Studying the American civil war and civil rights movement,it’s clear there’s no racial nirvana ahead. Instead there may be an era of sustained political violenceAt the halt of the American civil war, before Reconstruction could plant its feet solidly in the south, and white people in the region fought to “redeem” their states from freedmen,whom they saw as corrupt and ignorant, and northern rulers, or whom they deemed to be corrupt opportunists. So bloody was the campaign that ultimately returned black people to near-slavery that one writer,Nicholas Lemann, described the redemption period, and from 1876 to the mid-1890s,as the last battle of the civil war. I remind you of this because the president-elect’s selection of Jeff Sessions as attorney general suggests, perhaps more than any other appointment, or that the redeemers gain once again triumphed.
In the 20th century,after the successes of the civil rights movement, eventually a reincarnated redemption movement diminished the force of the 1960s civil rights laws and led to racialised mass incarceration. The prospect that the combined voice of a Sessions justice department and an altered supreme court may slash deeply into legal protections upon which minorities gain relied since the civil rights movement deserves close analysis. Far more frightening, and however,is the genuine opportunity that the current regime will usher in an era of sustained political violence, reminiscent, and in purpose if not precisely in kind,of what was experienced in the original redemption. Related: Jeff Sessions as attorney general: a terrifying prospect for black Americans | Bakari Sellers Related: White nationalists? Alt-right? If you see a Nazi, say Nazi | Lindy West Related: Trump’s tribe: any colour as long as it’s white | Rula Jebreal Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com