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The detritus in the wake of the Trump presidency: Our work continues
The reign of Donald Trump was unconventional and unpredictable. He didn’t host state dinners. He didn’t showcase American artists. He didn’t extend an olive branch to those who dissented. He wasn’t polite; he mocked people for their appearance or foibles. He wasn’t loyal; he dismissed or fired countless people because he could. Hyperbole infused his grammar; he unabashedly created or embellished information to support whatever point he was making.
Donald Trump, however, did not create the structures that he used to sow mistrust, disdain and contempt amongst people throughout the USA. At an instinctual level, he seemed to understand that white hegemony, misogyny and pernicious lying were structural weapons that could be deployed with lethal consequences. Opponents were vanquished. In the instance of Covid-19 and immigration policy, opponents and sometimes bystanders, lost their lives.
Let me explain what I mean by these terms and how I see them at work in the Trump administration.
White Hegemony
Whiteness, in the USA, is the coin of the realm. To be white is to be automatically…
