{"id":112363,"date":"2018-06-04T12:01:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T11:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=112363"},"modified":"2018-06-02T18:26:51","modified_gmt":"2018-06-02T17:26:51","slug":"authoritarians-plutocrats-and-the-fight-for-racial-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/06\/authoritarians-plutocrats-and-the-fight-for-racial-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Authoritarians, Plutocrats and the Fight for Racial Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

4 Jun 2018 – <\/em>On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump routinely lashed out at protesters brazen enough to disrupt his choreographed rallies. In Birmingham, Alabama, he\u00a0shouted<\/a>, \u201cGet him out of here. Throw him out!\u201d The next day he added, \u201cMaybe he should have been roughed up.\u201d In Burlington, Vermont, Trump\u00a0ordered<\/a>\u00a0his security personnel to \u201cThrow them out into the cold\u2026Don\u2019t give them their coats. No coats! Confiscate their coats.\u201d In Las Vegas, Nevada, he\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the crowd, \u201cI\u2019d like to punch him in the face\u201d and reminisced about earlier days when demonstrators would be \u201ccarried out on stretchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s belligerent stance toward dissent provides context for the National Football League\u2019s decision last week: players on the field will now be required to stand during the national anthem. In adopting this restrictive policy, billionaire owners of professional sports franchises have chosen to serve as Trump\u2019s newest security guards, responsible for keeping all reminders of today\u2019s\u00a0racial injustice<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0police brutality<\/a>\u00a0as far from the fifty-yard-line as possible. Not surprisingly, Trump was quick to publicly\u00a0endorse<\/a>\u00a0the change: \u201cYou have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn\u2019t be playing, you shouldn\u2019t be there, maybe you shouldn\u2019t be in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such pronouncements from the most powerful person in the world are jaw-dropping. Yet Trump\u2019s strongman antics haven\u2019t actually changed very much from his days inflaming the crowds \u2014\u201cLock her up! Lock her up!\u201d\u2014in Birmingham, Burlington, Las Vegas, and beyond. What\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0different now, however, is that President Trump sees the entire country\u2014over three-hundred million strong\u2014as his own gigantic arena. Those who share his intolerant, racist, and plutocratic agenda are always welcome to participate in his round-the-clock \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d soapbox performances. For anyone else, the gates are closed. The alternatives he offers range from disregard to demonization to deportation.<\/p>\n

Regrettably, Trump\u2019s divisive language and outlandish policy prescriptions resonate well with the many Americans who give undue and uncritical support to those in positions of power. Excessive deference makes us surprisingly easy targets for\u00a0manipulative appeals<\/a>\u00a0designed to stoke our fear, distrust, and contempt of others who are \u201cdifferent.\u201d Indeed, a psychological mindset called\u00a0right-wing authoritarianism<\/em>, characterized by a strong tendency to condemn anyone who questions established authority, is more common than we might wish.<\/p>\n

Psychologist Bob Altemeyer has identified three specific\u00a0markers<\/a>\u00a0of this mindset. The first is\u00a0authoritarian submission<\/em>, which involves strict obedience toward the designated leaders of a group. The second is\u00a0authoritarian aggression<\/em>, which takes the form of deep hostility toward those who appear to fall short of the group\u2019s rigid standards. The third marker is\u00a0conventionalism<\/em>, which revolves around dutifully honoring and observing the group\u2019s traditions and norms.<\/p>\n

Right-wing authoritarians\u2014members of the neo-Nazi, white supremacist \u201calt-right\u201d are perhaps today\u2019s most extreme examples\u2014consider group boundaries to be sacrosanct. They value conformity and find diversity alarming. For them, clear and firm borders protect those inside the circle from those who are outside and are deemed undeserving of inclusion. Research has linked this psychological profile to ugly prejudices\u2014including toward people of color, immigrants, those who are unemployed, and people with disabilities. But the specific prejudices aren\u2019t entirely fixed. Since these individuals submissively look to their leaders to tell them which groups to reject, they\u2019re primed to change course or focus when directed to do so.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s high-profile\u00a0attacks<\/a>\u00a0on the protesting NFL players who \u201ctake a knee\u201d give direction and inspiration to his authoritarian supporters. Using the flag and anthem as compelling but deceptive props, he and his surrogates smear critics as inauthentic, ungrateful, and unpatriotic Americans whose views and preferences undermine the country\u2019s greatness. The onslaught against these\u00a0athletes<\/a>\u00a0is just a microcosm of the dishonest offensives that target the broader Black Lives Matter movement. For instance, former Fox News star Bill O\u2019Reilly\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0his TV audience that the movement is \u201cessentially a hate America group.\u201d Current network kingpin Sean Hannity\u00a0compared<\/a>\u00a0Black Lives Matter to the Ku Klux Klan. And frequent Fox guest Rudy Giuliani\u00a0argued<\/a>\u00a0that the group is \u201cinherently racist\u201d and \u201cputs a target on the back of police.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reality is quite different. Launched by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi after the killing of teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman back in 2012,\u00a0Black Lives Matter<\/a>\u00a0is \u201can ideological and political intervention\u201d and \u201can affirmation of Black folks\u2019 humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.\u201d The group\u2019s\u00a0policy recommendations<\/a>\u00a0include criminal justice reforms; demilitarization of local police forces; community oversight in cases of police misconduct; greater investments in education, jobs, and health services; and a commission to study reparations for\u00a0harms<\/a>\u00a0suffered by descendants of slaves.\u00a0Fortunately, despite ongoing right-wing efforts at misrepresentation,\u00a0a Pew Research Center\u00a0poll<\/a>\u00a0from last summer shows that far more Americans support the movement than oppose it\u2014and this is especially true among younger adults.<\/p>\n

But overt racism isn\u2019t the sole engine that drives opposition to Black Lives Matter and the NFL player protests. Like every social movement, these efforts represent a threat to those who benefit most from the status quo. Atop that list are Trump himself and other tremendously wealthy Americans who choose to\u00a0exploit<\/a>\u00a0their political power in order to advance selfish interests at the expense of the greater good. For them, billionaire tax cuts are worth any price and outspoken celebrities, including professional athletes, are a serious annoyance. That\u2019s because they turn the public\u2019s attention away from the mass consumerism that one-percenters work hard to cultivate and also give voice to the mistreatment of millions who, in light of their circumstances, might otherwise never be heard. In short, authoritarians and plutocrats find common ground and shared purpose in the ruthless betrayal of democratic principles and equal justice under the law.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Roy Eidelson is a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a> and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of Eidelson Consulting<\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/a>, associate director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College, and a member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/a>. Roy can be reached at reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump\u2019s belligerent stance toward dissent provides context for the National Football League\u2019s decision last week: players on the field will now be required to stand during the national anthem. Trump was quick to publicly endorse the change: \u201cYou have to stand proudly for the national anthem or you shouldn\u2019t be playing, you shouldn\u2019t be there, maybe you shouldn\u2019t be in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":110813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}