ANTI-BLACK RACISM

When Black People Try to Make Progress, Backlash Is Quick to Follow

One step forward and two steps back is a pervasive pattern

“I have seen periods of progress followed by reaction. I have seen the hopes and aspirations of Negroes rise during World War II, only to be smashed during the Eisenhower years. I am seeing the victories of the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations destroyed by Richard Nixon.” — Baynard Rustin

Black Americans are often treated like second-class citizens in a nation they helped to build. Yet, for those unacquainted with the nation's history of racial discrimination, it may be unclear why this racial hierarchy remains intact over a century and a half after the chattel slavery system ended. For every effort Black people took to progress, the backlash was quick to follow. After the Civil War, the Reconstruction era ushered in significant progress for Black Americans, as many Black men won seats for the first time as lawmakers. They "organized Equal Rights Leagues throughout the South and held state and local conventions to protest discriminatory treatment and demand suffrage, as well as equality before the law." However, extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Black communities. They led violent voter suppression efforts, while Southern states controlled by former Confederates and their descendants passed Jim Crow legislation to limit the rights and mobility of Black Americans. The backlash far outpaced the progress Black Americans initially made in the years after the Civil War.

Southern whites — frustrated with policies giving formerly enslaved men the right to vote and hold office — increasingly turned to intimidation and violence as a means of reaffirming white supremacy. — Editors for History.com

Likewise, after the Reconstruction-era backlash hardened the racial hierarchy that began with the chattel slavery system, Black Americans found themselves living in a nation that failed to live up to its democratic values. Discriminatory legislation and unchecked domestic terrorism made it difficult, if not impossible, for Black Americans to exercise their right to vote, which kept them disenfranchised and underrepresented in Congress. The Civil Rights Era became a reaction to the oppressive conditions of the Jim Crow Era. Because Black people wouldn't have needed anti-discrimination legislation, like the Civil Rights Act of 1954 and Voting Rights of 1965, to pass if White people hadn't legally upheld racial discrimination and segregation throughout the deep south. And while passing civil rights legislation changed this country, hence the two-step forward part of the analogy, a white backlash followed, as many White Americans resisted Black Americans' efforts to progress.

Backlash intentionally suppresses Black Americans' progress.

Lawrence Glickman wrote in the Atlantic that "backlashers understood civil rights as zero-sum, and therefore treated campaigns for African American equality as an inexcusable undermining of what they saw as deserved white privileges and prerogatives." We see this dynamic continue in the modern era, particularly as backlash following the 2008 presidential election, where Americans elected Barack Obama, America's first Black president. While some used Obama's presidential victory to suggest racism was now a thing of the past, a point that's proven to be nothing more than wishful thinking, others intentionally lashed out at Black people and people of color as a form of retribution for voting him into office. In their winner-takes-all perspective, some White people believed that having a Black man as the "leader of the free world" would disenfranchise White people, an irrational fear to say the least.

Conservatives, who regularly questioned the legitimacy of Obama taking office, have an eerily similar ideology to segregationists, who saw diversity, equity, and inclusion as a dangerous threat to White people. For example, McCurtain County Commissioner Mark Jennings recently complained that White people couldn't lynch Black people anymore. "Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with damned rope," Jennings suggested. "But you can't do that anymore. They've got more rights than we've got." What a head-scratch moment. Here, Jennings argued that White people not being able to lynch Black people with public support in the modern era is an injustice. Not being able to lynch Black people, a tradition that began as a violent backlash for enslaved Black people becoming free and gaining some civil rights, is unfair to White people, in his view. To be clear, no one should ever have the freedom or the right to hang Black people, but thinking you should is white privilege on steroids. While Jennings resigned following the leaked audio scandal, his rhetoric exposes the prevalence of such ideas.

Educationally, there has been a movement by conservatives to limit or eliminate teaching students about race or racism. Louisiana Republicans are the latest to publicize their effort to “ban colleges from teaching about racism.” In doing so, they’re intentionally hiding critical historical context for students in the modern era. While most Americans agree that racial disparities in our nation exist, there is often a debate about who is ultimately responsible for the schism between Black and White groups. For instance, while White families, on average, have ten times the wealth of Black families, some systematically blame Black people for the racial wealth gap. In addition, stereotypes are often used to justify the disparate status Black people endure. For instance, when White people call Black people "lazy" as a way to justify why such racial disparities persist. Without students having access to the truth that Black Americans' second-class status is the product of intentional racist policies and consistent white backlash to black progress, they may be easily misled by those interested in maintaining the racial hierarchy.

Like a batch of chicken stock, Black Americans' station has been reduced, and their rights are evaporating without a lid to preserve their progress. The same voting rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for have to be re-established. Similarly, some public schools have resegregated despite policies that criminalize the practice. To live in a society without racial inequality, we must explore the two-step-forward-one-step-back dynamic and find ways to stop the dominoes from falling. Professor Dolph Briscoe suggested that throughout history, "movement forward is typically followed by a backlash that ultimately results in a setback," for Black people. When Black people take steps at advancement, they are faced with resistance, and when they secure civil rights or make progress, the white backlash is hot on their trail.

Unfortunately, we're watching white backlash happen in real time. In response to the latest attempt of Black Americans to make progress during the "racial reckoning," we see White people pushing to pass legislation that removes Black history and perspectives from the classroom, and squash diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the public and private sectors. The only way we can fight against backlash is to acknowledge such behavior as a pattern with a clear intention to suppress Black Americans' ability to thrive and drown out all hope.

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