Is presidential racism unique to the current one?

I keep reading the strong reactions that some people have to the president’s racist rants about Somali Americans and other people of color.  People reacting seem to conclude that this is the worst presidential exhibition of racism that they’ve seen.  I’ve read and heard more than one person declare this to be as worse than any that the commentor has seen, in their words, “…in my lifetime.” 

But here’s the reality:  Presidential racism isn’t new.  Of course, there was Andrew Johnson who replaced Abraham Lincoln when Lincoln was killed.  Andrew Johnson attempted to relitigate the Civil War by subverting Black folks’ ability to participate as full citizens.  There’s also Woodrow Wilson’s stand as an apologist for the “lost cause” propaganda, his activism against civil and Black workers’ rights, and even his actions against African Americans attending Princeton when he was its president.  But you can argue people like that were in the distant past.  The “in my lifetime” claim limits to a much more recent period.  In my experience, recent racist presidents aren’t new either.  Maybe that’s because I’m a lot older than many folks, and I have more comparisons to make.  Or maybe folks just assumed that prior presidents weren’t racists.  But the truth is that we’ve had presidents in my lifetime whose views on race were pretty similar to the current president’s. 

 

For example, there was Richard Nixon.  His Quaker upbringing should have taught him to respect all people.  The Quakers have been at the forefront of justice movements since the group’s founding in the mid-1600s.  Respect for all people is as natural as breathing to them.  I’m guessing that breaking from the lessons of his early life contributed to why Nixon wasn’t as boldly public as Wilson or the current president about his ideas on race.  As my progenitors used to say, “he was taught better.”  But the evidence found about his racist views on Black folks in his secret audio recordings is irrefutable.  

 

Nixon’s predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, is often hailed for the civil rights legislation his administration shepherded through Congress and that he signed into law.  However, his attitude toward Black folks is often described by terms like “conflicted” or “complicated.”  Or his views are ascribed to his being a Southerner of his generation.  But those are convenient tropes that don’t address the racist language he used in private or his condescending actions toward Black people.  The legislation came from the public pressure he faced that civil rights groups and the media of his day were exerting as human rights violations that had remained hidden for generations became dinner-table conversation topics.

 

The Civil Rights Act (1964), the Voting Rights Act (1965), and the Fair Housing Act (1968) – all passed while Lyndon Johnson was in office – were the result of political and public pressure.  The concurrent “War on Poverty” that Johnson initiated in 1964 claimed to attack injustice while creating opportunity for those who’d been excluded from full participation in the society.  However, Johnson built much of that “war” on the false perception of race as a deficit that needed remedy – a viewpoint that was popularized by the thinking embodied in the 1963 Moynihan Report.   The Urban Institute, which Johnson is credited with founding in 1968, explores Johnson’s relationship with race at THIS link.  In that document, the organization also describes how it had to work hard at evolving beyond the colonial and paternalistic racism of its founding. 

 

Another president whose views on race aren’t widely understood is Ronald Reagan.  At the heart of his folksy, common-man libertarianism is a refusal to see the impacts of race in shaping the lived experience of people of color.  More importantly, he used race-baiting techniques to appeal to fears within the White population.  He developed a narrative that fed the White majority’s perception of Black folks as lazy schemers who only sought to take undeserved handouts from the government.  And in a 1971 phone call with Richard Nixon, Reagan references African leaders as “monkeys” whom he joked were “…still uncomfortable wearing shoes.” 

 

All three of these presidents’ views reflect majority opinions of their time, a time I lived through.  So this current president’s views on race are not new “in my lifetime.”  The current president’s comments are more public and brazen than his recent predecessors.  As many of his ideas do, his perceptions of people of color would have nicely fit in a conversation with Woodrow Wilson.  So what Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan said behind closed doors now is public presidential language – and this language forms the rationale for reason for unabashed and rarely challenged racist actions.  However, the disdain for people of color is not new among presidents. 

 

That’s important to acknowledge because the agenda that comes with racism, even when it’s buried or hidden, impacts the laws and regulations that presidents enact.  As the Urban Institute document referenced above attests, it takes years and a lot of work to overcome the long-term effects of how they put their racist beliefs into practice – especially when those actions masquerade as help.  So let’s acknowledge that the current president’s racism isn’t a new phenomenon among presidents.  Let’s also acknowledge the work that nation needs to undertake to dismantle past policies and practices that stemmed from those beliefs.  If we do that first, then we can tackle the current president’s words and actions.