Thread by @PadmaLakshmi

Storytime: So the Democratic party used to be the party of the confederacy. And Lincoln (a Republican) signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

But our modern political parties underwent an ideological transition from Reconstruction in the 1870’s, to The New Deal to present day.

In 1948 Southern Democrats aka "Dixiecrats" seceded from the party in protest of civil rights initiatives for Black people. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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After the Civil Rights Act, Barry Goldwater & later Nixon enacted a “Southern Strategy” to appeal to white voters through racism.

The Southern Strategy's explicit goal was to increase support among white voters in the South by exacerbating their hatred and fear of African Americans. ⁣(Sound familiar?)⁣⁣⁣

It's been a constant ploy in politics over the past 50 years. wapo.st/3hG3N2y
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"You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognized this while not appearing to." - Nixon

This also perfectly describes our legacy of systemic racism in this country.

But this was a multi-prong strategy: "Republicans didn’t win the South solely by capitalizing on white racial angst... The GOP successfully fused ideas about the role of government in the economy, women’s place in society, white evangelical Christianity & white racial grievance."

"Over the course of 40 years, Republicans fine-tuned their pitch and won the allegiance of Southern whites (and their sympathizers nationwide) by remaking their party in the Southern white image."
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/0…

In 2016, 8% of Black voters supported Trump. This figure is reflected in his policies, his cabinet, and his worldview.

TL;DR to have discussions of race and politics in America without understanding the history of either is ignorant at best and violent at worst.

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