The indictments of James P. Comey, New York State Attorney General Letitia James and John Bolton by the Trump Administration have touched off a firestorm among progressive whites who are making absurd, histrionic assertions that the U.S. has suddenly crossed the line into authoritarianism. However, African-Americans have lived on the other side of that line for 400 years. Is it ironic that these same individuals allege to be horrified by the Trump Administration's attack on African-American history -- and profess to honor that history -- yet they dare to compare Comey's plight to ours?
No, that's not ironic at all. It is simple justice, the chickens coming home to roost.
When we take a closer look at this dynamic, we see an ugly truth, that white progressives are as willfully ignorant and disparaging of African-American history as red state racists -- and, if we take their fears literally, what they really fear is that they are on the cusp of becoming, per the title of a great work, Black Like Us.
Over the past 15 years alone, the nation has watched an unending parade of blacks killed in police custody for minor offenses, without a presumption of innocence, without due process, without a trial, including: Sandra Bland (2015, Texas), Eric Garner (2014, NY), Freddie Gray (2015, Baltimore), Tyre Nichols (2023, Memphis), Elijah McClain (2019, CO), Ronald Greene (2019, LA), Alton Sterling (2016, LA), Natasha McKenna (2015, VA), Jamycheal Mitchell (2015, VA), Tanisha Anderson (2014, OH), Keenan Anderson (2023, CA), Derek Williams (2011, WI), ....
Prior generations recorded the all-too-familiar accounts of blacks taken from jails by white lynch mobs and tortured, burned, mutilated until they died: Mack Charles Parker (1959, MS), Willie Earle (1947, SC), George Armwood (1933, MD), Rubin Stacy (1935, FL), Charlotte Harris (1878, VA), Henry Choate (1927, TN), Richard Puckett (1927, TN), Lige Daniels (1920, TX), Will Brown (1919, NE). Eliza Woods was dragged from the Madison County jail and hanged at the very courthouse where he was to be tried (1886, Jackson, TN).
Sometimes entire families were executed, such as Sallie Molena, her husband and daughter in TX. Sometimes, groups were removed from custody and lynched. Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith were taken from Grant County Jail before trial and lynched in Marion, IN (1930). Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie were taken from the city jail before trial and lynched in Duluth, MN (1920).
Prosperous black communities were burned to the ground by jealous, angry white mobs, forever destroying billions, perhaps trillions of dollars in generational wealth that would forever impoverish their descendants: Rosewood, FL (1923), Opelousas, LA (1868), Wilmington, NC (1898), Tulsa, OK (Greenwood) (1921), Phillips County, AR (Elaine Massacre) (1919), Slocum TX Massacre (1910), Colfax LA Massacre (1873), East St. Louis, IL Massacre (1917), NY Draft Riots (1863), Detroit Race Riot (1943), Chicago Race Riot (1919). Ocoee, FL Massacre (1920), ....
These pervasive acts of domestic terror have haunted the consciousness of African-Americans and affect all that we do. But, none of this history is a secret to any American with a keyboard or a cell phone.
Our experience under American Fascism has been perfectly described by Chief Justice Roger Taney in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856) with the pronouncement that blacks "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Id. at 407.
We could carefully examine statistics on poverty, unemployment, educational achievement, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, unwed births, incarceration rates, conviction rates -- on the one hand -- and law school enrollment rates, doctors per capita, corporate management, media ownership, real estate and business ownership, etc. -- on the other, to see that the complexion of American Fascism has been and continues to be almost universally black. Any student of American history will understand why the only group that has been plagued with similar indignities of the former category and denied the advantages of the latter is the American Indian.
Now what, again, about the shared plight of Comey and Bolton (perhaps that of James, as well) is really disturbing to progressive whites? If they profess to respect American history, multi-culturalism, DEI, fundamental fairness, then surely they know of the historic and current state of the African-American experience as perfectly reflective of the American authoritarianism they suddenly claim to see, for the very first time. Right?
