White Supremacism and Racial Conflict in the Trump Era

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 was one of the largest to occur in the United States during recent decades, and mirrored the severe social and racial conflicts of the Trump era. The re-emergence of white supremacism and of intensified racial conflict has profound historical sources, while also being driven by practical causes. First, white supremacism is deeply rooted in the racial discrimination that has been present throughout American history. Second, white supremacism mirrors the economic downturn and widened wealth disparity now characterizing American society. Third, white supremacism is reinforced politically by the dominant role of extreme conservatives. Fourth, Trump’s populist campaign proposals promoted white supremacism. The deterioration of racial relations is an inevitable consequence of the complex, systematic and enduring racial discrimination present in American society. Racial minorities experience discrimination as part of the political, economic, law enforcement, and judicial aspects of their daily lives. Although the United States has abolished slavery and undergone the experience of the civil rights movement, the genes of racial discrimination remain at various levels, despite some degree of suppression. Racial relationships in the United States cannot be improved without fundamental transformations, or even revolutions, in areas such as the political structure and in the economic and ideological systems.