Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
This politicization of victimhood is nothing new to the Trump presidency.
It was there from the beginning. When Trump descended the escalator in Trump Tower to announce his presidential campaign in 2015, he stoked fears of Mexican rapists and drug traffickers attacking U.S. citizens.
The claims of victimhood ran throughout his presidency. He played on U.S. fears of being attacked by foreign terrorists to enact the travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries.
When protesters called for the removal of Confederate monuments, Trump claimed that they wanted to make people ashamed of American history. As COVID-19 spread across the U.S., Trump dubbed it the “China virus” and contended that China would pay for what it had done.
Journalists and commentators also turned to a sense of aggrievement to explain the popular support Trump received. A narrative emerged: White, working-class voters from rural and Rust Belt communities felt abandoned by the political establishment. Decades of free trade, automation and cuts to the social safety net turned these voters against the mainstreams of both political parties.
But this narrative fails to answer two critical questions: Why did upper-middle-class and wealthy white voters – who aren’t economic victims – vociferously support Trump in 2016? And why do communities of color – who’ve experienced centuries of economic and racial victimization – largely oppose him?
White victimhood
The politics of white victimhood is nothing new. For example, before the Civil War, pro-slavery advocates blamed abolitionists for causing slave revolts and endangering the lives of white Southerners.
A sense – or fear – of victimhood pervades contemporary white supremacy, from the extreme to the mainstream.
Since the 1980s, figures like Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan have alluded to plots involving Mexican immigrants and the Mexican government to retake the U.S. Southwest.
This paranoid victimhood ultimately led to a ban on ethnic studies in some Arizona schools after politicians claimed that the classes encouraged hatred toward white people and activists contended that Mexican American studies would bring about a reconquest of the U.S. Southwest.
And there is the perennial War on Christmas wherein some Christians feel they are persecuted by people who say “Happy Holidays” to recognize that their fellow citizens may celebrate other faith traditions. Notably, the idea of a “War on Christmas” was coined by Peter Brimelow, founder of the VDARE white supremacist website.
https://theconversation.com/trump-t...-fertile-ground-for-white-supremacists-150587
It was there from the beginning. When Trump descended the escalator in Trump Tower to announce his presidential campaign in 2015, he stoked fears of Mexican rapists and drug traffickers attacking U.S. citizens.
The claims of victimhood ran throughout his presidency. He played on U.S. fears of being attacked by foreign terrorists to enact the travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries.
When protesters called for the removal of Confederate monuments, Trump claimed that they wanted to make people ashamed of American history. As COVID-19 spread across the U.S., Trump dubbed it the “China virus” and contended that China would pay for what it had done.
Journalists and commentators also turned to a sense of aggrievement to explain the popular support Trump received. A narrative emerged: White, working-class voters from rural and Rust Belt communities felt abandoned by the political establishment. Decades of free trade, automation and cuts to the social safety net turned these voters against the mainstreams of both political parties.
But this narrative fails to answer two critical questions: Why did upper-middle-class and wealthy white voters – who aren’t economic victims – vociferously support Trump in 2016? And why do communities of color – who’ve experienced centuries of economic and racial victimization – largely oppose him?
White victimhood
The politics of white victimhood is nothing new. For example, before the Civil War, pro-slavery advocates blamed abolitionists for causing slave revolts and endangering the lives of white Southerners.
A sense – or fear – of victimhood pervades contemporary white supremacy, from the extreme to the mainstream.
Since the 1980s, figures like Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan have alluded to plots involving Mexican immigrants and the Mexican government to retake the U.S. Southwest.
This paranoid victimhood ultimately led to a ban on ethnic studies in some Arizona schools after politicians claimed that the classes encouraged hatred toward white people and activists contended that Mexican American studies would bring about a reconquest of the U.S. Southwest.
And there is the perennial War on Christmas wherein some Christians feel they are persecuted by people who say “Happy Holidays” to recognize that their fellow citizens may celebrate other faith traditions. Notably, the idea of a “War on Christmas” was coined by Peter Brimelow, founder of the VDARE white supremacist website.
https://theconversation.com/trump-t...-fertile-ground-for-white-supremacists-150587
