We have heard so many warnings in recent months about the emergence of fascism in American culture, but do you remember the provocative words of Toni Morrison about the subject of three decades ago? Try a different type of reflection and resistance today. She told us at that time that American history reveals to the culprits, they are not just the usual suspects, as well as the secret to prevail over them.
In March 1995, in A call speech At Howard University, the author said that the descent to fascism “is not a jump”, but “one step, and then another and then another.” These steps include inventing an enemy to divert the attention of more serious issues, throw ad hominem Insults their way, making the media reinforce the degraded status of the enemy, attacking those who sympathize with the enemy, pathologizing and criminalizing the enemy and covering the entire process in silence.
Those who diagnose an autocratic inclination in the current administration can point out many of the symptoms: their leader and their acolytes have turned an enemy of immigrants, blacks, LGBTQ+people, women, higher education, political opponents within the republican and democratic parties, law firms, media and much more. The administration uses names of names, encourages the right -wing media to demolish the individual and institutional reputation and to disseminate lies, assaults anyone who dares to defend those in the long “list of enemies”, revives racist and sexist mythology to erode racial and gender progress, and erases the facilities to detain immigrants. The recent talk about rounding “The worst of the worst“? The assignment of $ 170 billion for triple immigration and customs application and double detention capacity? Three decades ago, Morrison warned us that the fascists “budgeted and rationalize their construction of celebration sands for the enemy.”
But there is a perhaps even more disconcerting of the forensic description of Morrison's fascism than many who oppose the current administration prefer not to listen. Morrison argues that no one agrees the market in solutions to fascism because each one is guilty of contributing to their increase. Republicans have surely courted white supremacists, but, he said, Democrats are not impeccable egalitarian, nor are liberals “free of agendas for domination.”
It may be difficult for today's anti -fascists to agree with Morrison's analysis because they are reading a different play book. Most current accusations of fascist beliefs, according to the Italian cultural critic Alberto Toscano, are obliged by analogy. They draw parallel between the current US administration and, for example, after World War I Italy, where fascism was widely adopted.
Morrison chose a different point of view. Instead of political analogy, she favored historical genealogy. If contemporary critics of fascism are thinking of Benito Mussolini and the trains he supposedly ran in time, Morrison is thinking of slaves and slave ships. She knew that American racism is one of the most visible riders of fascism. She called fascism “The Succubus Twin” of racism.
The clear warnings of Morrison of 1995, before the current president was even a host of reality television, helps us to understand that fascism is not new, which has stood out furious for humanity long before the current administration, and that, as uncomfortable as admitting, its legacy even delay in the political parties and traditions that claim the opposite authoritarian government. When tracking its racial roots in our culture, Morrison forces us to deal with the fascism that has always feast here and that has reflected and reinforced racism throughout the world.
This aspect of Morrison's thought can be especially uncomfortable because he refuses to let us out of the hook after a change as superficial as an choice. When we have slipped towards fascism, it is a mistake to believe that once we choose new people, we have undone of the problem. It is bigger than a person or one of the parties. The efforts of the current president are exposing the cowardly complicity of certain liberal strengths as they enforce their fascist assault on social progress, especially against the objectives of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Morrison's words encourage us not to segregate the racial dimensions of political fascism. She invites us to learn from blacks fighting racial fascism in the United States through belief, resistance and faith.
Even when we were enslaved, treated as property, released with few rights, forced to poverty, denied medical care, avoided housing ownership, segregates, raped and lynching, blacks thought miraculously even more even more in the American ideals than most of the other Americans. We invest even more energy and imagination in a deep democracy and insist that our emancipation efforts would also save the nation.
We were right. The black belief in the United States approached the ideals of justice to achievement. No matter the pall of fascism today, we cannot please the luxury of cynicism or pay despair. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., who bravely fought in fascism until his last breath, declared: “When you lose hope, you die.” If we believe that we cannot do anything to stop the hatred and damage of Washington, we are defeated before starting what the impossible task seems to defend our democracy.
It is useful to remember that in the history of the United States, many struggles seemed impossible before triumphing, in the ways in which we dared to wait and imagine. That is true if he was a political rookie who led the effort to break the segregated transport in A bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., or a enslaved figure Command a Confederate Transport Boat For freedom in Charleston, SC, before becoming a five -period congressman after the civil war. If, as Morrison suggested, fascism crawls in the steps, so does anti -fascism.
Blacks have resisted the fascism of a variety of perspectives and positions. Some hugged non -violent civil disobedience, others echoed the rhetoric of black power, others sought a legal reparation of social complaint, while others favored armed self -defense against violent racists. There has never been a single means of resistance. We must press the machinery of fascism in the classroom and the courtroom, at the kitchen table, in cable news and nightlife programs, from the Legislative Hall and the Pulpit, in our work, through films and social networks, with protests and other meetings as we plan the absorption of principles against injustice Glaría.
Our resistance also blooms in concert halls. Recently, the best life artist, Beyoncé, fought against fascism by celebrating the black roots of country music, a genre favored by some of the most fervent defenders of fascism. She also sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a wink to Jimi HendrixThe interpretation of bravery in Woodstock. The tortured American flag whose red blood bleeds bleed in pain for political suffering was projected on the screens. And she passed through the statue of freedom and was covered in a girdle that proclaims “the claim of America.” The fight against fascism is often accompanied by the magic of black sound.
Faith has carried the souls of blacks through fascist danger and racist tumult. Faith has catapulted citizens common to national leaders and offered many souls justification to fight slavery and white supremacy. He has inspired many to fight for the right to vote, for fair housing, for disaggregated public accommodations, for integrated transport and education, entry to elite schools and universities, and for economic justice.
Faith has also sustained us when murderous racists sought to eliminate blacks from all corners of culture and erase every trace of black from American life. Those who had faith were established in a simple but deep proposal: if God exists, then no tyrant, dictator, ruler, autocrat or despot can frustrate the divine will so that people finally survive and prevail.
Morrison's words to a graduation class in Howard are also applicable to the nation in general, since he struggles once more in a fascist threat to our precious democracy: the United States “has resisted the inclement climate, many, many, many times, and will do so again.”
Michael Eric Dyson is a professor of African -American studies at the University of Vanderbilt and recently co -author of “Author”Represent: The undemed by vote fight. “
