Source: Gotham / Getty
Here’s a thing Republicans will never admit: They have figured out that exploiting white grievance is the quickest path to success, at least within the party.
Republican legislators across the country have been able to ban critical race theory from the classroom without even demonstrating that they know anything about the college-level academic study or where it’s being taught because all they really had to do was convince white conservative America that CRT teaches white children to be ashamed of their race. It didn’t matter that CRT doesn’t teach that in any way, shape or form, because pure delusion already had so many white people convinced that they are the biggest victims of racial discrimination.
A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll indicates that 73% of Trump voters believe discrimination against white people is a problem. The same poll shows that only Republican voters believe anti-white racism is a bigger problem than anti-Black racism. Similar polls released over the past couple of years have shown the same.
From Yahoo News:
The survey of 1,638 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 13-17, shows that among 2020 Trump voters, 62% say that racism against Black Americans is a problem today — while 73% say that racism against white Americans is a problem.
Asked how much of a problem racism currently is, just 19% of Trump voters describe racism against Black Americans as a “big problem.” Twice as many (37%) say racism against white Americans is a big problem.
Trump voters and self-identified Republicans — overlapping but not identical cohorts — are the only demographic groups identified by Yahoo News and YouGov who are more likely to say racism against white Americans is a problem than to say the same about racism against Black Americans. A majority (51%) of white Americans, for instance, think racism against people who look like them is a problem — but overall, far more white Americans (72%) say racism against Black Americans is a problem.
This is why Donald Trump has been able to get away with calling every Black prosecutor who has brought a case against him racist without even having to elaborate on what any of them have said or done that was racist. And it’s why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been so successful at disassembling truthful Black history to make it palatable for white consumption. And it’s why, despite DeSantis and other Republican legislators assuaging white rage with the stroke of a pen, white parents are still filling school board meetings to complain about any Black history or social studies lessons that make them even the least bit uncomfortable in their Caucasian skin. (They’re all curiously silent now that Florida has approved education standards that require teachers to teach that enslaved people benefitted from slavery and Black victims of racist massacres also committed violence against white people.)
It’s also why Dilbert creator Scott Adams lashed out at Black people after he was manipulated by a disingenuous poll that was clearly meant to strike at the hearts of the white and fragile. He had all of these white conservatives asking why so many Black people didn’t agree that “it’s OK to be white,” when they should have been asking a more straightforward question: In a country that is more than 60% white and where white people dominate every important entity in Western society — from the corporate world to state and federal governments to all aspects of the justice system — and are the only overwhelmingly represented racial group in popular culture, why would white people need to be told it’s OK to be white?
More importantly, white grievance placating is what birthed the Great Replacement Theory (or “White Replacement Theory“) movement, which is the antithesis of critical race theory in that it’s pro-white, anti-POC and anti-any kind of real critical thinking whatsoever. This “theory,” which is generally about white people’s fear that immigration coupled with not enough Caucasians making babies will cause white people to become a minority in America (not that minorities are treated unfairly here or anything), was cited by Payton Gendron as the inspiration for his alleged shooting spree in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 Black people.
It’s a dangerous lie, and Republicans like Trump and DeSantis—and any others who are looking to rise through the GOP ranks—are casually and callously taking advantage of it to advance their careers and, in the process, white supremacy.
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