In the wake of the violence in Charlottesville on Saturday, President Trump was widely criticized for waiting two days to condemn white nationalist and white supremacist groups by name. Then on Tuesday he created further controversy when he again blamed “both sides” — the white nationalists and the counterprotesters — rather than unequivocally condemn the extremist groups. To many political observers, it appears that Trump prefers to stoke the fires of white identity politics.
Trump’s reaction may have energized some of his key supporters, but the whites marching on Charlottesville were only a small segment of a much larger population for whom the politics of white identity resonates. CONT.
Ashley Jardina (Duke), Monkey Cage