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
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Executive Editor
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2017
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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
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