Protests against police abuses have sparked a swift and searching national conversation about racism. Yet with the ground shifting all around him, Donald Trump refused to be drawn into the national mood.
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King Canute got a bad rap. The Viking chief who ruled England, Denmark and Norway in the 11th Century became infamous for a stunt that historians believe was misunderstood, if it even happened: sitting grandly in a throne at the seashore and ordering the ocean to stop the incoming waves. But the myth of the leader who tried to hold back the tide seemed to apply this week to the President of the United States.
George Floyd died on Memorial Day, his neck under the knee of a police officer. In the three weeks since, protests against police abuses have sparked a swift and searching national conversation about racism.
Cities and states have moved to ban chokeholds and create new safeguards against police misconduct. Companies large and small have committed to changes in the way they work, and in some cases, have replaced executives. Military leaders have spoken out forcefully against racism and shows of force against peaceful protesters. Networks canceled shows built around police as heroes. A Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia, was toppled. And NASCAR banned the Confederate flag.
« Dare we believe, » asked Marcus Mabry, that this is the moment when America finally changes? « The trauma of 400 years of soul-destroying racism is not easily forgotten — some researchers believe it is imprinted in our very DNA. And we’re all too cognizant of the dashed promises of the past, from liberation to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. But change does come. History teaches us that. It came to South Africa. It came to the American South. Is this our moment? »
Van Jones wrote, « This sudden, mass realization — and the multi-racial demonstrations that give it weight, life and substance — feels like a miracle to me. As a black man, I have spent my entire life trying to convince relatively small numbers of white people to take racial injustice seriously. I have usually failed.
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« Now major corporations are making my argument for me. Hundreds of thousands of white protesters are risking their lives in the middle of a pandemic to chant ‘Black Lives Matter.’ And I have begun to believe that — just maybe — the world for my two black sons might actually be a better place. »
Yet with the ground shifting all around him, Donald Trump refused to be drawn into the national mood. Instead he stuck to his « law and order » message and even tweeted that the incident of a 75-year-old protester who suffered a head injury when he was pushed by police might have been part of a setup. He seemed to want to turn back the clock to the days of his youth, when social unrest enabled Republican politicians of the 1960s to gain favor with frightened white voters.
On one point though, Trump bent to criticism, rescheduling the date of his first rally since the pandemic began. He moved it from June 19, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery known as Juneteenth, to June 20 « out of respect. » Commentators had questioned the original date and location of the rally — Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Frida Ghitis wrote that Tulsa was « the site of a race massacre 99 years ago that remains one of the worst acts of racial violence in US history. In 1921, hundreds of African Americans were killed when white mobs looted and burned what had been a thriving neighborhood known as ‘Black Wall Street.' »
Not buying in
As « Black Lives Matter » morphed from activist slogan to nationally recognized belief, Trump didn’t buy in, wrote Dean Obeidallah. « While Trump has condemned the specific officers involved in the killing of Floyd as ‘a terrible insult to police and policemen,’ he refuses to address the racism embedded in the nation’s criminal justice system. » Attorney General William Barr, acting Department of Homeland Security head Chad Wolf and economic adviser Larry Kudlow all disputed the existence of « systemic racism » in law enforcement. « Instead, they seem to believe in essence there are just a few bad apples, » Obeidallah said. « This is stunning, given the data that makes it clear that our criminal justice system — as a whole — is far from color blind. »
As for Trump passing along the conspiracy theory about the 75-year-old protester in Buffalo, Jill Filipovic wrote, « The President’s potentially defamatory tweet deserves, like so many of his actions, swift response and condemnation. But members of his own party are so gutless and craven they deny having seen the tweet to begin with, presumably so that they might escape having to comment on it, or refuse to comment all together. »
Privately, GOP officials are much more likely to express dismay at what their party’s leader says and does, Washington reporters have noted. In New York Magazine, Andrew Sullivan wrote, « Trump’s response to the epidemic has more plainly revealed a man utterly out of his depth in ways even his strongest supporters must now quietly understand. »
Military chiefs who might be expected to share many aspects of Trump’s conservative worldview have been withering in their scorn for his recent stances, as Peter Bergen observed. « It has been extraordinary to see over the past week the flood of public criticism of President Donald Trump for his handling of the protests over the death of George Floyd coming from so many of the United States’ leading retired generals and admirals, including unprecedented criticism from four who have served in the post of top ranking military officer in the nation: chairman of the joint chiefs. »
Ask those who know
Ask Andre McGregor if there’s systemic bias in law enforcement.
