The Justice Department’s efforts to strip naturalized citizens of their citizenship under the Trump administration should send a shiver down the spine of every American. These actions are not just legally dubious... they strike at the heart of what this country claims to stand for. Yet again, we are confronted with the harsh reality that constitutional rights in America often come with a racial asterisk. The same Constitution that is touted as the bedrock of liberty is wielded as a shield for White America, while weaponized against others.
It’s baffling (and infuriating) that so many political pundits and liberal voices continue to uphold the sanctity of a Constitution that has consistently failed to protect marginalized groups. The selective reverence for the Constitution reveals a deep-seated guilt complex in the American psyche. Instead of dismantling the systems that have historically oppressed Black people, White America often chooses to deny, deflect, or project. Rather than confront the truth, they accuse truth-tellers of spreading hate. In reality, these voices are not hateful... they are courageous. They are exposing centuries of injustice that have been whitewashed, denied, and perpetuated.
Much of the racial hatred directed at Black Americans today can be traced back to one of this country’s greatest failures: the refusal to properly punish the Confederacy for its treason. The Confederacy lost the war but never bore the consequences of their rebellion. Instead of humiliation and accountability, they were allowed dignity and legacy. Their monuments were erected on public land. Their warped sense of honor was celebrated. Their narrative - one that reframed slavery as “states’ rights,” was permitted to take hold and shape generations. This national cowardice allowed traitors to be venerated and history to be rewritten, laying the groundwork for today’s white nationalist resurgence.
The aftermath of the Civil War could have marked a rebirth of true democracy, but instead it ushered in a new era of white supremacy in disguise. Reconstruction was sabotaged, and white power found new vessels: the Ku Klux Klan, Convict Leasing, Jim Crow laws, and later, institutional voter suppression. The North, complicit in its silence, turned its back. The Confederacy didn’t disappear... it rebranded. Today, its spirit lives on in dark-money think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, a puppet-master organization that quietly shapes American policy in service of white conservative power. Politicians from both parties know it, but refuse to confront it, lest they disrupt the status quo they silently benefit from.
Even the most progressive White Americans must confront a hard truth: America has never fully wanted to rid itself of Trumpism, because doing so would mean dismantling the very foundations of white comfort and dominance. If Donald Trump were treated the way America treats a Black man accused of far lesser crimes, his influence would have vanished overnight. If the Heritage Foundation were a Black-led organization pushing a radical anti-white agenda, it would be raided, defunded, and shut down within days. The double standards are so stark they no longer hide in the shadows .. they define the system itself.
White America can continue to lie to itself, to wrap itself in a flag that promises justice while denying it to so many. But the truth, no matter how long ignored, will endure. Black America has always stood beside that truth, even when it was inconvenient, dangerous, or costly. And in the end, that truth... not the Constitution, not the monuments, and certainly not the myths... will be what history remembers.
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