The Inner Racist Beast of America

Racism in America is as American as is apple pie. From 1619 until now, children of Africa have been catching hell in America. Historically, they were worked to death without pay, brutally beaten, raped, branded, separated from what little family they were allowed to have, and murdered for the most trivial of offences. 1619, therefore marked the beginning of the American appetite for the blood, sweat, tears, and bodies of Africans. Children of Africa were captured and packed like sardines on board slave ships destined for what could only be described as hell on earth.

American economic development was advanced at the expense of children of Africa who were forced to provide free labor on the slave plantations. The value of free black labor is attested to by the reality that the southern states in America were willing to go to war and to secede from the American union rather than part with the institution of chattel slavery.

America experimented with the granting of some rights to children of African living within her borders during the period know as the Reconstruction era. During the Reconstruction era (1865-1877) Africans in America were elected to state legislatures and to the US Congress.

These advancements for Africans in America led to what author Dr Carol Anderson called white rage. America’s inner racist beast manifested itself in the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups determined to put Africans in America back in their place.

Plessey v Ferguson in 1896 upheld the concept of the separate but equal laying the foundation for apartheid American style. America became divided again by race and color. In the Civil Rights era, the doctrine of separate but equal became the target of Dr. Martin Luther King.

In 1953, Brown v. Board of Education overturned separate but equal in public education and signaled the end of segregation in America. It would, however, take another decade before the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. The Civil Rights movement can be considered as another era of reconstruction. America’s inner racist beast sprang into action once again unleashing a reign of terror on children of Africa living in America.

This pattern of advancement followed by white rage would also be witnessed during the Obama era in American politics. After Obama’s two terms in the White House, white rage made it possible for the installation of a white nationalist in the person of Donald Trump in the White House. Trump immediately started a search and destroy campaign to reverse all the advancements made during the Obama era.

After Trump received a sound thrashing at the polls from Joe (Methuselah) Biden in the 2020 presidential elections, Trump told his supporters that they would have to fight like hell to stop the Biden inauguration. Trump fiery rhetoric eventually led to hundreds of his supporters storming the Capitol to disrupt the transfer of power to President Elect Biden.

Trump put America on notice that he was and is willing to unleash America’s inner racist beast to fight for him when necessary. Unknown to most Americans, there was method to Trump’s madness after he lost the 2020 election. After it was clear that the Electoral College would not give Trump the result he wanted, Trump and his team embarked on a program designed to muddy the waters to such an extent that the election outcome would be uncertain.

If neither candidate had gotten the 270 electoral votes needed for an outright victory, the outcome of the election would have been turned over to the House of Representatives. Even though Democrats at that time had a solid majority in the House of Representatives, Republicans had a majority of House delegations. If the Electoral College had not produced a clear winner in 2020, the House of Representatives with its Republican majority of House delegations could have called the election in favor of Donald Trump.

The entire world is holding its collective breath wondering what a second term in the White House will mean after Trump and the Republicans did the unthinkable, winning the presidency along with control of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both Trump and Vance have voiced concerns about the America’s continued commitment to the lost cause in Ukraine. European heads of state are therefore nervous about the fate of Ukraine under a second Trump presidency.

The Chinese are no doubt working around the clock trying to find ways to offset the economic loses that China will experience if Trump imposes his promised tariffs on Chinese goods coming into America. Tariffs on European goods arriving in America will also negatively impact European Economies. Iran should be concerned due to Trump’s past belligerent rhetoric directed at Iran. Environmentalists have every right to concerned also after Trump made the statement that his environmental policy would be summed up in the catch phrase ‘drill baby drill.”

African and Caribbean nations can anticipate a steady stream of their nationals returning home after being unceremoniously booted out of Trump’s America due to irregularities in their immigration status. The traditional racist American trope of upholding law and order will no doubt result in stricter policing in Black and other minority communities. We can only hope that the young Black men who threw the weight of their support behind Trump are not some of the first victims to be thrown against the hoods of police vehicles.

Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris has lessened the likelihood of a civil war breaking out in America. The children of Africa living in America under the second Trump presidency would be well advised however to watch their backs and to be prepare to defend their constitutional rights by any means necessary. The Second Amendment of the American Constitution allows all US citizens to arm themselves. Children of Africa living in America may want to take advantage of the provisions of the Second Amendment just in case America’s inner racist beast decides to pay them a visit.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center and the author of The Rebirth of Black Civilization: Making Africa and the Caribbean Great Again.