Black History Month is meant to be a
celebration of the achievements of Black Americans, in spite of our country’s
history of blatant, intentional racism. Despite that intention, the American
narrative surrounding the enslaving of Black Americans has always attempted to
rewrite our past, generating a kinder, gentler image of slavery.
President Trump and his appointees are
the embodiment of that attempt to rewrite Black history. Recently, President
Trump and his appointee, Philadelphia U. S. Attorney William McSwain, mocked
the history that serves as the foundation for Black History Month. While a
kinder interpretation of their actions might say that their understanding of
past and current U.S. history is limited, their distortion of Black history
during this month brings to mind an Orwellian warning — who controls the past
controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past.
For example, U.S. Attorney McSwain
spoke this month in defense of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies.
During his remarks to about 500 people, McSwain
compared so-called sanctuary cities, which have policies designed to
protect immigrant communities, to the Southern secessionists who enslaved Black
Americans:
“What an amazing concept – one that would have
elated those who opposed the desegregation of lunch counters in the Deep South,
or those who told Rosa Parks to go to the back of the bus, or those who stood
in the schoolhouse doorway to prevent African American children from
entering.
And this concept would have absolutely thrilled
Southern slave owners. A sanctuary from federal law, where they could
continue their practice of human bondage … The
secessionists who defied federal authority during our nation’s Civil War
are gone but not forgotten. They did not fight in vain. No, their spirit
lives on, right here in Philadelphia, in the Cradle of Liberty. Their
spirit lives on in the hearts and minds of those who declare Philadelphia a ‘sanctuary
city.’”
McSwain is attempting to
compare the slaveholders who defied federal authorities when they seceded from
the Union to local governments that decline to collaborate with federal
immigration authorities in the deportation and detention of their community
members. But McSwain’s focus on “obeying the law” crumbles under even a minimum
amount of scrutiny.
“Obeying the law” leaves out the fact that
slavery was legal in America in both colonial and post-Constitutional days for
almost a quarter millennium – 246 years. To those who say America did not begin
until the Constitution was ratified, realize that America had a chance to
reject the colonial notion of slavery. Instead, our founding fathers doubled
down and gave specific protections to slave owners in the Constitution. Separate
but equal was law in America for 89 years after the civil war. Those who
opposed the desegregation of lunch counters weren’t mad at a social convention
that prevented them from living regular life. They protested the fact that it was
statutorily legal to segregate lunch counters under federal law
for decades – just as it was legal to segregate travel, education, and all
other forms of Black existence.
McSwain’s
logic sees no difference between the students who sat at lunch counters to
protest segregation and those who wanted to disobey the law when segregation
was outlawed. It finds no difference between those who worked with Harriet
Tubman on the underground railroad and those who wanted to keep slavery once
the war ended. This logic divorces morality from the analysis. It can, and has,
justified atrocities.
The commonality that links
enslaving people with the immigrant justice movement is that in both cases
people acted in defense of human dignity, against policies that rejected that
dignity for people with Black and brown skin. McSwain’s faulty logic is a vile
contradiction to the true principles of Black History Month. The man who
appointed McSwain went even further.
During the State of the Union speech at the very beginning of Black
History Month, President Trump gave Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom. That medal
is intended to recognize an “especially
meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the
United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public
or private endeavors.”
Trump said that Limbaugh fit that criteria because of his voice on
important issues. A few quotes from that same voice include:
- “Holocaust?
Ninety Million Indians? Only four million left? They have all the casinos — what’s
to complain about?” - “The NAACP should
have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.” - “If any race of
people should not have guilt about slavery, it’s Caucasians.” - “The NFL all too
often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without weapons.
There, I said it.” - “They are 12
percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
Honoring Black contributions to
America — the foundation of Black History Month — is completely inconsistent
with honoring Rush Limbaugh for his racist rhetoric.
Limbaugh and Trump are singing from
the same hymnal. To Limbaugh, Black NFL players are similar to street gangs
like the Bloods and Crips, to Trump they are “sons of bitches.” Trump says his
ancestors tamed a continent, won’t apologize for America, and Limbaugh agrees,
saying Caucasians are guilt-free for enslaving Africans. Limbaugh thinks that the
NAACP, Rosa Parks’ employer, should get a liquor store and practice robberies,
while Trump bemoans the “rapists, drug dealers and murderers” and “shithole
countries” populated by Black and brown people.
Make no mistake, Limbaugh, McSwain,
and Trump are all singing the same tune. It is not the Black National Anthem, “Lift
Every Voice and Sing,”but rather an
ode to hateful rhetoric that contradicts the very foundation of Black History
Month.