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White Supremacy Remains a Cancer on the Nation’s Soul

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Last summer, the nation witnessed a revived civil rights movement following high-profile brutal police murders of several African Americans. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Asian discrimination and assaults have occurred on a distressingly regular basis. These bias incidents were, in no small part, the result of bigoted public pronouncements made by former President Trump and his supporters, who labeled COVID-19 the “Wuhan Flu” or a “Chinese virus.” These bias incidents paved the way for a massacre of Asian Americans in Atlanta earlier this month. Throughout the Trump Administration, immigrants and migrants were vilified and dehumanized on a regular basis. The common theme underpinning all of these incidents is white supremacy.

White supremacy is a cancer on the nation’s soul. It poses a direct challenge to the notion e pluribus unum. It undermines the idea that the United States is a nation founded on ideas that are of universal relevance. It thwarts the possibility of a “more perfect union,” a country in which all peoples, regardless of birth, ethnicity, race, gender, or religion, are truly equal under the law and equally free to pursue their dreams and opportunities to the fullest extent of their talents and abilities.

White supremacy is a societal dead end. It has no virtues. It provides nothing of value for the future. It needs to be vanquished in its entirety.

In the near-term, the extremists who push white supremacy should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. In the longer-term, demographic change and the rise of a far more tolerant Millennial Generation hold the promise of a better, more tolerant future. Until that future is realized, the nation can ill-afford to be complacent. Even a dying movement is capable of inflicting damage on society. The recent massacre in Atlanta provides just the latest reminder of this grim reality.