November 16, 2016
Page 7
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O PINION
Underbelly of Racism Now America’s Face
Whites willing
to vote alongside
the Klan
p eter c erto
An election that
might have marked
the ascension of
America’s
first
woman president
has instead proven
historic for an alto-
gether different reason. Namely,
that Americans voted for the un-
abashedly anti-democratic alter-
native offered by her rival.
And they did it despite his al-
most cartoonish shortcomings.
Trump didn’t just offend pious
liberals with his hard line on im-
migration, disdain for democratic
norms, and disinterest in policy.
He transgressed standards of de-
cency across all political persua-
sions.
He bragged about sexually as-
by
saulting women. He disparaged
injured war veterans. He was en-
dorsed by the KKK. And now
he’s America’s voice on the world
stage.
How could that hap-
pen? Here’s one theory you
might’ve heard:
After years of seeing
their jobs outsourced, their
incomes slashed, and their
suffering ignored, the white
working class threw in their
lot with the candidate who
cast aside political niceties and
vowed to make their communities
great again.
It’s a nice story — I even used
to buy a version of it myself. But
while Trump surely did clean up
with white voters, the evidence
simply doesn’t support the idea
that they were as hard-up as the
story goes.
For instance, pollster Nate Sil-
ver found during the GOP prima-
ry that Trump supporters pulled
in a median income of $72,000 a
year — some $10,000 more than
the national median for white
households. And while many did
come from areas with lower social
mobility, they were less likely to
live in the stricken manufacturing
communities Trump liked to use
as backdrops for his rallies.
So if it wasn’t the economy,
was it Hillary?
Clinton was clearly unpopu-
lar, in many cases for defensible
reasons. She was cozy with Wall
Street. She backed poorly chosen
wars. Apparently people didn’t
like the way she emailed.
But when you consider that we
chose to give the nuclear codes to
a man whose own aides refused to
trust with a Twitter account over a
former secretary of state, it hard-
ly seems like Trump voters were
soberly comparing the two candi-
dates.
Instead, Vox writers Zack
Beauchamp and Dylan Matthews
poured through scores of studies
and found a much more robust ex-
planation — and it isn’t pretty.
It’s what pollsters gently call
“racial resentment.”
That is, Trump’s core sup-
porters were far more likely than
other Republicans to hold nega-
tive views of African Americans,
Latinos, and Muslims. They over-
whelmingly favored the mass de-
portation of immigrants. And they
were the most likely Republicans
to agree that it would be “bad for
the country” if whites comprised
a smaller share of the population.
What’s more, another study
found, racially resentful voters
flocked to the GOP candidate re-
gardless of their views about the
economy. Their views on race
drew them to Trump, not their job
prospects.
Scores of other data back this
up. Despite years of job growth
and the biggest one-year bump in
middle-class incomes in modern
history, another researcher found,
Republicans’ views of both Afri-
can Americans and Latinos nose-
dived during the Obama years.
Not even a slowdown in immi-
gration itself staunched the ven-
om. Net migration between the
U.S. and Mexico fell to 0 during
the Obama years, yet Trump still
launched his campaign with an
infamous tirade against Mexican
“rapists” and “murderers.”
None of that is to accuse all
Trump voters of racism. But even
if the bulk of them were just Re-
publicans following their nom-
inee, the social science strongly
suggests that one of our major par-
ties has been captured by whites
so anxious about the changing
face of America that they were
willing to vote alongside the Klan.
That fringe has turned main-
stream. The Trump years to come
may herald any number of horrors,
but the scariest part may be what
we’ve learned about ourselves.
Peter Certo is the editorial
manager of the Institute for Policy
Studies and the editor of Other-
Words.org
Election Drew Poisons of Hate and Intolerance
America faces
a time for racial
healing
M Arc h. M oriAl
As far back as June
of last year, the Nation-
al Urban League called
upon all Presidential
candidates to refrain
from using racially divi-
sive and disparaging language in
their campaigns.
In the ensuing months, we
heard an unprecedented call to
ban all Muslims from the nation,
even United States citizens. That
call was followed by more than
two dozen anti-Muslim attacks in
the United States, ranging from a
cabdriver shot in Pittsburgh to the
deliberate torching of a Somali
restaurant in Grand Forks. N.D.
The owner of a food market in
Queens was beaten by a customer
who vowed to “kill Muslims.”
The level of vitriol against im-
migrants and racial and ethnic mi-
norities was amped so high during
the campaign that the Southern
Poverty Law Center, which tracks
hate groups, coined the term “The
Trump Effect” to describe the
alarming level of fear and anxi-
ety among children of color over
racial tensions and their fears of
being deported.
by
According to the Southern Pov-
erty Law Center survey of teach-
ers:
More than two-thirds of the
teachers reported that
students—mainly immi-
grants, children of immi-
grants and Muslims—have
expressed concerns or
fears about what might
happen to them or their
families after the election.
More than half have
seen an increase in uncivil politi-
cal discourse.
More than one-third have ob-
served an increase in anti-Muslim
or anti-immigrant sentiment.
More than 40 percent were hes-
itant to teach about the election.
Other children have been using
the word “Trump” as a taunt or as
a chant as they gang up on others.
Over two-thirds (67 percent)
of educators reported that young
people in their schools—most
often immigrants, children of
immigrants, Muslims, African
Americans and other students of
color—had expressed concern
about what might happen to them
or their families after the election.
Close to one-third of the students
in American classrooms are chil-
dren of foreign-born parents. This
year, they are scared, stressed and
in need of reassurance and support
from teachers. Muslim children
are harassed and worried. Even
native-born
African-American
children, whose families arrived
here before the American Revolu-
tion, ask about being sent back to
Africa. Others, especially younger
students, have worries that are the
stuff of nightmares, like a return to
slavery or being rounded up and
put into camps. Overall, these vul-
nerable students are disillusioned
and depressed at the hatred they’re
hearing from candidates, in the
news, from classmates and even,
sometimes, from trusted adults.
As we have said throughout
this campaign, religious and racial
bigotry are not core American val-
ues. In fact, such bigotry is more
than unpatriotic; it threatens our
national security.
So, where do we go from here?
We are hopeful now that the
heat of the campaign begins to
cool, our President-Elect and his
supporters will adopt a more sober
approach to issues of racial jus-
tice. He has called for the country
to unite, and we will take him at
his word.
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Our duty as citizens is to hold
him to his word. We have the
power to define patriotism in
the 21st Century, and there’s no
room in that definition for bigotry.
Some have mused that this cam-
paign has served as a poultice of
sorts, drawing the poisons of hate
and intolerance to the surface.
This is our opportunity to cleanse
them away.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer of the
National Urban League.
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