While some might be inclined to dismiss King as a fringe figure, the very fact that so few Republicans are willing to criticize him speaks volumes. They clearly don’t want to alienate those voters who agree with King’s racist remarks. It’s yet one more reminder of the extent to which white nationalism and open racism have become normalized within the modern Republican Party.
Indeed, earlier this month, the Huffington Post ran a disturbing piece on the grotesque, virulently racist book “The Camp of the Saints,” which top White House advisor Steve Bannon has used to describe the influx of nonwhite, Muslim refugees into Europe. The book describes the destruction of white, Christian Europe, by nonwhite immigrants led by an Indian demagogue. In the book, Europe is overrun by poor, nonwhite migrants.
Bannon’s endorsement of this grotesque piece of literature is at pace with the policies he’s promoted since becoming the president’s top strategist: from the travel-ban executive order that specifically targets Muslims to its focus on building a wall on the US-Mexico, all to keep out nonwhite immigrants. Guess who else recently plugged “The Camp of the Saints.” Yup: Steve King.
I’ve been thinking about this, since I posted it yesterday on my Tumblr thingy.
Something that maybe isn’t being talked about enough, or maybe it is and I just haven’t seen it, is that Republicans suffer no consequences at all for being racists and bigots. Their voters don’t care, the opposition doesn’t seem to be able to hold them to account in any meaningful way for it, and when the opposition shines a light on Republican racism, it just doesn’t matter.
Journalists aren’t willing to identify racism and racists in explicitly clear language, and their use of euphemisms has ended up normalizing what is (or at least should be) disqualifying behaviour and beliefs.
Because there are literally no consequences at all for being a public racist, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to conclude that America is a racist country.
Now anyone who isn’t a white guy is probably going, “Oh, welcome to the reality of our entire lives, White Guy,” and I hear you. I’m doing my best to use my privilege to change this, and if it’s this hard for me, I can’t even imagine how hard it is to be a person who is directly affected by the accepted, institutionalized racism that pervades our country at every level.
I remember that I kept saying, during the election, that Trump needs to be defeated in a landslide so that we could loudly and unambiguously say that we as a nation reject him and what he stands for. Well, three million of us did that, but in a nation of billions, that just isn’t enough, and it’s a disgrace.
I keep reminding people who voted for Trump, or who support him now, that they are standing with a racist, and they just don’t care. They didn’t care then, they don’t care now, and it’s unlikely that they’ll ever care.
I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t know how to even begin trying to change this.
