Thread by @marcushjohnson

The funny thing is people think the CRT discourse is something new. No, this is the same cultural-political fight going back 200+ years. Over the level of political power Black people can have in society. Black people gain something politically, there’s a conservative backlash.

Abolitionist movement — secession.

Reconstruction — jim crow and state sanctioned vigilante violence. lost cause propaganda.

Civil rights/Voting/Immigration — southern strategy, modern gop realignment. tough on crime, conf monuments

Obama — Trump

BLM/Floyd Protests — anti CRT

Each perceived political gain by Black people — who are supposed to be the permanent underclass, as slavery itself was originally codified in the constitution — is responded to with a vicious backlash. Its a 2 steps forward 1 step backwards kind of thing.

So there’s backlash to each move to be more inclusive towards Black political power and cultural perspectives. But each time Black people gain a little bit more, and society becomes more open. Conservatives are slowly losing the culture wars over time, and everyone knows it.

On culture—the conservative position used to be that slavery was good and to be defended. It used to be that segregation was good and to be defended. It used to be that MLK was a villian to be opposed.

Conservatives have to now say slavery and segregation were wrong and they even promote MLK (even if its a twisted version of his words and ideas!). If you could bring a conservative from 100 years, from 200 years ago to modern times, they’d be petrified of our society.

Whereas if you could bring an abolitionist or someone against Jim Crow to modern times they’d be much happier with how things have turned out on the social cultural dimension.

America is increasingly liberal on culture — the backlashes won’t stop that historic movement. Conservatives once — fairly recently — opposed a MLK holiday. Eventually systemic racism (not just individual prejudice) along w racial history will be taught mostly everywhere. In time

We can debate the reasons why conservatives continue to lose the culture wars in the long run (though they win some short term battles). I have argued that the south’s loss in the civil war and the US fighting w the allied powers in ww2 were pivotal for domestic development

Fighting against authoritarian, racial hierarchical regimes in the confederacy and nazi germany helped shape elites perceptions of what america should be. After both wars america codified major new federal laws (and const amendments) which made the us more inclusive

Those laws have proven sticky and impossible to fully rollback, much to the chagrin of conservatives. I argue that the institutional shifts (as a response to wanting to be different than confederates/nazis) also promoted elite cultural biases towards inclusion over the long run

In short this fight over CRT isn’t new is the exact same fight with the same rhetoric as the tea party, as civil rights/integration, as reconstruction. Each backlash uses stuff like “anti-white” or “negro-rule” and basically argues that Black ppl will become dictators over whites

And over the short run conservatives win some of these battles and can gain major political power through backlash. After civil rights passed Republicans won 5-6 of the next Presidential elections. 68-72-80-84-88. But ultimately they couldnt defeat MLK and had to try & co-opt him

It gives me great joy to imagine social conservatives of 100, 200 years past being brought to the future and having to see a version of America that they fought against & failed to prevent. Imagine how painful that would be for them to see that they failed to prevent our success.

Now imagine the next 50. The next 100 years. Its gonna go the same way for modern conservatives.

The fight against multiculturalism and political inclusion in the US was lost in 1865 and 1945. The US — and indeed the rest of the world — is better off for it.