frustrating, and dangers course of action and resistance.

On the streets of Chicago this week Black Lives Matter veterans stood shoulder to shoulder with immigrants and Muslims and with many of the energized women whose first experience with protest was just the week before.  Grizzled relics of decades of protest like me found ourselves in seas of young people of all races.

Never before was Black History Month more important.  Now, more than ever before, Black History must be the text for all of us.  The lessons of Black struggle are directly applicable to the enormous challenge before us all to prevent a dissent into racist totalitarianism.  We need to learn anew the lessons intersectionality understood by Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Martin Luther King.