It would be easy to think that the second Trump presidency is unlike any other period in American history, but that is not the case. The second Trump presidency resembles the historical period after Reconstruction.
In both periods the reality of racism was denied. White supremacists sought to regain political power after periods where people of color had made economic and political gains. Our current period might be called the New Redemption.
The original Redemption was the post-Reconstruction effort by the former slaveholders and their allies to oust the Radical Republicans and to restore white supremacy. Throughout the South, the Redeemers saw the Republicans of that era (who were the anti-racists then) as corrupt.
The Redeemers focused on cutting government spending. They eviscerated voter registration laws to strip Blacks of their ability to vote. They reduced support for public education, which had been newly created under Reconstruction governments. Before Reconstruction, there was no interracial public education.
The Redeemers relied on the Supreme Court just as MAGA forces do now. In both cases, the Supreme Court indulged the denial of racism and support for the structural inequality which was racism’s trademark.
The 1896 case of Plessy v Ferguson is well-known for its disgraceful “separate but equal” ruling, but that was only one decision among a flurry of cases that cemented the dominance of white supremacy. There are quite a few that deserve mention.
In 1883, the Supreme Court nullified the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which had outlawed discrimination against Black people using public accommodations like hotels, theaters and railroads. When 10 of 11 Southern states passed new disenfranchising state constitutions, the Supreme Court went along. In the 1898 case of Williams v Mississippi and the 1903 Alabama case of Giles v Harris, the Supreme Court gave its blessing to poll taxes, literacy tests and residency requirements which almost entirely removed Blacks and poor whites from the voting rolls.
Although Reconstruction had led to significant Black representation in Southern state legislatures and in Congress, the Redeemers drastically changed the whole political landscape. Congress became completely white in 1901 and stayed that way until 1929.
The Southern oligarchy of the post-Reconstruction era used its economic power to organize the Klan and other terrorists to create slavery by another name. Former slaves were made into serfs. Lynchings stoked fear. The Southern ruling class brought back racist ideology cloaked in a scientific guise. They argued for the natural superiority of some races over others using Darwinian ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest.
There was a religious dimension to the 19th century Redeemers. They called the time “Redemption” because they saw the restoration of white supremacy and the imposition of racial segregation as correcting the sins of Reconstruction. Their Christianity was white supremacist.
In our era, backsliding on racism has been going on since the decline of the modern civil rights movement of the 1960s snd 1970s. Before the second Trump presidency, there were notable reversals like the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v Holder, which weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Court’s 2023 decision ending affirmative action in college admissions, but Trump 2.0 has taken things to a new level of backwardness.
The war against DEI is a rebranding and a cover for the promotion of racism. In Trump world, diversity equals incompetence because only white men pass his meritocratic test. Any effort to rectify our history of racism is considered discrimination against white people. Trump’s many Executive Orders are all in that vein, whether it is about repealing birthright citizenship, stopping the Department of Justice investigations into police misconduct against African Americans or pardoning vicious white supremacists who were part of his January 6 shock troops.
Gerrymandering and voter suppression have been the MAGA agenda. That is how they plan to maintain their minority rule. Also, the nation has been moving more in the direction of racial re-segregation, another backwards step.
The Supreme Court has provided an ideological justification with its repeated arguments defending colorblindness, These arguments could have been made by 19th century Redeemers. Both eras have their fervent evangelical backers who see promotion of white supremacy as a religious duty. One difference between the two Redemptions is that MAGA doesn’t rely on lynchings and the Klan, but it doesn’t need to. It controls all three branches of government.
Racism has been an essential part of American capitalism from the first seizure of Native American land and the enslavement of Africans in the early 1600s. The labor of slaves was an important source of the accumulated capital which fueled the takeoff of the U.S. economy in the first half of the 19th century. Taking land from Native Americans and Mexicans provided the territory for dynamic economic expansion.
Belief in the superiority of the white race developed, in large part, as a justification for these acts. They were done in the name of white America’s mission to civilize and control allegedly inferior people.
Where racism is concerned, the Trump regime is like a long-time alcoholic with a relapsing alcohol problem. They say they don’t have a problem, but the evidence shows they are not stopping. Whatever they say, they keep drinking.
Anti-racists of all races, religions and nationalities have a responsibility to raise awareness and oppose racism as forcefully as possible in every domain.
Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot.