America’s Racist Relapse

DONALD TRUMP DENIES he is a racist. The former US president, seeking a second term, often tells Indian-Americans that he is a fan of India and, in particular, of Hindus.

While campaigning against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, which he won, Trump tweeted: “I am a big fan of Hindus and a big fan of India. If I am elected President, the Hindu community and India will have a true friend in the White House.”

To win the 2024 presidential election, however, Trump knows that flattering 5.50 million Indians—1.50 per cent of the US population—or calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “fantastic man” isn’t going to help. What Trump needs in order to win a tight race is the red-meat vote of the angry Republican right.

Trump trails Democratic presiden­tial rival Kamala Harris in opinion polls among college-educated whites, under-40s, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. Despite that, he still has a rock-solid 45 per cent national vote share. Analysts believed that following Trump’s blustering per­formance in the televised debate against a coolly confident Kamala Harris, his poll numbers would fall. They haven’t, especially in the battleground states where the election will be decided.

Kamala leads nationally 50-45 per cent, with 5 per cent undecided. But in the key swing states, the two candidates are locked in a virtual tie. Trump lost the debate but he could still win the election.

Trump supporters though are nervous. Kamala’s cam­paign machine is proving to be formidable. Donations have crossed $500 million (`4,200 crore), triple what Trump has raised. Kamala’s ascendency has brought out the racist genie that many white Republicans keep in a bottle. Trump’s red-meat voters are the first to let the genie out. One of Trump’s core supporters, Laura Loomer, aimed an arrow straight at Kamala’s Indian heritage: “The White House will smell like curry and White House speeches will be facilitated via a call centre and the American people will only be able to convey their feedback through a customer satisfaction survey at the end of the call that nobody will understand.”

Republican supporters relate to Trump’s racist invective owing to the growing realisation that after just one generation, whites like them will be a minority in the US with Blacks, Hispanics and Asians comprising over 50 per cent of the population

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The latent racism and xenophobia in the US should surprise nobody. Black Americans had few civil rights till the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed into law. Apartheid in South Africa is rightly condemned. But a form of apartheid existed in the US for decades. As late as World War II, Black US soldiers were deployed in segregated all-Black units. The white supremacist Ku Klux Klan lynched Black Americans at will in the 1920s and 1930s. Nearly a century later, police brutality against African-Americans remains rampant.

Racism is so deeply embedded in parts of American society that even Black sport celebrities are brutalised by the police. On September 8, 2024, African-American football superstar Tyreek Hill was forced out of his car, slammed to the ground, and handcuffed by a Miami police officer who placed a knee on his back.

There are two reasons for the racist relapse in America. First, Trump has mainstreamed racist invective. His taunts against immigrants from Mexico and South America are both xenophobic and racist. The irony is that Mexican migrants crossing the US border in Texas or California are simply “coming home”, as one observer said, pointing out that both Texas and California were Mexican territories forcibly occupied by the US. Mexico was compelled to cede not only California and Texas but Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and a total of 55 per cent of its territory to the US under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. It has therefore been easy for Trump to invoke a fear of Mexicans taking back their land by stealth immigration.

The second reason Republican supporters relate to Trump’s racist invective is the growing realisation that after just one generation, whites like them will be a minority in the US with Blacks, Hispanics and Asians comprising over 50 per cent of the population.

Will Trump’s racist strategy work? He himself is the grandson of a German immigrant. For him, racism is a tool to win an election. The only colour he has a real bias for is green: the US dollar.

For India, dealing with a transactional Trump may seem easier in geopolitical and geo-economic terms. But Kamala’s centrist vision is probably more suited to India’s future global role as its economy rises to become the world’s third largest before the next US and Indian general elections on the cusp of 2029.

About The Author

Minhaz Merchant

Minhaz Merchant is an author, editor and publisher

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