Blacker than Black, Whiter than White

The clashes between white racists and the police in Charlottesville, Virginia, were practically the biggest news story in the Russian media.

There are several reasons for the Russian media’s attention to the event. The first reason is an emotional one. Russia is very resentful toward the U.S. – resentful about the sanctions, about its diplomatic arrogance, about its drive to impose its rules and laws upon the whole world, and about the fact that Washington has been gradually bringing its bases and command centers closer to our borders (now even in Ukraine). In this situation, hearing that racists have begun to stir in the U.S. and that race riots have recommenced is, for many resentful Russians, well, simply balm for the soul. Immediately, something old is roused in the memory, something from the imperishable reserves of Soviet propagandists. In response to American accusations of human rights violations in the Soviet Union and a lack of democracy, Moscow cheerfully replied, “But you lynch blacks.”

Racial discrimination and racist antics in the U.S. were one of Soviet journalism’s favorite topics. And the rare visits to Moscow by a representative of the “exploited racial minority” – whether singer Paul Robeson or Black Panthers movement participant Angela Davis – were organized like a major holiday. Well, and the leader of the civil rights movement, Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr., was practically the Soviet’s main icon, as a matter of fact.

But there are also current reasons for taking a closer look at the events in Virginia. After all, our main character from abroad today is Donald Trump. Everyone here has started to wonder: will the scandal in Charlottesville lower his approval rating? Will it draw his possible impeachment closer?

Trump’s opponents accuse the president of doublespeak: instead of unequivocally stigmatizing racism, (“Soviet style”), he said that racial hatred was displayed by all sides. Proponents of impeachment hastened to declare that such an assessment would cause the president’s approval rating to drop and would bring his political end closer. But the effect might be the opposite. Analysts are already asking the question: are these events a harbinger of some kind of turning point in race relations in the U.S.? Does a worsening of relations loom? There are grounds for it. Many Americans are irritated that the struggle for African-Americans’ rights (which entered an active phase in the 1950s) has gone too far. There’s a belief that today, black Americans (15 percent of the U.S. population) have more rights than whites, that they’ve been given too many social privileges, quotas and even exceptions to common rules. In the U.S., there’s even emerged such a concept as “reverse discrimination,” which implies that at a number of U.S. universities, admission preference is given to minority applicants.

Going forward, a worsening of the race situation in the U.S. might also be linked to the rising influx of immigrants from other countries, including immigrants from Mexico. It’s no coincidence that Trump planned to build a barrier wall on the border with the neighboring country. Many Americans support the idea, otherwise Trump wouldn’t have articulated it, for fear of losing the election. White Americans are frightened by the fact that the country’s minorities, using rights obtained over the course of the age-old struggle against racial discrimination, are leeching off of white Americans.

The events in Virginia are, to some extent, the first echo of Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.” That slogan raises the possibility of dangerous interpretations. It’s no secret that racial unrest occurred in the U.S. under Obama, too. The instigators of the clashes were, as a rule, young African-Americans. The uprisings were organized in response to the brutal actions of white police against black criminals. The argument justifying such "black uprisings" has been, and remains, the fact that African-Americans in the U.S. are brought to court more often than whites. There are reasons for this. Predominantly black neighborhoods have long since become zones of heightened danger. Even the police don’t risk going there. The crime rate in African-American areas is significantly higher than in white areas.

For reasons of political correctness, it hasn’t been acceptable in the U.S. to talk about it, or about the existence of a “racist underground.” When a black president was governing in the White House, the “white underground” showed restraint. Today it seems it’s been roused. And a number of states perceive Trump’s words, “Let’s make America great again” as “Let’s make white America great.”

The attention Russia paid to the events in Virginia is, of course, of a conjunctural nature.* Did many of us (besides scholars of American history) know a week ago about the existence of Gen. Robert E. Lee or that he was one of the symbols of the “white resistance?” Accordingly, no one imagined the removal of his statue in Charlottesville would provoke such an uproar.

The fact of the matter is that Moscow is intently following all of the twists and turns of the new American president’s politics. The Foreign Ministry, the Kremlin, and the State Duma are trying (as yet unsuccessfully) to understand: is it possible to work with Trump at all or is he so unpredictable and headstrong that in order to resolve the issue one should wait until the Americans themselves settle the Trump incident? Will there be a swift impeachment? Or will the world have to live for a long time with the “fear of God” from Trump’s tweets and wait for the next election in the U.S.?

The latest events in Charlottesville are merely a minor episode in U.S. history. And I’ll tell you honestly: I watch the elevated noise even with some envy. Well, it’s a small town, it’s Gen. Lee, forgotten by historians. But such a universal outcry! May the readers forgive me, but I’d probably be proud if a fight in Penza or Murom** between locals and “outsiders” made the same impression on the world. Then we’d also be able to say, “Russia’s become great again. It’s being talked about … ”

*Editor’s note: By conjunctural, the author is referring to a state where there is a combination of events or circumstances, especially a combination of events creating a critical situation or crisis.

**Editor's note: Penza is a city and administrative center located 388 miles southeast of Moscow. Murom is a historical city located 171 miles from Moscow.