Donald Trump and headlines about critical race theory and DEI
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Right-wing media have been harping on supposed reverse racism for years. Now Trump allies say they'll use civil rights laws to prosecute “anti-white” cases if he wins.

Reporting indicates a future Trump DOJ would focus on cracking down on “anti-white racism”

Written by Gideon Taaffe

Published

Axios recently reported that, if elected, former President Donald Trump and his allies plan to pervert the Department of Justice’s authority by using civil rights laws to fight “‘anti-white racism’ rather than discrimination against people of color.” Trump allies’ purported plans to use taxpayer dollars to fight “anti-white racism” follow years of right-wing propaganda suggesting that white people — not minorities — are the real victims of racism in contemporary America. 

  • Trump allies are reportedly scheming to abuse federal authority to fight “anti-white racism”

    • Axios: “Trump allies plot anti-racism protections — for white people.” According to Axios: “Targets would range from decades-old policies aimed at giving minorities economic opportunities, to more recent programs that began in response to the pandemic and the killing of George Floyd.” Former Trump adviser and white nationalist Stephen Miller, whose legal group cited the Civil Rights Act in 2017 when it sued CBS for supposedly discriminating against a straight white man, is reportedly spearheading the effort. [Axios, 4/1/24]

  • Right-wing media have long complained about the specter of “anti-white racism”

    • Newsmax host Chris Plante bemoaned Google’s A.I. because “artificial intelligence is racist toward white people.” [Newsmax, Chris Plante: The Right Squad, 2/23/24]
    • Daily Wire host Michael Knowles claimed that, “When people talk about ‘racist’, it's just anti-white.” He added, “The phrase itself is a term of anti-white racism.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 9/25/23]
    • Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk described a white vigilante who was charged with second-degree manslaughter for killing a Black man as proof that “the war on white people continues.” [Real America's Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 6/15/23, NPR, 5/12/23]
    • Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald appeared on Fox News’ Laura Ingraham’s podcast to claim President Joe Biden is “running on a anti-white platform” because he has “incessantly hammered” on America’s racist history in speeches. Mac Donald added that “straight white males” are “at the bottom of the totem pole of respectability, of honor, of acknowledgment in our culture.” [Quake Media, The Laura Ingraham Show, 5/8/23]
    • Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro claimed on his podcast, “If there is a racial bias broadly speaking on a cultural level right now, it mostly applies to what we would call white people.” Shapiro justified his remark, saying, “If you present yourself as a queer, Muslim, multi-ethnic woman, that is a good way to get a job now.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 2/23/23]
    • Fox News host Mark Levin accused “the establishment” of “anti-white racism.” [Fox News, Life, Liberty & Levin, 2/5/23]
    • On his radio show, Levin called critical race theory “anti-white racism,” adding, “Hitler himself would agree with that kind of thinking process.” According to Levin, “The new racism is certain people cannot be racists, and certain people are racists as a result of birth and skin color. That is totalitarianism. I'm sure Hitler himself would agree with that kind of thinking process, quite frankly. I'm just being honest.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 1/23/23]
    • In response to protests against police, Kirk claimed “There is a deliberate and venomous anti-white campaign in our country.” He added, “It is racism, it is wrong, it is bigotry, it is being taught in our schools.” [TPUSA Live Free Event, 10/25/22]
    • On Sean Hannity’s radio show, Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich warned about “a cult of anti-white racism.” “I mean, the things people now write and say that are just inconceivable,” he added. “They're just overtly racist.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 7/11/22]
    • Fox News contributor Ben Domenech claimed it’s “reverse racism” to prioritize offering federal contracts to minority-owned businesses. While guest hosting on Fox News Primetime, Domenech said the Biden administration aimed to right past wrongs by “discriminating against a different group of Americans.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 6/2/21]
    • Gingrich called critical race theory, “the new racism” and said “the real racists are people like Biden and Harris.” He added that the “real racists” are people who want to “brainwash your child so that they feel guilty about being born white or being born of mixed background.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 4/21/21]
    • Newsmax host Michelle Malkin said “anti-white” bullies are indoctrinating children to hate “the majority race in this country.” Malkin claimed, “In America 2021, our children are being indoctrinated from kindergarten through college to hate the historic American nation, its founders, and the majority race in this country. They're being taught by anti-white, anti-American bullies that we are all just nothing more than the miserable sum of our politicized racial and ethnic identities.” [Newsmax, Sovereign Nation, 4/5/21]
    • In response to a question from disgraced Fox host Tucker Carlson about Democratic senators urging Biden to nominate an Asian American cabinet member, Daily Wire host Matt Walsh argued that such practices would leave us “where we were 70 years ago,” adding, but “the colors are changed.” He went on to say this is why it’s so important for people to call critical race theory “anti-white racism, which is now the only acceptable form of racism in the West. ... It's a scourge, it's evil, it's wrong, and we need to call it what it is.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/24/21]
    • During an appearance on the now-defunct Tucker Carlson Tonight, conservative activist Chris Rufo described DEI training as “racism masquerading as antiracism.” Carlson called workplace anti-bias training “poison.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/13/20]
    • Mac Donald appeared on Carlson’s program, saying that reverse racism has led to “a cold war on the grounds of race” in the education system. She also said university curricula aimed at “decentering whiteness” was “the very definition of racism.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 11/7/19]
    • Fox News host Jesse Watters called the Democratic Party “anti-white.” Watters rhetorically asked, “Can the Democratic Party be for diversity, but also be against open borders, and not be so anti-white? So far, they haven't been able to strike that balance.” [Fox News, The Five, 11/5/18]
    • Young America's Foundation's Spencer Brown complained of an “anti-white bias” on college campuses “all over the place.” Citing a selection of the most “outrageous” courses offered at universities across the country, Brown argued that the purpose of many courses was “scapegoating” white males. “White males are the most disfavored group on college campuses,” he claimed. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 2/21/19]
    • On his radio show, Mike Huckabee claimed hate crime laws are “a form of reverse racism or reverse sexism.” [Cumulus Media, The Mike Huckabee Show, 4/23/12]