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| One dead after car plows into anti-racist demonstration photo by Ryan M. Kelly/ the Daily Progress |
No,
Mr. Trump, It’s Not About Bigotry On All Sides: It’s About White Supremacists
August 12, 2017
I sat here listening to Trump’s remarks in connection with the
violence carried out by neofascists in Charlottesville this afternoon, violence
which has resulted in the death of at least one anti-fascist. He
condemned bigotry on what he called all sides.
Once again Trump obscures reality. He either ignores the
violence and terrorism carried out against traditionally oppressed groups,
e.g., attacks on mosques, or he uses evasive language in order to avoid
pointing the finger at the real perpetrators of racist violence.
Some will act as if this is a sign of incompetence on the part
of Trump. While Trump clearly lacks competence in so many aspects of his
life and presidency–as we are witnessing in the sabre-rattling with North
Korea–Trump’s attitude towards race is not about incompetence. This
represents a long-standing feature of who he is and the politics that he
represents. This is someone who spearheaded the Birther attack on
President Obama’s legitimacy, raising unsubstantiated suggestions regarding
Obama’s citizenship. This is someone who led the charge against the
Central Park 5. This is someone who has been quite comfortable aligning
himself with right-wing populists and neofascists.
We should not expect anything better or clearer from Trump.
What we must do is rip the cover off of every effort that he undertakes
to obscure white supremacist and xenophobic violence and hatred.
Progressives should stop using the term “alt-Right” and recognize that
what we are witnessing are neofascist movements, movements that are interested
in provoking violence and are, in many cases well-armed.
Trump is prepared to remain silent about such movements.
Many liberals are hoping that the neofascists will simply go home and
shut up. What we must understand is that they will not go home and shut
up. They must be defeated. They cannot be tolerated. They are
a cancer in the system of democracy. They seek not to create a more
conservative system but to radically eliminate democracy and with it many
populations that they believe to be antithetical to the openly white republic
that they believe that the USA must return to being.
They shall not pass!
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Bill Fletcher
Activist and writer Bill Fletcher, Jr. served as a senior staff
person in the AFL-CIO and as former president of TransAfrica Forum. He is an
editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com.
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