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Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle November 21, 2018 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Trump, the Republicans and the Neo-Confederate Objective Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher I Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2017 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2018 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS n F ebo m me • nts TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n d ay ! • L i ke u s o ac it Updated daily. to y • Opinion t became very clear to any- one who was watching that in the lead up to the Nov. 6 elections, Trump and his allies focused on two things: putting their hands on your wallets and, in order to do that, reinforce the idea that the USA is a White repub- lic (and keep White people thinking about that and only that). To put it another way, they want to restore the Con- federacy. Trump had many tactical options in the weeks prior to the election as a way of inspiring his base. He could have played to the economy which has continued to grow, largely as a result of decisions made during the Obama era but claimed by Trump. The problem is that the results of the economic improvements have been very uneven and working-class people have largely stagnated. Despite that, he could have made the argument. Trump regularly fudges the truth. Trump and his Republican acolytes chose a different route, one with a long histo- ry in US politics. They first used the Justice Kavanaugh hearings to reaffirm male su- premacy, making it appear that men are under attack in the USA and that women’s concerns about sexual as- Bill Fletcher Jr. The Global African sault are misplaced. This ral- ly the white men challenge was followed by an equally nefarious tactic: a call for an all-out mobilization against a mythical, so-called immi- grant invasion coming from Central America. Facts to the contrary, Trump — and re- “ Trump’s messages are not for the US electorate but for the white American electorate. When he and his followers suggest that their way of life is being threatened, they mean that the privileged status of whites and men—compared with people of color and wom- en, respectively — has been called into question by those of us who believe in democra- cy and justice. Thus, Trump plays not to an abstract fear but a specific fear among large numbers of whites; a fear of the future. What do Trump and his When [Trump] and his followers suggest that their way of life is being threatened, they mean that the privileged status of whites and men—compared with people of color and women, respectively— has been called into question by those of us who believe in democ- racy and justice peated by some of his key al- lies — argued that the several thousand refugees in Central America were threatening the US way of life. The response was truly re- markable and clarified that supporters want? The critical image that is now materializ- ing is that of the Confederate States of America. Right-wing populists have for decades seen in the Confederacy the iconic moment when white supremacy and male su- premacy held sway and when forces of dissent—forces for justice — were literally and figuratively chained. The right-wing fear of the future is a fear of not only the demographic changes in the USA, which will render white majority rule moot by the middle of the 21st centu- ry, but there is a broader fear that successes on the road to- ward a consistent democra- cy will mean a change in the relations between men and women, but also changes in the economy as wealth polar- ization along with the envi- ronmental catastrophe will necessitate a different set of economic priorities. Trump and his allies have played to fears that have ex- isted in the White electorate since the 19th century. He achieved considerable suc- cess via this demagoguery. But the results of the election showed that millions more see no future in the past but believe that another way for- ward is not only possible, but essential. Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the former president of TransAfrica Fo- rum. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook. Pick up his mur- der mystery, The Man Who Fell From the Sky from Hard- ball Press. Is the FBI Underreporting the Surge in Hate Crimes? The FBI has released it’s 2017 hate crimes statistics which revealed a 17 percent increase in incidents since 2016. In 2017 there were 8,493 victims and 6,307 known of- fenders. By comparison there were 7,509 victims and 5,727 known offenders in 2016, ac- cording to the data. “This report is a call to ac- tion — and we will heed that call,” Acting Attorney Gen- eral Matthew Whitaker said in a statement. “The Depart- ment of Justice’s top priority is to reduce violent crime in America, and hate crimes are violent crimes.” The report contrasts with the prior year when there were 6,036 single-bias inci- dents, or occurrences where the perpetrator has one bias against a community or group. By comparison, in 2017, there were 7,106 sin- gle-bias incidents reported. According to the FBI, “58.1 percent were motivated by a race/ethnicity/ancestry bias, 22.0 percent were prompted by religious bias, 15.9 percent resulted from sexual-orienta- tion bias and 1.7 percent were motivated by gender-identity bias.” “This [report] is shocking and requires Congress’s full attention,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement. “Shouldn’t this urgent cri- Stacy Brown NNPA Columnist sis be the subject of the first post-recess Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, instead of ramming through more Trump judges? Our lives are at stake,” Johnson said. Also, some organizations are skeptical of the FBI statis- tics and say underreporting “ response from this adminis- tration. Of 34 reportable bias moti- vation categories, all but five reported an increase in 2017. With 2,013 incidents report- ed, “Anti-Black or African American” bias accounted for nearly half of all crimes mo- tivated by race or ethnicity, which rose 18 percent accord- ing to the FBI data, while “An- ti-American Indian or Alaska Native,” “Anti-Multiple Races, Group,” and “Anti-Hispan- Anti-Black or African American” bias accounted for nearly half of all crimes motivated by race or ethnicity, which rose 18 percent remains a significant problem in its annual survey. In a statement, the Arab American Institute (AAI) ex- pressed concern and disap- pointment with the release of the 2017 hate crime statistics. The organization claims that the data contained some glaring omissions, including three of the most severe acts of bias-motivated violence committed last year. And while career officials at the Department of Justice contin- ue to demonstrate a commit- ment to serving communities and preventing hate crime, officials at the AAI said they remain dissatisfied with the ic or Latino” hate crimes all increased over 20 percent (251, 180, and 427 incidents, respectively). “Anti-Arab” hate crime, which was rein- troduced into the data collec- tions in 201 after the category became “invalid” in 1996 and was eliminated in 2001, in- creased 100 percent last year, with 102 incidents reported. As for crimes motivated by religion, which increased 23 percent in 2017, “Anti-Jewish” hate crime surged 37 percent, representing a majority with 938 incidents reported. Af- ter increasing 67 percent in 2015 and 19 percent in 2016, “Anti-Islamic (Muslim)” hate crime decreased in 2017 but remained well above histor- ical averages with 273 inci- dents reported. Based on state-level hate crime statistics reported through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system, which the FBI also uses to pub- lish its annual report, the AAI was expecting an increase of crimes motivated by sexual orientation in 2017 statistics. While an increase was re- ported in the federal data, it was less significant than ex- pected, the organization not- ed in a statement. Analysis from AAI shows that in multiple states, offi- cial state-level data reported a greater number of incidents than what is reported in the FBI’s statistics. Crimes motivated by dis- ability, gender, and gender identity, which are more re- cent additions to the data col- lections and generally pro- duce smaller annual totals, were significantly affected by these discrepancies. For example, the Kentucky State Police reported 41 gen- der-motivated hate crime in- cidents in official state-level statistics, whereas only 46 incidents were reported na- tionwide according to the FBI data. Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve
