Don’t Miss The Signs: White Supremacy Is Proudly On The Rise

Washington officials started sounding the alarm several years ago about the rising tide of racism in America, and now there are obvious signs of it across the national landscape.

FBI Director Christopher Wray reminded Congress in 2021 when he testified about the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

“Unfortunately, January 6 was not an isolated event,” Wray said. “The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now, and it’s not going away anytime soon.”

President Joe Biden called it out during his commencement address at Howard University last weekend.

“I don’t have to tell you that fearless progress towards justice often meets ferocious pushback from the oldest and most sinister of forces,” Biden said. “That’s because hate never goes away.”

The very next day in the nation’s capital the white supremacist group Patriot Front held a rally on the national mall. A Washington, D.C., resident heckled the group.

Joe Flood’s takedown made headlines, moving what otherwise may have been a relatively quiet and unknown attack on justice to a national conversation about white supremacy.

Last week in Texas, prosecutors used social media to expose U.S. Army Sergeant Daniel Perry, who shot and killed another white man, Garrett Foster. Garrett, an Air Force veteran, was legally armed as he participated in a Black Lives Matter protest after George Floyd’s murder.  At Perry’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors revealed that Perry had written on social media, “It’s official I am a racist.” Perry was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Public Assault

Private citizens have anonymity behind which they can hide their views, but public officials often use their elected office to advance policy that reflects personal beliefs.

On Monday Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law prohibiting the state’s public colleges and universities from using funds for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

DeSantis even has his own explanation for the DEI acronym. Instead of diversity, equity and inclusion, the conservative Republican said it is “better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination. And that has no place in our public institutions.”

Most colleges with DEI offices use them to promote the diversification of faculty and staff.

The new law also bans what can be taught in Florida’s colleges and universities. DeSantis is a vocal opponent of critical race theory and said general education courses “can’t distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics.”

The NAACP has responded to DeSantis’ ongoing policies to redirect history.

Conservative extremists have also advanced their attack on Black Americans’ progress by taking aim at scholarships awarded to minority students.

The Arkansas Minority Health Commission recently settled a lawsuit brought by Do No Harm, a Virginia-based nonprofit described on its website as “a national association of medical professionals combating the attack on our healthcare system from woke activists.”

As part of the settlement, the AMHC agreed to end the scholarship it awarded to college students pursuing a career in health fields. The scholarship was awarded biannually and gave $2,000 per academic year to full-time students and $500 to part-time recipients.

Do No Harm had also named AMHC executive director, Kenya Eddings, in its lawsuit.

Last October in a press release, Eddings said, “There is an ever-increasing gap in minority representation in the health care workforce.”

Do No Harm board chair Dr. Stanley Goldfarb said, “The scholarship program was blatantly illegal and yet another example of injecting race-based decision making into education for medical professionals.”

In Arkansas the decision to settle could have implications for other scholarships awarded to students based on race.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin cited the 14th Amendment which guarantees “equal treatment” as the reason for the illegality of the AMHC scholarship. In June the Supreme Court will rule on two cases that question the legality of race-conscious policies in college admissions – a decision many believe will offer a clear signal about the nation’s direction on its thorniest and most enduring struggle