Trump: Does He Trigger The Rise of Racism in America?

Former President Trump speaks on one of his events at New York City (Source: Slate.com)

A Starting Point

The United States may go into one of its biggest turnovers again during the 2017 election. Without anyone’s expectation, Trump succeeded in being elected as the 45th President of the United States of America. All thanks to the states that went into a dramatic political shift. Despite that it wasn’t a numerous amount, these small yet simultaneously changes are being made especially in the Midwest/Great Lakes region. A turning point happened when all the Obama voters during the 2008 election shifted to vote for Trump. Even a state full Republican, such as Republican Indiana, voted for Barack Obama, a democrat. Other states in this region, like Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, voted again for Barack Obama at the 2012 election. So what is the actual reason behind the political shiftment?

The answer is, it’s not that Trump’s speeches move their hearts to make America great again. Instead, it was Obama’s performances that hooked all the white voters, which was the main actor that really played a critical role behind the switching from the democrat side to the republican side in 2016. Research data even shows that in the Midwest/Great Lakes region, at least 9% of Obama voters voted for Trump in 2016. Specifically, more than 20% of those white voters with less education than a college degree, switched to vote for Trump. (Beauchamp, 2018)

In addition, Trump also got his ‘base’ of white working-class voters. Consist of those without a college degree but having approx. $60.000 as their median annual income. They aren’t rich, yet not the poorest in society. Based on the famous book, Identity Crisis, Trump gained their trust by successfully promoting ‘racialized economics’ to the white middle-class Americans.

The Trump Voters

It is clear that Trump and his supporters share the same idea of their own way to “Make America Great Again”. For some people, that specific way is called being racist. During the 2016 election, the increasing support for Trump goes along with the racism act that happened, such as authoritarianism measures and symbolic racism. Their appeals are, no doubt, racist. We can even say that racism is actually something that is mainly sold as his campaign tactics. You may not hear the word ‘symbolic’ racism that often. But it’s actually something that has been happening for a long time in society. A form of attitude that does not bluntly blurted out racist statements but does not let certain racial and ethnic groups have the same opportunities as the whites. Discrimination, to be exact.

In social psychological measures, authoritarianism is an imposed attitude to expect the people ‘below’ them to obey the authorities without question. In the political science measure, authoritarianism as a racism act can be explained by how the authorities support fascist political movements and suppress minority groups. Conclusively, many studies with data showed positive correlations between these two measures and voting for Trump. 

The Mexican Wall and Trump Towards Immigrants 

Migration itself often occurs due to many factors such as economy, culture, politics, environment, and health. By seeing it as a developed country, many Mexicans have migrated to America. The history of Mexicans migrating to the United States has been a long time, but this case has been brought back since Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States. The issue of border walls has shown us how the American people do not need human rights standards or international oversight to protect their rights. Many scientists and smart people doubt that international human rights can affect a superpower, like the United States. From here they can conclude that Trump as president has full rights and does not need the approval of other countries in making decisions. During the political campaign period, Donald Trump made a promise to build a wall that became the border between the United States and Mexico throughout the election campaign which was signed with xenophobia.

The Effects 

Demonstrations often occur, such as labor demonstrations in the 1930s-1940s and also civilian demonstrations around the 1950-60s that demonstrated the rights of immigrants. This demonstration is similar to the protest of thousands of immigrant rights supporters on May 1, 2006, which is often known as the “2006 United Protest. State Immigration Reform”. One of the supporters of Martin Luther King, Jr. carried a banner that read “I am a Man” with the intention of supporting workers, labor, and civil and human rights. Immigrant groups also protested the moral justification carried out in 2006. These protests began in response to the proposed law or what is often known as H.R. 4437, whereby the penalty for illegal immigration will be increased and clarifies that undocumented immigrants and persons assisting such illegal immigrants will be considered criminals.

Many actors face a dilemma, in this case, to get social change for certain groups without revising the existing conservative idea that “not all deserve it: economic support”. The United States has also made it mandatory to detain immigrants who are caught crossing the border without complete documents which will certainly have a devastating humanitarian impact. There are already 60,000 unaccompanied minors and 80,000 families who were arrested at the border in 2016 and transferred to a Central American country that is experiencing violence and war.(Risking It All to Escape Gang Violence and Poverty, n.d.)

This deportation action certainly violates the American legal obligations in the UN refugee convention. The orders made by Trump make aggressive enforcement action in a country far from America’s borders. The important role of strategic framing in influencing social policy is very important. In addition to making orders, it is very important to pay attention to existing rights, such as immigrant rights. With demonstrations and other effects that arise as a result of this order, it can create many big new challenges because of the climate of “threat and terror in the economic and political fields.”

Analysis Through a Social Constructivist Perspective

This theory in IR emphasizes norms and ideas and argues that these need to be included in analyzing the behavior of state and non-state actors. Constructivism, the social theory aims to understand and explain what drives the actions of actors. This theoretical framework makes a distinction between what relies on “human consent” and what does not. Seen through the lens of a constructivist theoretical framework, border security is a “social fact” because it depends on human consent for it to exist. The border wall is seen as an object that exists apart from human consent—meaning as a security structure given to it. Since the concept of border security is variable and socially constructed, border wall objects can have different meanings and can thus be reinterpreted.

Author: Angela Irene & Azka Indira Pashya

Editor: Sarah Putri Haryadi, Hafsyah Azzahra, Jennifer Clara Aprilia & Viranty Yulia Putri

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