Will racism increase in the United States if the Republican candidate Donald Trump rose to power? Last June on CNN, Reid Ribble a Republican congressman accused Trump of being a racist. In the dictionary, Racism is defined as the belief that some races of people are better than others, it wouldn’t be possible without any power according to Eddie Moore Jr, founder and program director of the White Privilege Conference. He hosted a lecture and workshop on the topic ” The Root: Racism and Privilege in America” Saturday, September 10, 2016.
For Moore, racism can not occur without political, economic or administrative power. Everyone can hate, have stereotypes or a prejudice on blacks or whites. But until we have the power to carry out that hatred, there will still be prejudice. Based on this approach, if Donald Trump already has economic power and manages to obtain political power, will he setup a racist government as some people predict?
The current American society was built according to Moore with white supremacy. Education, for example, is designed on the basis of European-American values, putting away African-Americans who were enslaved for a long time (from 1619 to 1865). Moore believes that the US should compensate for their healing attempt to secular trauma.
Marie Laurentine Bayala
Thank you Laura for sharing your ideas on the relationship of racism/inequality and power. I would like to share Islamic perspective on this very concept that is laid down 1400 years ago. In his Last Sermon the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), “O’ ye people! Allah says: ‘We created you from one male and one female and made you into tribes and nations, so that you can know one another. Verily in the sight of Allah, the most honored among you is the one who is most God-fearing. There is no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab and for a non-Arab over an Arab or for the white over the black or for the black over the white except in God-consciousness.’”
Before introducing this concept of equality in the year 631, Muhammad (pbuh) practiced equality and fraternity in Madina called ‘Muwakhat’ in 622. This foundation of brotherhood established by the Prophet was based on mutual economic and psychological support and the principle of being inheritors to each other, which in turn aimed to provide migrants with support to get over the sorrow and misery they felt because of homesickness.
Just wanted to share a glimpse of the history of Islam.
I liked the piece very much but I do not understand why the speaker makes a firm difference between racism in power and hate on a personal level. If a man or a woman acts violently against someone of the different race because of hate and stereotype wouldn’t that be considered as racism? I do agree though that once racism is spread among the elite that has wider public powers it become a political force and phenomena that is no longer easy to get rid of.