Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
By: Maribel Hastings and David Torres Posted Jun 21, 2023, 17:48 pm EDT
In the midst of the extremist bombardment that once again marks another election cycle in the United States, there are two museums that everyone in this country should visit or at least read about. Both are located in Alabama, a state with a sad history of racism and segregation: one is the Museum of Legacy: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration; the other is the National Monument for Peace and Justice.
Just the name of each of these venues immediately calls for reflection on the historical moment we are living in in relation to other events that have left a very visible and still painful scar on American society; a scar that sprouts again every time an act of racism is manifested in any region of the country.
The two museums review the horrible history of slavery in the United States and how, when it was abolished from the books, it gave way to other variants of the abuse of power by one racial group, whites, over others, African-Americans and other minorities. . Said abuse manifested itself in the form of segregation, lynchings and all sorts of measures at the government level to prohibit access to education, health, housing and voting; that is, to hinder everything that implies equal rights and conditions among all of us who inhabit this experiment called the United States.
With the resurgence of countless acts of hate in this 21st century, which were supposed to bring more equality, solidarity and closeness in a globalized world, we realize that this chapter of racism and discrimination has not ended, that the books of history of the near future should add the bitter experiences that we have had to live almost in real time with the advent of social networks.
We visited both museums last week with colleagues from America’s Voice. Being there is, in fact, an exercise in exposing how vulnerable our democracy continues to be. In other words, if the political events of recent years have brought anything to the table, it is that the same racial hatred and extremism that have marked our history are still alive in a sector of American society that continues to resist the diversity that has made of the United States the world power that it is. That group was only waiting for a leader, a caudillo who with his divisive and extremist discourse would “normalize” that poison. And he found it in Donald Trump and all the conservative figures who, by putting power over sanity, have caused today’s Republican Party to embrace and condone an extremist message and language once confined to fringe groups.
And they have found such an echo since the appearance of Trump on the American political scene, that they have no shame in being accused of racists, much less establishing political-electoral strategies based on that rhetoric, since they have aroused that voracious hatred that they still exert a large segment of the country’s population.
The difference is that this hatred was previously limited to African-Americans, although discrimination was also suffered and continues to be suffered not only by them but also by Hispanics, Native Americans and other minorities. It was not for nothing that some of the signs displayed in the museum stated that “Blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Dogs” were not allowed. And as is often the case, racists always find a new scapegoat to beat, and in that sense immigrants of color are now the favorite target of these extremists.
For sample, a button: two Republican governors, Ron DeSantis, in Florida, who is also running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024; and Greg Abbott, in Texas, using refugees as cannon fodder to satisfy the most extremist electoral segment, compete to see who is the most anti-immigrant in relation to Trump, who also aspires to return to the White House and, so far, of in fact, it is the favorite among Republican voters.
Worst of all, extremists and conspiracy theorists believe their hate speech has no effect on society. The coup attempt on January 6, 2021, prompted by statements by Trump and other figures that he had been “stolen” from the election he lost to Biden in 2020, is an example of the bloody consequences of extremism. So have been the massacres in various cities of the country perpetrated by unbalanced against Hispanics, African-Americans, Jews and other minorities.
A few days ago, Robert Bowers was found guilty of murdering 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2018. Bowers faced 63 federal charges, including 11 hate crimes in the deaths of each of his victims. The jury will now determine if he sentences him to death.
All of these cases are a sad reminder that hate and extremism are rampant in every corner of this country. Sadly, the sordid history of racism that the two Alabama museums collect so that we don’t forget it is still latent. That is why its existence is important, in order to learn why racism and discrimination have been a part of the American experience and why other groups, like today’s migrants, still experience that kind of rejection in this century, after the glorious fight for civil rights more than 50 years ago. In other words, being there serves to remember that visit as a bridge between the current experience of the migrant and his multiple connections with Afro-American history.
The worst of the case is that at present there are too many racist, segregationist and anti-immigrant figures who would be willing to return to the past. Which denotes that the fight for equality in this country is infinite.