The Role of Racism in The Election

The Role of Racism
In the 2016 Election
Walter Rhett
Tuesday (12/27/16), the New York Times
published an online opinion article that
expressed a rare double negative of
policy and social thinking: it was wrong and
misleading! It's hard to be wrong twice—in the
same piece, for the same reasons—unless you
are writing about race. Race is at the center of a
series of broad, expanding human circles tied to
history, the social order, the anxieties of our age;
to the local and global political economy—to
violence and conflicts, the zeitgeist and
cherished beliefs, to our favorite contradictions
and misunderstandings; to power and ideology.
Yet it pretends, in the hands and minds of some
writers and thinkers, to be narrow/biased--to be
of little account: a myth of false things, and
inevitably, wrong conclusions.
Because race is so big and its presence so overt,
because its historic role was corrupt and
inhumane, it has several divided audiences. One
of these is constantly trying to eliminate any
vestiges of its oppression, by denying
oppression existed or that it remains in effect.
Besides color and bias, beyond history, despite
its place in the debate about blame, race is about
the will of a group, its steady expression, the
authority of its demands and whether the
demands and the group itself are legitimate in
society.
Race's biggest demand has been for full
humanity, for individuals and the group, but its
quest is further complicated by racism! Racism
is an American ideology evolved out of
American slavery. It survived slavery to become
a dynamic, adaptive system. It parallels race
with new tactics and invented beliefs about race
to gain benefits for one racial group over
another. Racism supplies one group with legal
and economic advantages denied to other
groups. Currently, racism is more a filter than a
prison; some members of ethnic groups get
through while others are held back.
Although isolated rituals associate it with the
common joy (athletics, entertainment, cathartic
punishment), in a developed society of capital
excess (so rich until labor is waste; it adds no
value to mega-wealth), in a world of “post-truth”
(the Oxford 2016 word of the year!), like “the
situation of our times,” racism “surrounds us
like a baffling crime.” A crime bold and
invisible. It steals ordinary goals. Safety, success,
good will for all.
Racism subverts these goals, drowns them in
hate, smears them with blame, and uses its main
tactic of the “post-truth” era, an era of
contiguous excess (and its corollary, waste!).
That main tactic: denial; has as its purpose to
replace facts and logic with “post-truth” myths
When it comes to race in a post-truth world,
how can you tell what is real? By looking at
reality, at history, at evidence—by reversing
denial. Were the symbols and demands at rallies
expressed in jobs signs or confederate flags?
Denial is a powerful tactic of racism in the postcivil
rights era. Before then, racism's resistance
was open confrontation, direct; powerfully
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linked to race.
Beginning with Reagan, racism's advances grew
circumspect, indirect, deflecting—racism was
tied to its benefits rather than to expressions of
hate. Improved employment, expanded output,
opportunity, educational options; smaller
public budgets, the ideal of self-reliance—
racism through its denial suddenly had
something to offer everyone, including its
victims who were increasingly the objects of
deacession/recycled waste. Denial gave racism
cover for its malevolent practices and its deadly
intent. Denial redirected racism as good works!
Because of its reliance on denial, racism is a
social poison that cannot be quantified. In fact
it uses numbers to deny its presence. Numbers
hide its persistent influence on decisions and
choice, conceal racism's role in power, its place
in popular thinking—shadow its harm to its
victims, its damage to the country.
“We're for jobs,” racist say, yet we witness the
dismantling the economic infrastructure in
minority communities, in which neighborhood
stores are paid to sell lottery tickets (states
reimburse a percentage of sales and winners)
and are distributors for beer.
“We are for education;” yet we see schools in low
income neighborhoods being closed, districts
redrawn to embrace self-defeating violence,
programs eliminated and neighborhood
identity destroyed.
“We are for lower taxes,” as safety net programs
like EBT are cut and income and housing
assistance is reduced and restricted.
We are for security for America's older
generations, as pension benefits and social
security (soon) are redistributed to wealthy
institutions—outsiders with no interest in
people or accountability, only balance sheets
and profits—and the privilege of race.
Those who stand against “government
overreach” stand against public policy that
supports and improves the plight of the poor.
They oppose those whose mobility and
advancement is boxed in by structural barriers
in housing, jobs, transportation, and cultural
practice. No matter their absence of personal
bias, their politics is deeply rooted in racism—
white privilege and advantage, white power and
control--as central to the American Dream.
Racism has always focused on economics; it is a
rigged system! It is a broad economic system
that uses law and culture to achieve its mission.
Presently it has expanded beyond its tradition
limits on black workers to limit white workers
through a familiar tactic—it uses blame to
encourage blindness. It discourage common
interests. Its cultural bias prevent workers from
recognizing a common opposition!
Despite billions in cash and profits and studies
that say wage increases will have little effect on
prices, corporate powers are united in their
effort to fix wages and reduce benefits for all
workers. They let racism do the work of
misdirecting the resistance.