We cannot let them off easy by alleging that they didn't know, they didn't see, or that they had willful or blissful ignorance of our condition. The real answer to this sudden exhortation can be found in every blue city and state where different factions of progressive whites have been in power since the Civil Rights Movement or, in some cases, Reconstruction. The lives of blacks have been full of inequality and disparagement in all such places, while progressive whites proved ineffective at alleviating poverty, educational rates, etc. for decades.
The real answer is rooted in the fact that progressive and reactionary whites alike have done no better at improving the lives of endemically poor whites in every red state. Finally, try to remember the American ethos prior to the 2024 election which held that black people and poor whites, not to mention the poor of all races, were at the bottom of every socio-economic scale because they did not work hard enough, or were lazier than middle class whites, or were not studious or industrious enough.
Do you recall that polls and pundits alike attributed, unapologetically and without shame, that these same groups seemingly voted against their interests to put Trump and Republicans back into office because they could no longer afford eggs, milk, gasoline, housing, ...?
Supposedly, they blamed former President Biden for them being poor! How could no national figure have spotted the 180 degree sea change in American norms that, previously, had always blamed the poor for being poor, blacks for their own indignities, etc.
Now, back to this authoritarian line that progressive whites fear. What is really happening is that progressive whites have never actually cared about the plight of blacks any more than reactionary whites cared about poor whites in red states. There has always been an unholy alliance among elites to allow authoritarianism in the U.S. -- so long as it served to keep them in power, hide their incompetence and willful neglect of those in need, and scape-goated those who lose in this economy as the self-inflicted reasons for their problems.
Trump and the Republicans swept back into power because they convinced enough blacks, Latinos and poor whites that the real enemy was not themselves, but Biden and the Democrats. Blaming the powerful was an argument always ripe for the taking. Bernie Sanders and Trump played this tune expertly, but Trump had shameless allies, while Sanders had cowardly, intentionally self-deluding white progressives as his utterly unreliable allies.
The indictments of Comey and Bolton have laid bare the lie that white progressives have always hidden: that they were/are as racist and classist as conservative/Confederate/redneck white racists have ever been.
White progressives have always known that authoritarianism was alive and well in the United States. That system just did not affect them.
So, the real outrage they have been expressing about Comey's indictment and the many more that are certain to follow is that white progressives fear they will suffer the same deprivation of rights that they watched blacks suffer for centuries, while they, except for a few noted exceptions, stood idly by or, occasionally cheered. What terrifies white progressives is that Trump is about to turn them into African-Americans -- a crime and fate worse than death, by their own tacit admission.
There is an adage within black community that dates back to perhaps the late nineteenth century, when it was becoming clear that the Civil War constitutional amendments were paper thin or completely unenforceable.
Q: "What do you call a black lawyer?"
A: "A Nigger."
Q: "What do you call a black doctor?"
A: "A Nigger."
Q: "What do you call the richest black man in the county?"
A: "A rich Nigger."
The modern corollary that progressive whites fear almost writes itself.
Q: "What do you call university presidents, corporate leaders, media giants?"
A: "Trump's Niggers."
Q: "What do you call the largest law firms and the Supreme Court?"
A: "Trump's Niggers."
Q: "What do you call white progressive?"
A: "Trump's powerless, forgotten Niggers."
I hope that white progressives come to terms with their demons by taking responsibility for the very racism, sexism, classism, etc. within themselves that stop them from implementing solutions that hold the powerful fully responsible for the plight of those who lose in our economy and in our justice system -- solutions like public schools designed to succeed, public financing for childcare and college education, universal affordable housing and healthcare, state holidays on election days, subpoena powers for police civilian review boards, term limits on all elected offices, criminalizing the systems that create poverty instead of criminalizing the poor, installing powerful advocates for citizenry wherever people interact with government and the criminal justice system, reduced real estate taxes for the poor as-of-right, opening police and fire department careers to locals first, etc.
At that point, they will sweep local, state and national elections and eviscerate American Fascism for everyone -- if there is still time.