Racism is a perpetual disease that has infected our country since it was founded. However, few people understand the true extent that racism plays in our society today and even fewer care to know. In our current political climate the dangers posed by inflammatory rhetoric, whether deliberate or carelessness, is much greater than most realize. Those who are frequently exposed to racism end up facing a concept known as Racial Battle Fatigue, which will be explained further later on. With the upcoming 2020 elections, race and racism will be a key issue, although it will most likely be misused and abused. While the explicit racism that plagues our country is intolerable, the far more problematic form is the indifference to racism that takes place. In this article I will summarize the main ideas behind racial battle fatigue and analyze it in terms of implicit and explicit racism.
Racial Battle Fatigue is the idea that people of color, especially blacks, face such frequent discrimination that it begins to take a toll emotionally, mentally, and physically. A combination of outright aggressive discrimination and microaggressions are responsible for building up an intolerable level of damage for the person being discriminated against. When Professor William Smith originally wrote about RBF he did so in the context of people of color working in high level positions at universities. Because there is such a lack of diversity among the academic elite, minority figures are viewed as a representation of their race, religion, or sex. In these scenarios, the person of color recognizes they are a minority and are being seen as a representation of the group society associates them with. Therefore the pressure to succeed comes not only from personal wants, but from the knowledge that they are representing those who are also considered to be part of the same minority.
While RBF was initially developed as a model of discrimination in the ivory tower of academia, it can be extended to any body. For the purposes of this article, that body will be the United States Congress. In the past month President Trump has launched numerous attacks against minority members of Congress. While the remarks are damaging and offensive enough on their own, there is an underlying message to the freshman Congresswoman and others like them. Trump explicitly offers a lack of patriotism as the reason for his comments, but implies that there is some inherent flaw in the Congresswoman that makes them incapable and unworthy of their position. In this case, by telling them to “go home”, it is clear that their race, ethnicity, or ancestry is the defining quality being used to judge them.
Racism is not static, it ebbs and flows with the times. Therefore it should not come as a surprise that racism is spreading from the top down. Dehumanization is an extreme act of racism in which a group of people that share a common characteristic are seen as something less than human. Dehumanization has taken many forms throughout history, but it always starts with one common act. A person who bears the characteristic being discriminated against is beastialized. Rhetoric surrounding them begins to change from something associated with humanity to something something more animalistic and parasitic. In the Rwandan genocide the terms cockroach or snake was used. In Nazi Germany perseucuted Jews were referred to as rats. In a recent twitter tantrum, Trump decided to critique Congressman Elijah Cummings for being racist, despite his impressive records on civil rights. In the tweet, Trump used Baltimore as an example of Cummings’ “failure”. He described Baltimore as being a “rodent infested mess”.
While each action taken alone is seen as discriminatory and harmful, the culmination of the attacks from the past four years has started the route to dehumanization. Harvard Professor Emeritus Herbert Kelman wrote about the route to dehumanization. His hypothesis identified three crucial factors, characteristics of dehumanization, that lead to the removal of violence. The first factor is authorization. When one in a position of power or authority approves of or endorses violent actions it allows others who commit similar actions to feel less guilt. The second step is routinization. When a discriminatory act occurs frequently it is normalized. It becomes like a job allowing those who perform it to remove themselves from the immorality of the action. The third step is dehumanization. Those who are discriminated against are painted as less than human and therefore aren’t given the same moral standards.
The current administration has created what seems to be a disturbing trend. One of the first planks in Trump’s early campaign was the portrayal of Hispanics, specifically Mexicans, as rapist and criminals. This acts as authorization for others sharing the same bias to feel less guilty about it. When the same racist rhetoric began to occur more frequently through further rallies, the media, and supporters it routinized the discriminatory acts. This allowed for dehumanization to occur. Now children are being locked in cages, families are being divided, and it is not only being rationalized, but defended by other high level members of the government.
Now Trump seems to be repeating the same steps of dehumanization with his comments regarding his critics in Congress. There is no higher position in our country than the presidency. As president, Trump’s comments have more weight when we consider the Kelman’s authorization. Trump’s comments have already begun to dehumanize his critics, mostly those who are members of minority communities. Seeing that Trump has already followed all three steps of Kelman’s route to dehumanization with Latin Americans, it begs the question of if or when he will do it again.