Blame is another one of racism's core ideas, an
article of faith even for many without overt bias.
Blame coexists with the dialogue for equality.
Individually, many workers have no bias, but
they see inequality of opportunity. They see
claims of the past affecting the present. (To
them, reverse discrimination is reverse blame.)
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The system uses blame to hide and deny change
beneficial for all. In this political economy of
excess, blame justifies its waste.
Wealth and violence create new myths of power
from old abuses. America's own tradition of
racism creates new forms of denial.
Despite the noise and denial, the funk of the
presidential election was a fight over power:
white males (and women with tee shirts saying
“grab this”) suddenly had their own champion!
He promised assigned places, put outs, and
fixes for the walking troubles that were the
myths associated with blacks, Hispanics, and
Muslims. Nobody at his rallies held jobs signs—
the basic expression of political demands and
messaging--but nightly, rallies became shout
fests and minor brawls—the incidents continue
—over “them,” their presence--not wages, not
health, not jobs! (Except for the myth that
“them” were taking jobs, inside and outside the
country.)
The success of the new identity politics—
successfully reconstructed in Michigan
Wisconsin Minnesota Pennsylvania Florida
North Carolina—was built from the myth of
rebuilding white identity, with a few promises
tossed in like favorite spices in the pie. The
campaign message of racism succeeded because
it promised action—longed for action to deny
justice, deport the undocumented, and demand
fear and hate be put above the constitution.
The new identity politics is a racial faith in an
undying myth at the root of the American
promise, repeated by politicians (an Iowa
representative said whites built the country,
others contributed nothing; his words echoed
in Illinois, in robo-calls, in community
conversations and outburst, in the denial of
plargarism) in Congress itself!)
President Barack Obama worked on jobs—
successfully! His administration saved Detroit!
He created 15+ million private sector jobs in 75
straight months—a record for peace time
growth. He lowered unemployment. It wasn't
enough. Democrats faced the most difficult,
unsolved task in American politics: building a
stable, multi-ethnic coalition.
Hillary lost because she wasn't white enough.
My hometown high school applauded and
cheered wildly its first black running black, a
talented touchdown machine success on field—
but quickly shunned white who sought his
friendship. This difference between the social
identity of race and its rules and the
private/personal identity of race and its rules is
familiar; it caught Hillary.
America's founding political economy—North
and South—built structures and a system that
assigned cultural features to the forced labor of
African workers, spelled out their status in the
founding documents, and exploited that system
to mass incredible wealth.
America extracted labor value through the
extreme control of people who were a majority
population in Southern colonies/states--and
maintained a robust market in the buying and
selling of persons: denied freedom, the enslaved
were sold on auction blocks, individually, by
families, by lot. An after market developed; the
country grew westward; coffles were driven to
the Mississippi, down and across. Enslaved
status and conditions were a staple of politics.
The nation fought its bloodiest war to
determine whether its institutions/social order
would be slave or free.
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Today, the attitudes remain! The myths are still
a part of our politics! Slavery devolved into
racism, a dynamic system of divisions and
imbalance as progress advanced. Because it
could no longer rely on chains, its new features
were more culturally powerful. Until the 1960s,
its endorsement of inequality was open and
direct. Then suddenly, all the racists
disappeared! Racism was denied! It was labeled
a myth, covered in reverse blame; its continuum
widened to include implicit bias to direct
resistance.
It is wrong to use an imperfect world to find
fault. It is wrong to think fault is fixed simply by
strength: tough talk, force; acts of belligerence,
adjectives and insults on social media. It is right
to worry about policies which a share a single
feature: tax cuts/balance sheet politics/bunce for
the rich. It is wrong to hide the facts. It leaves
too many questions unanswered.
The myths and behaviors of race are still a part
of our political answers. Slavery devolved into
racism, a dynamic system of divisions and
imbalance as progress advanced. Because it
could no longer rely on chains, its new features
were more culturally powerful and structurally
invisible. Except for the communities that see
the absence of buses and grocery stores, the
chronic under-investment.
95-South (Lyrics, Verse One)
In my lifetime I've been in towns
where there was no freedom or future around.
I've been in places where you could not eat
or take a drink of water where ever you pleased.
And now that I meet you in the middle of a
mountain
Well, I'm reaching out from within.
And all I can think of are chapters and scenes of
all of the places we've been.
I'm not such an old man so don't get me wrong.
I'm the latest survivor of the constantly strong. “
~~Gil Scott-Heron
Today, the historic myths of slavery take on new
functions (the video rant at Penney's succinctly
lists its myths and beliefs!): to divide workers so
whites will not realize their labor is “waste”
(without worth!) in a system of global excess.
The same excess exhibited in every single
cabinet appointment! Its excesses are applauded
by blind mules who oppose their own value—as
they embrace the limits of their preconditioned
bias.
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