President Trump’s policy initiatives appear driven by various motives, including retribution, personal enrichment, narcissism, petulance, and perhaps more. Yet an underlying goal in the President’s agenda is white supremacy. At its core, MAGA means MAWA: Making America White Again. Fueled by racism, the so-called “Great Replacement Theory,” which motivates Trump and his followers, envisions a white population confronting and thwarting what they see as an “invasion” by nonwhite migrants, aa well as the higher birthrates of Black and Brown families.
The second Trump administration has sought to eliminate DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) in hiring and admission policies of government agencies, universities, and corporations; and in educational and entertainment programs in public schools, libraries, and cultural institutions. Claiming that diversity goals and affirmative action place minority hiring and admissions ahead of competence, Trump and his followers assail DEI as racism against white Americans. They fail to see that DEI programs were adopted to allow people of color to compete for school admissions, jobs and public contracts on an equal basis. DEI was meant to correct centuries of intended exclusion.
Now we are viewing the eradication of DEI wherever it exists; in the media, universities, museums, and even in performances and books that recognize the accomplishments of minorities. Recent changes at Washington’s Kennedy Center and Smithsonian museums that now restrict Black performers and erase Black history are cases in point.
The quest for whiteness is evident in the Trump immigration policies, which combine rigid exclusion at the borders with mass deportations from inside the country. Only racism can explain the administration’s zeal to keep non-whites out of the country and to arrest and deport as many as possible of such persons residing in the U.S. Witness the recent kidnappings, jailing and deportations of students and faculty members (many of whom hold green cards) simply for speaking out against the Gaza genocide. The victims of such abuses are mostly Palestinians and other persons of color from the global south, rather than white-skinned Europeans or Scandinavians.
The ongoing efforts of the U.S. government to deport Columbia University Graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder from Palestine, is only one of hundreds of similar deportations now taking place around the country, Another even more egregious case is the continuing refusal of the Trump administration to retrieve from an El Salvador prison green card holder Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian immigrant who was abducted and deported by mistake and sent to a notorious torture prison in El Salvador. Garcia is a father, married to a U.S. citizen. He has no criminal record. These are only two of the many ongoing ICE kidnappings and deportations of apparently hundreds of young persons from all over the country. In all of them, the common denominator is dark skin color.
Following his inauguration on January 20, Trump declared his intention to suspend the entry of migrants from “countries of particular concern.” He is now reportedly considering an expansion of his 2017 Muslim travel ban, which would primarily target seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Leaked information from the White House suggests a long list of other countries that would face higher scrutiny. While the public rationale for such a ban is “national security,” residents in almost all of the affected populations have black or brown skins.
Like his predecessor, Trump sides with and supports Israel with lethal weapons for its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza. He goes even further by giving Netanyahu carte blanche for the removal of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank to make room for (mostly White) Israeli settlers. The color line is also evident in joint Israel-U.S. plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
Last month, Trump announced his plan to offer some 67,000 white South Africans refugee status in the U.S. He claims that they were victims of racial discrimination by the Black-led government. This follows his executive order in February, cutting-off U.S. funding to South Africa for AIDS medicines, citing violence against white landowners by the government of South Africa.
Racism and the goal of white supremacy are evident in each of the above cited cases. While the Trump agenda has other objectives, such as tariffs (that hit hardest against black and brown countries), his administration’s larger program has a pronounced racist bent. Clearly, Trump and his associates are determined to Make America White Again.
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