It’s been one thing after another under the Trump administration. DOGE eliminated an untold number of federal jobs, sending thousands of workers, many of them Black, looking for employment. Virtually all Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives have been halted in the government. And this President is doing his best to reshape the way America remembers the past…especially as it relates to Black people.
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Many have been caught off guard by all this, but should they have been? President Trump is merely implementing what the far right has been planning for years. The warning signs were there. We just were not paying attention.
In 1981, Lee Atwater was instrumental in implementing what he called, “The Southern Strategy.” I could spill ink explaining what that is, but it is better to just let Atwater’s words do the work.
“Y'all don't quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, "N**ger." By 1968 you can't say "n**ger"—that hurts you. Backfires. So, you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”
That strategy was implicit in Regan’s run for the White House, but it was also a driving force behind the way the man conducted the nation’s affairs. From calling Black women welfare queens to the disastrous impact Reaganomics had on the Black community, these were all informed by Atwater’s strategy. And as many have already pointed out, Trump is very much like the former actor in low rent westerns.
Why is this important? Because it is important to understand that what we are seeing is not new, but was part of a bigger plan.
Republicans have called for a smaller government for decades. Southern members of that party have tried to rewrite American history since the years following the Civil War. And the attacks on DEI have been in the works since Regan.
And all the while, we were not paying attention. Black folks thought we had made it. That the fight was largely over. We were living good in the suburbs thinking we had overcome. Especially when Barack Obama was elected. So many were just happy to have a Black family living in the White House that they did not prepare for the whitelash that was sure to follow.
And in the wake of that white reaction, President Trump has been slowly giving his far right supporters exactly what they wanted. In his first administration, he remade the Supreme Court in his image. Giving Republicans what they had been wanting since the days of Roe v. Wade. And now, he is implementing the rest of their agenda.
None of this is new. It is the logic end of the far right’s years of planning and waiting. We must act like them and plan as well. Otherwise, things will go from bad to terrible for Black America.
It makes one wonder if we were ever really woke. Evidence says otherwise.
Straight From 
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