A lot of Trump’s speech — and an even greater share of the emotional energy, since he seemed bored reciting misleading economic numbers — was devoted to lamenting a wave of violent crime by immigrants. Was this racist? Yes, of course. But saying that doesn’t capture the full evil of what he was doing (and I use the term “evil” advisedly).
For he wasn’t exaggerating a problem, or placing the blame on the wrong people. He was inventing a problem that doesn’t exist, and using that imaginary problem to demonize brown people.
Racist dog-whistles are, of course, nothing new in American politics. Indeed, much of the rise of the modern, far-right GOP rested on the politics of racial division, with even “respectable” Republicans perfectly willing to exploit racial fear and hostility — most famously, Bush the elder’s Willie Horton ad.
But here’s the thing: back in the 70s and 80s there really was a crime wave, and a lot of it did involve blacks. That’s no excuse for racism, let alone the cynical political exploitation of that racism. But at least the panic was about something real.
This time, by contrast, there is no crime wave — there have been a few recent bobbles, but many of our big cities have seen both a surge in the foreign-born population and a dramatic, indeed almost unbelievable, decline in violent crime:
Most notably of all, New York — once the emblem of the supposed collapse of law and order — is safer than it has ever been, despite being run by a mayor who, strange to say, has tried to rein in racist behavior by the police.
So Trump wants us to be scared of brown people based on nothing at all. That’s really ugly.
Correction: January 31, 2018
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of the subject of a political advertisement. His nickname has historically been spelled Willie, not Willy.
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of the subject of a political advertisement. His nickname has historically been spelled Willie, not Willy.
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