Donald Trump is the republican victor of Super Tuesday, making him the frontrunner for the GOP nomination. In the span of his wildcard campaign, Trump has condemned Mexican immigrants calling them criminals, drug dealers, and rapists. He has defended Japanese internment camps and called not only for a ban on Muslims from entering the country but a national registry of US Muslim citizens. His campaign rallies are often reduced to mayhem, complete with the encouraged physical accosting of black protesters. His flagrance has won endorsements from white supremacist groups and big wins across many southern states. By replacing coded racial language with vintage overt comments, Donald Trump and his supporters have effectively ushered in a return to overt throwback racism.
So now that the cards are on the table, let’s have a team huddle and agree to put to bed the following racial scapegoating terminology:
The race card
This victim blaming phrase is designed to invalidate the experiences of hate, discrimination, and microagressions directed toward people of color, imposing social penalties for calling out instances of racism.
Respectability politics
This notion asserts that, in order to be accepted, marginalized groups should adapt their social norms to mirror the mainstream (aka white people) rather than embracing their own unique cultural differences. The code-switch has not worked.
Post-racial America
This is the theoretical idea that the United States is now free from its ugly history of racism, discrimination and prejudice. The purveyors of this untruth argue that the election of a two-term African-American President has marked the end of racism when it is clear that this landmark has welcomed in an unprecedented disrespect to the Office of the Presidency along with a spike in hate crimes, tensions and unconcealed racism.
Race bating
This is jargon used to characterize any vocalization of racial inequality as a groundless and malicious attempt to stir up anger and discontent within a minority group, thereby characterizing said minorities as monolithic and incapable of processing their own experiences and frustrations until goaded by some group thinker.
These terms are sneaky forms of psychological manipulation designed to invalidate our experiences and intimidate people of color into silence, conformity and full ownership of “the race problem,” pressuring us to disavow and distance ourselves from artist, activist, leaders and celebrities who dare extend their art forms to speak out and take action. Wherever we go from here, can we agree that pretending racism doesn’t exist is no longer an option?
