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I have tried not to use the term “racist” to refer to President Trump and members of his administration. There are legitimate reasons to challenge some of the most over-the-top DEI programs of the past 10 years. And there was always ambiguity as the administration replaced Black and women generals and admirals, as well as senior federal prosecutors. However, in recent months, President Trump and his administration have increasingly warranted, and even embraced the label of “racist.” Escalating behaviors in the past few months include selective enforcement of immigration policy against people of color, Trump’s own posting of racist images on his Truth Social accounts, and his administration’s increased embrace of white nationalist memes and language. As a case in point, this week the Senate Foreign Relations Committee considered the nomination of Jeremy Carl as President Trump’s nominee for the senior State Department post with responsibility for relations with international organizations at the U.N. and other multilateral bodies (see here). Carl is an unabashed advocate of the Great Replacement Theory, which holds that white America is under attack. This theory claims American culture will be destroyed by increasing the number of Black, Asian, and Jewish immigrants. While Carl recently backed off of some of his previous statements questioning the Holocaust, he accused the Democratic Party of an “all-out assault on the rights of white people.” You and I may ask what would possess Trump or Secretary of State Marc Rubio to nominate an open racist as a U.S. envoy to other nations. The answer appears to be Trump’s growing confidence that nothing can stop him and that his most extreme supporters have championed Carl. Christopher Rufo, the leading opponent of DEI and affirmative action programs, defended Carl, writing that Americans have been “bullied” into thinking that “white culture” is shameful. According to the New York Times, Carl has argued that white people should organize to protect white rights. Under the previous banner of rolling back DEI and “woke” programs, Trump and his administration have now crossed the line into open and even proud racism. It is hard to overstate the significance of this. Overcoming the legacy of slavery, of Jim Crow, and of the systemic remnants of racism has been a bipartisan commitment since the 1960s and the core of our multiethnic identity as Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1963, signed by Southerner Lyndon Johnson with Martin Luther King Jr. at his shoulder, was the beginning of that commitment. And more remotely, it was Republican President Theodore Roosevelt who welcomed Booker T. Washington to the White House for dinner in 1901 against the counsel of all his advisors. Since Trump has been in power, the assaults on American equality and tolerance have been relentless. Black and women leaders in the military and senior government positions were the first to be dismissed. Even before his inauguration, Trump deplored “shithole countries” with majorities of Black and brown citizens, even American territories like Puerto Rico. Trump’s campaign against National Parks and other acknowledgements of Native American origins, experiences with slavery, or contributions of Black, Brown, or women figures in history has sought to wipe out a collective knowledge of these realities, leaving a wholly white narrative as the only truth. ICE enforcement has been directed indiscriminately at minority populations in large American cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Chicago, but also against Somalis in Minneapolis and Haitians in Ohio. Even modest efforts by institutions to embrace diversity are under fire. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who appears to be a staunch supporter of the white nationalist ideology, has said he would cancel the support the Defense Department provides to the National Jamboree of Scouting America unless they make “core values reforms” and reverse their decisions to welcome girls into Scouting. Scouting America has, in recent decades, tried to sign up more minority youth. The challenge and insult to our national values is breathtaking. We have prided ourselves as a melting pot of nationalities and races, a nation of immigrants, and a land of opportunity. We have benefited greatly because we hold these welcoming national values. We have been constantly renewed by the enthusiasm and talents of immigrants, who today dominate much of Silicon Valley, invigorate the engine of innovation across the nation, and provide such a large percentage of our health care and caregiving workforce. In one of the most cynical actions of his time in public life, Trump urged Republicans to defeat a carefully crafted bipartisan bill in 2023 that would have struck a humane and practical balance between open borders and the cruelties of ICE we are witnessing now. He argued he had a better chance of being reelected in 2024 if immigration were still uncontrolled and chaotic. Both Republican and Democratic leaders who had worked many months on the bill were devastated. And who can forget the contrast that Trump is trying to end the Temporary Protected Status of Haitians and others who came to the U.S. as temporary refugees, while welcoming white South African refugees with fake stories of white genocide. It is up to every one of us to reaffirm our national identity as a tolerant and welcoming people. Our history of slavery, of sexism, of eruptions of antisemitism can only be remedied by the efforts of each of us to open our institutions and personal lives to the multicultural richness of our country and of all humanity. That is the true American identity.
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