By: el pinche simón and niñx salvaje
November 16, 2016
On November 8, 2016, the fascist, misogynist, classist, homophobic, and racist Donald Trump became the President-Elect of the United States.
Since before the election, a wide variety of analyses focused upon showing that Trump was the product of the frustrations of white working class Americans, who did not have much formal education and had been impoverished by the economic crisis and unemployment. The problem is that these theories fall short, and the reality is much worse.
First off, after observing exit polls, we can see that this election is far from belonging exclusively to poor “uneducated” whites, and rather belongs to white people in general: men and women, “educated” or not, poor or not. There has always been a current of white supremacy alive and well throughout U.S. history. Perhaps the Democratic Party was able to hide American racism temporarily with 8 years of Obama, but with Trump it is no longer possible to hide anything.
In fact, the demographic group that most supported Trump was not low income whites, but rather those with a $50,000 – $99,000 annual income. That said, it is important to remember that in almost every state it was the white population in general, regardless of income level, that elected the disgusting Republican. According to the London Guardian, white male and female voters, which represent 69% of the total, supported Trump with 58% of their votes, while Clinton only received 37%.
However, to reduce Trump’s supporters to his voters does not give us a complete picture. The reality is so much scarier: It’s not just voters but entire institutions that are content with this candidate. The Washington Post said it best: “If you voted for Trump because he’s ‘anti-establishment,’ guess what: You got conned.”
The following images are a clear example of this, and they illustrate the immediate effects of a Trump victory on the private prison industry, the weapons industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the banking industry.
At the end of the day, this election reminds us that it doesn’t matter which political party or which president is in power; our institutions are in place to maintain the established order, in which our markets are controlled by a select few. Prisons, police, weapons, armies, the courts, but also hospitals, schools, and the mainstream media are responsible for organizing our society and keeping everyone in place. They ensure privileges and benefits for the white population – white men in particular, but white women as well – while barriers are imposed upon the rest of the population: Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, Muslim, and immigrant communities within the U.S. and around the planet. This is structural racism based on white supremacy.
Meanwhile the real winners in the election are an elite group that will accumulate billions upon billions of dollars with the lives of billions and billions of people without ever taking the real blame for poverty, crises, the destruction of the planet and wars. It has become easier to blame people of color and immigrants: the others.
Neoliberalism has always been racist and fascist, but also classist, misogynist, hetero-patriarchal, capitalist, and imperialist. Under Trump the only difference is that the racism and sexism is more shameless and legitimized, with serious effects on women and people of color, but above all, women of color.
In fact, the first consequences of the Trump victory are already visible. Dozens of attacks and insults against Black people, Latinos/as, and Muslims have been reported since the first day after the election. In addition, the historical Ku Klux Klan (1) has announced a victory parade for the 3rd of December in North Carolina to celebrate the fascist Republican.
Fortunately there have been protests against Trump across the country. On Wednesday, November 9th, thousands protested in cities including Chicago, Illinois; Santa Cruz, California; Oakland, California; Boulder, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Washington D.C; Austin, Texas; Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California. The ABC news website also reported protests in Richmond, Virginia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Boston, Massachusetts that same day.
The following Thursday, November 10th, we saw mobilizations in San Francisco, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles, California; Madison, Wisconsin… and many more cities. In Chicago on that day dozens of incarcerated immigrants at the Metropolitan Detention Center joined the protests by flashing the lights in their cells.
To this very date protest have continued in many places, such as Oakland, California, where students from a middle school protested or in Los Angeles, California where a mega-march took place on Saturday, November 13th.
Of course we can´t expect a great solution to come about from these protests, but they are a beginning in which people from all nationalities, races, religions, and colors can find one another and define themselves, organize themselves and build their fight against their common enemy. (2)
No reform or political party will be able to challenge the omnipresence of neoliberal white supremacy. This moment demands a change at the root of U.S. institutions and the entire society. There is no longer a place for temporary, self-serving, fair weather solidarity. There is no longer a place for liberal reforms that will attempt to wash the face of this imperialist and genocidal “democracy.” It’s time to fight with real actions, to respect, build, and fortify everyone’s self- determination, self-defense, and autonomy on a community or collective level.
(1) We have to remember that the Ku Klux Klan is an organization that was born in response to the official abolition of slavery in an attempt to maintain white supremacy through acts of terrorism against the black community and their allies.
(2) A lot of white people who did not support Donald Trump are asking themselves how to be in solidarity with people of color and immigrants who face this new incarnation of American fascism. The reality is that the only way to take responsibility for the privileges of being white in a white supremacist society is by taking risks and making sacrifices in order to support and defend those people under attack and to struggle and fight against that system.
