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We now face a substantial danger in Republicans' refusal to accept the election results w talk of theft & conspiracy. It is imperative that we look to history in this moment, not bc it might "repeat" or give "lessons," but bc history creates the present.
We cannot meaningfully understand or navigate the present without understanding the forces that created it.
I've been talking abt white supremacy & white "backlash" for years now, bc race & racism have long played a primary role in shaping our country's politics. Lots of folks out there doing this work. Here's why it matters:
White supremacy works through erasure, creating a mythical harmonious past in which white Americans reigned supreme as their "manifest destiny." It depicts any challenge to this system of racial hierarchy as a theft.
So when you hear Trump supporters talking abt how Dems stole the election BY VOTING & having those votes ACTUALLY COUNTED, this is what they invoke. America is, as enslavers put it, "a white man's country." Actually, they called their party the "white man's banner" after slavery.
White conservatives have long used every trick in the book to maintain their power. They repeatedly orchestrated coups & massacres to overturn election results to enshrine white supremacy. See the Colfax Massacre.
Or the so-called Battle of Liberty Place.
Or the Wilmington Massacre.
Or the Elaine Massacre, where the actually put the survivors on trial.
Or the Tulsa Massacre.
Or, to jump ahead a bit, the Orangeburg Massacre.
Or the massacre at Southern University.
Or the Greensboro Massacre.
The list is not exhaustive. In truth, it barely scratches the surface. White elites have used this tactic thousands of times to maintain power.
More often still, they've used their control of the state to orchestrate attacks on communities of color from California's Chicano movement...
To Bloody Sunday.
To understand the history of the U.S. as a (mostly hidden) process of maintaining white supremacy that combines legal & white vigilante violence is to understand 1) where the "stolen" election rhetoric comes from & 2) why it presents a substantial danger.
