Success of the Right-Wing Movement in the US.

Success of the Right-Wing Movement in the US.

(ThyBlackMan.com) Perhaps, the greatest success the right-wing movement in recent years in the US, of which MAGA is a vital component, although not necessarily a dominant component, was its ability to:

1) eliminate affirmative action programs;

2) dismantle corporate set-aside programs for Blacks and other minorities;

3) defeat reforms aimed at making law enforcement less hostile and the criminal justice system more humane in its treatment of Blacks and other minorities; and

4) silence and table any discussion of reparations for Blacks in the US.

Widespread protests took place across the US and world after the murder of George Floyd during the coronavirus pandemic. Attention was directed at the injustice Blacks and other minorities experience at the hands of law enforcement and in the US criminal justice system as well as other facets of daily life.

In addition to discussions around revamping and reforming law enforcement and the criminal justice system there were calls for reparations for Blacks. Reparations for their ancestors having been enslaved in the US and the lingering negative efforts of that enslavement.

Major US corporations, seemingly influenced by the protests and discussions of an unequal society with very little fanfare, quickly and quietly committed to developing or enhancing set-aside programs for Black and minority businesses. They also committed to funding advocacy and community improvement organizations in Black and other minority communities.

Just as quickly and quietly with even less fanfare those commitments vanished from the websites and public communications not long after being first posted and disseminated. Their disappearance occurred way prior to the November 2024 presidential election.

The current federal regime probably would be pleased to receive credit for the removal and disappearances of corporate set-aside programs for Blacks and other minorities. However, the credit belongs to the actions of right-wing activists and organizations.

While Blacks and others were marching in the streets and standing before buildings chanting slogans, right-wing activists and groups quietly and effectively threatened and implemented boycotts of corporations directed at their set-aside policies and programs. Their threats and actual boycotts proved far more effective than the marching and chanting.

It seems the right-wing activists and groups clearly understood what appeared lost on the marchers and protesters. They understood that during the civil right movement it was the threats and implementation of boycotts that touched the pockets and not the hearts and souls of business interests that moved those interests to push governmental officials to do the profitable thing.

Right-wing activists and groups with assistance from right-wing influencers and information peddlers lit fires under police organizations and police unions to push back and raise questions about law enforcement and criminal justice reforms. Reforms that left the public with images of widespread lawlessness if certain restrictions were placed on law enforcement personnel.

The concerns as highlighted by the law enforcement community were such that a frightened public compelled federal lawmakers to quietly and effectively bury legislation that was conceived to help ensure there would be no more George Floyd type murders.

As for the issue of affirmative action, discussions and efforts to dismantle such programs were basically shrugged off by Blacks. The issue may have been important to the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents of today’s Black workers, but not for themselves.

Black workers today look around and see Blacks prominently appearing on network and cable programming, Black executives in the boardrooms and C-suite offices of Fortune 500 corporations, and throughout the offices and hallways of local, state and federal governmental buildings.

Blacks are everywhere and that is not going to change, many Blacks have concluded. Like water and air nothing to concern themselves about. Since they saw affirmative action as an archaic phrase talk by right-wingers about eliminating it was viewed as basically a non-issue. “Nothing to see here, keep it moving.”

As for the issue of reparations, right-wing influencers and other information peddlers went into overdrive to discredit and defeat it. Their approach was not to challenge the validity and merits of the issue, but to try and discredit individuals who publicly raised the issue.

By hook and by crook their smear campaigns seemed to have been effective in forcing those who supported the idea of reparations into silence. The right was successful enough to even make the term “racism” taboo. There was no such thing as racism or a racist, the right racists proclaimed.

To assist with their discrediting efforts right-wingers plucked a few bootlickers and handkerchief heads from under rocks, dusted them off and told them to go fetch. They obediently obeyed while pocketing their thirty pieces of silver and wedge of cheese.

Many civil and human rights activists and organizations focus their lobbying efforts entirely at the federal government level. Right-wing activists and groups on the other hand while focusing efforts at the federal level have also directed considerable attention at the local and state government level, including boards of education. They have been quite successful in promoting their right and far-right agenda.

Finish story here; Success of the Right-Wing Movement in the US.