2 minute read
At Issue
White Supremacy Has Never Left Us
BY CHRIS JONES
The display of the Confederate flag in the Capitol on January 6 illustrates an uncomfortable truth: the history of America and American democracy has always been bound up with white supremacy. Democracy in America began in the late 18th century as a practice by and for white men. Democracy advanced only as those groups originally considered unfit to participate in government—like African Americans and women—secured their political rights in the face of considerable resistance.
But the ideology of white supremacy has never been diminished just because democracy has expanded. White supremacy is an adaptive ideology, always changing, promulgating new myths, attempting to reclaim oppressive power. Its adherents often pretend to honor democracy, but they only endorse democratic government so long as the preservation of white supremacy is ensured. The Confederacy itself was created because Southern states controlled by white enslavers refused to accept the results of a freely held election in 1860 that brought Abraham Lincoln, an antislavery man, to the White House.
Since the Civil War, the Confederate flag has endured as a symbol of white supremacy and the darker side of American history: that a white Christian society imposed its will on nonwhites and non-Christians through slavery, segregation, poll taxes, lynchings, and terrorism.
It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that on January 6, alongside the sight of Confederate flags were crusader crosses, freshly printed “MAGA Civil War” T-shirts, anti-Semitic tattoos, Nazi references, and other symbols of right-wing hate groups. Their purpose was to intimidate through violence. But for the lack of white robes, there was no discernible difference between their behavior and those who would attend a KKK rally.
The animating principle of white supremacy in America is not just that white people are superior; it is a myth masquerading as history that America is a white nation-state and white people alone are its true inheritors. It’s why these insurrectionists made no effort to disguise themselves, because they didn’t think they were doing anything unjustified. They felt they had every right to be there. These were the actions of people who believe the nation, the government, even the Capitol building itself, rightfully belong to them. They are beholden to a fantasy that’s criminally racist and dangerously self-indulgent.
But if observing the events of that day evoked cynicism or despair that American democracy is doomed, remember that the events of January 6 should always be coupled in our minds with the events of the day before. On January 5, runoff elections in Georgia resulted in the election of two new senators, Jon Ossoff, a Jewish American man, and Rev. Raphael Warnock, an African American pastor. They won despite a runoff election system that the state of Georgia designed in 1964 to ensure that white candidates would win. The grassroots work of Stacy Abrams, an African American organizer, allowed them to overcome this. What was once a Confederate state has now sent two men to the U.S. Senate who represent everything the Confederacy rejected.
Even now, democracy advances through organizing, hard work, collective action, and nonviolence. But there’s no guarantee it will continue to advance—or win out in the end.
Chris Jones is an instructor in history and social sciences. This is an excerpt of his comments delivered at a special All-School Meeting January 12.
