It’s White Supremacy

Call it what it is

We can’t be afraid to use plain, unflinching language to name the outrages we see—lies, corruption, authoritarianism.

And white supremacy.

Some of these words are now common in public discourse about this regime. But not white supremacy. At least not nearly enough. That needs to change—now.

Let’s dive into the news from just the last few days.

In a recent New York Times article titled “Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People,” the word “white” appears several times; it’s right there in the headline.

What’s missing—though it sits at the heart of the entire story—is the term white supremacy.

I mean, consider this example from one of the internal documents The Times reviewed:

“The sharp increase in diversity has reduced the level of social trust essential for the functioning of a democratic polity,” according to one of the documents. The administration should only welcome “refugees who can be fully and appropriately assimilate, and are aligned with the president’s objectives.”

In other words: white people.

The definition of white supremacy is “the belief that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society.” And, by natural extension, who gets let into the country.

I didn’t see the phrase white supremacy anywhere in mainstream coverage of the recent Supreme Court arguments in a case that could destroy the last vestiges of the Voting Rights Act. While “liberal” publications like The Nation and Mother Jones used it, most of the press wouldn’t dare put the term in print.

The Times framed the case in political terms, with an article titled “The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans.” They even published a map showing what congressional districts could look like after the likely ruling: A sea of red.

But when I look at these maps, I don’t see politics. I see race. They look like something out of Jim Crow, when white supremacy was written into law, enshrining the near-total denial of Black political agency.

This is what led to the Voting Rights Act in the first place. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law at the Capitol Rotunda, he said, “Today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield. Yet to seize the meaning of this day, we must recall darker times.”

Johnson then recalled the long and bloody history of white supremacy that has defined this nation since before its founding—though he never used the term himself.

It’s no accident that the white supremacists running the country are trying to literally whitewash this history. Trump recently posted on his social media platform—which also happens to amplify white-supremacist voices:

The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,

Heaven forbid we talk about how bad slavery was. After all, that tends to make white supremacists uneasy.

In another recent New York Times article titled “Trump Fires Black Officials From an Overwhelmingly White Administration,” reporters noted that “in the administration’s first 200 days, only two of 98 Senate-confirmed appointees to the most senior jobs in government were Black.”

A few days ago, Politico published a bombshell report after obtaining thousands of pages of texts from leaders of Young Republican groups. The article summarized the racism bluntly:

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

And don’t let the “Young” in “Young Republicans” fool you. J.D. Vance may have tried to brush this off as the misplaced words of “kids,” but these are grown-ass men and women in their twenties and thirties.

At least in the Politico article, white supremacy is addressed head-on—because it can’t be ignored in the texts. In one exchange:

(Luke) Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, mused about how the group could win support for their preferred candidate by linking an opponent to white supremacist groups. But Mosiman then realized the plan could backfire — Kansas’ Young Republicans could end up becoming attracted to that opponent.

In another exchange, a participant in the chat said they had checked into a hotel and got room 1488:

White supremacists use the number 1488 because 14 is the number of words in the white supremacist slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” H is the eighth letter in the alphabet, and 88 is often used as a shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”

I remember when much of the press was afraid to call Trump’s words a “lie,” worried it might seem unfair or impugn his motives. Too many in the press—and even political leaders—have tiptoed around words like authoritarianism and fascism. Doing so is a grave disservice to the truth.

And the same holds for white supremacy.

The evidence is overwhelming: we are witnessing the greatest effort to strip Black and brown Americans of political power and civil rights since the 1960s. It’s happening in the courts, in the White House, and at every level of government. We see it on the streets—masked ICE agents pulling people out of cars, raiding apartment buildings, putting children in zip ties. These forces are giving racists who once claimed they couldn’t “speak their truth” in public permission to shout their bile without repercussion.

Of course there will be a howl of outrage if they’re called white supremacists. They’ll trot out the old “some of my best friends are Black” line, and probably point to Clarence Thomas. Or maybe Kanye West? But it doesn’t matter what they say, or who they pose with in pictures. What matters is that they’re tapping into the deep racism that courses through this country. And doing it to entrench their power.

I don’t think most Americans want to go back to Jim Crow. And that makes calling this what it is all the more important. The justices trying to drag us back to Plessy v. Ferguson should be treated with the same opprobrium as those who sat on the Court 130 years ago. No more speaking gigs at law schools. No more comforable book tours. And their future clerks should be blackballed from major firms—just as if they were counsel for the Ku Klux Klan.

The backlash must include the general public. Companies that back politicians who try to strip voting rights from Black Americans should be named, shamed, and shunned. And other boycotts should follow. People should reconsider locations for movie productions, conferences, and tourism. The NBA and other major sports leagues should refuse to play in any state that disenfranchises Black voters. Consider what’s happened to Target’s sales and stock price since a similar boycott was launched nearly a year ago.

The future of this country must reflect the vision promised by the Voting Rights Act—not the one pushed by white supremacists trying to drag us back into a segregated society, where political power is stripped from those who see these bigots for what they are: white supremacists.