[[link removed]]

CALLING TRUMP A NAZI IS GIVING OUR OWN HISTORY A PASS. THE RACISM OF
MAGA IS AMERICAN  
[[link removed]]


 

Nina Turner
October 29, 2024
Newsweek
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ There are always riveting reminders century after century calling
on us to not forget our past sins and to atone for them.
Unfortunately, we have neither learned from or atoned for White
Supremacy and bigotry. _

, (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

 

Former President Donald Trump
[[link removed]] and his campaign threw
an event at Madison Square Garden over the weekend with tens of
thousands of attendees. What we heard from the speakers about Black
people, Latinos, Puerto Ricans, and Palestinians was utterly racist
and bigoted. I would say I'm stunned, but I'm not. Unfortunately, it's
to be expected from those at the front of the MAGA movement. It was so
vile it seemed to elicit groans from the crowd; even the MAGA faithful
weren't feeling the overt nature of the racism.

Even before the rally, there were some calling this rally a fascist,
even "Nazi rally." Yet as a Black liberationist and a former professor
of African American History, the accusation troubled me. Bigotry,
white supremacy, and white Christian nationalism are as American as
apple pie. It is this aspect of America's formation we cannot escape.

Fascism is a populist political movement which advocates putting the
nation first through a centralized, autocratic government
[[link removed]] headed by
a dictatorial
[[link removed]] leader who
controls the economy and suppresses opposition. I do believe former
President Trump is a fascist. He fits the description. Yet that does
not make Donald Trump and his movement "Nazis" as a whole.

America's history is dark enough that we do not have to export our
comparisons to Nazi Germany. At the MAGA rally in New York, the
bigotry and white supremacy spewed was American through and through.

My concern is that calling him a Nazi erases the American nature of
his movement and makes it a foreign concept. It's not foreign. The
bigotry is not foreign, the white supremacy is not foreign, this
movement is not foreign, it's American and we must address it head-on
to defeat it.

Moreover, the Nazi label diminishes the fact that millions of Jewish
people and other ethnic groups, including people with disabilities,
were mass murdered. And it completely erases the vile impact of the
American slave system on Africans and their American descendants.
Crimes against humanity happened on this soil.

Chattel slavery has taken up more of this land's modern history than
it has not. Black Americans were owned, enslaved, raped, and killed in
this country—legally. Then, after abolition, Black Americans were
lynched, discriminated against, denied opportunities, and so much more
simply because we were Black.

The entire history of this country is ripe with horrifying examples of
white terrorism on this soil.

During many lynchings of Black people, entire communities of white
men, women, and children assembled to watch bodies burn or swing from
trees. This happened in America.

Angry white mobs assembled in front of schools in the South to stop
Black children from desegregating those schools is American. This
happened in America.

Black people marching for voters' rights and dignity were sprayed by
firefighters with high-pressure water hoses and attacked by police
dogs. This happened in America.

George Floyd was killed by a police officer's knee to his neck. This
happened in America.

This _is_ who we are.

In 1962, author James Baldwin wrote, "Not everything that is faced can
be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." I reflect
on that quote at this moment. I feel as though, in calling these
rallies "Nazi rallies," many are trying to wash their hands of our
history in a way to say, "This is not who we are."

Unfortunately, the truth is, this _is _who we are, and if we want to
address it, we must face it. We gain nothing and lose everything if we
cannot acknowledge our past.

When former President Trump says he wants to round up immigrants and
put them in camps, he cites the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

It is not foreign. This _is _who we are.

There are always riveting reminders century after century calling on
us to not forget our past sins and to atone for them. Unfortunately,
we have neither learned from or atoned for White Supremacy and
bigotry. You see, the same energy that empowered that white comedian
to spew hate all out in the open without fear of consequence flows
throughout the contours of this nation.

Our past is bloody and immoral. We must take responsibility for our
own racialized mess and not attribute it to any other nation.

As the late Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan said, "What the people
want is simple: They want an America as good as its promise—that as
a nation, we live up to our historical promise of equality of
opportunity."

But a promise is not a reality. We can find hope in America's promise,
but America has yet to live up to it. Both are true at the same time.

The way to defeat this movement that endangers Americans who are
working class and who aren't insulated by wealth, power, and privilege
is to confront our issues with real solutions. We must have a
counter-movement that promises economic empowerment of the people, not
the ultra-wealthy, with the promise of trickle-down economics.

Acknowledging our reality and addressing that reality with progressive
populism is the antidote to fascism, not neoliberalism and
fear-mongering.

We must acknowledge where we have been to get where we want to go.

_Nina Turner is a former Ohio state senator, a senior fellow at the
Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at the New School, and
the founder of We Are Somebody._

* White Racism
[[link removed]]
* Fascism
[[link removed]]
* MAGA
[[link removed]]
* progressive populism
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]