Leigh Washburn

Guest Columnist

The GOP's Southern Strategy, adopted in the 1960s, was designed to appeal to white Southerners dismayed by the nascent successes of the civil-rights movement. Over the next 20 years, blatantly racist speech gradually gave way to less-offensive euphemisms, although the message was still clear. But lately we’ve regressed. Thanks to Donald Trump, “political correctness” is vilified, while hateful comments are defended as “free speech.”

Donald Trump gained early leverage with racists with his anti-Obama birther harangues. He encouraged violence against protesters, compared developing countries to excrement, insisted that some neo-Nazis and white supremacists were “very fine people,” threatened to abandon his oath to protect the Constitution by ending birthright citizenship, blocked a VA statement condemning racism and violence at Charlottesville, threatened Antifa protesters with violence from an “angry opposition,” and proclaimed that he’d be proud to shut the country down to build his wall and keep out criminals, people with problems (?), and drugs. He mocked Puerto Ricans recovering from Hurricane Maria with an openly contemptuous fake Spanish accent and blamed them for “wanting everything done for them.” He complained that Haitian immigrants “all have AIDS” and that Nigerians would never “go back to their huts.” The far right was hooked.

Hispanics, especially asylum-seekers, are routinely characterized as terrorists, invaders, drug dealers, gang members, and rapists. In fact, they are not armed, not violent, not gang members, won’t wage war, and seek only to escape violence, torture and murder at home. They travel in “caravans” for protection, accompanied by journalists and support groups, which provide ample confirmation of their true nature. Moreover, border guards are trained to recognize gang members, and the State Department in 2017 reported that there was “no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States.” The vast majority of extremist murderers in the U.S. are neither Muslims nor immigrants.

According to Fox News, immigrants are bringing in diseases “such as smallpox and leprosy and TB,” although it backtracked when reminded that smallpox was eradicated in 1980. Leprosy and TB are already here. Leprosy isn’t highly contagious and, unlike the U.S., most Central and South American countries vaccinate against TB. If travelers haven’t received other vaccinations at home, Mexican health authorities may provide them.

All this disinformation had warped our sense of reality, and hate crimes increased this year by 17.2 percent, compared to 4.6 percent and 6.7 percent for the previous two, respectively. Utah is not exempt from Trump’s influence. Ogden’s Standard-Examiner and Utah school districts cite dramatic increases in reports of bullying and racism since 2016. A recent “My Turn” piece for this paper called an unarmed boy who was shot and killed while walking home after buying candy a “punk” and accused immigrants of bringing in “bad diversity.” Last year a white woman screamed epithets at teenagers a in St. George restaurant. Schools report increased racially-motivated incidents at sports events; cheerleaders chanted a racist slogan on video; a post on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday depicting a lynching was captioned “Happy N----- Day”; an 11-year-old girl’s hijab was forcibly torn off (fellow students called her “toilet paper head.”)

This has to stop.

There’s one more issue I’ve been asked to bring up that may or may not be pertinent here. Cedar High School’s 1943 choice of “Redmen” as their brand has prompted some complaints and questions in recent years. At an open meeting on Dec. 4th, defenders maintained that its use was innocent, while an opponent succinctly suggested that “ignorant” was a better term. Other speakers suggested “Redmen” refers not to skin color but to a bloody scalping. The shield logo, which recently replaced a warrior profile, looks a bit too much like a sacred dream catcher for some people’s comfort. A 2016 drill team routine, with feathers and braided wigs, was criticized as inappropriate and disrespectful. We need to better understand what symbols borrowed from other cultures actually mean, whether their use is welcome or sacrilegious, and that perceptions may change over time.

Leigh Washburn is a member of the Iron County Democrats.