The racist Progressive movement during the first two decades of the 20th century was the predecessor of today’s racist Progressive Left.
President Woodrow Wilson, a leading Progressive of his day, was an avowed racist. One of his earliest actions when he became president was to resegregate the federal government. Referring to African Americans as “ignorant negroes,” Wilson argued that they needed direction from the white intelligentsia for their own good.
Woodrow Wilson was also prejudiced against Asians, among other non-white groups. “Oriental coolieism will give us another race problem to solve, and surely we have had our lesson, “Wilson wrote in 1912.
The Progressive leftists today, many of whom are affluent whites, still believe that blacks and other persons of color need collectivist direction rather than be treated as individuals. Non-whites who do not toe the line that the Progressives dictate find themselves accused of betraying their brethren with the same skin color. Identity politics take precedence over individuals thinking for themselves.
The major difference between today’s Progressive leftists and the Progressives of the early twentieth century is how they have weaponized white supremacy against non-white minorities.
White supremacy was lauded by President Wilson and his Progressive contemporaries. They used white supremacy, which they rationalized based on pseudoscientific theories like eugenics, as their club to keep the “inferior” races in their place.
The Progressive Left today, who consider themselves anti-racists, smear conservative persons of color with the label of white supremacism that is now considered taboo in mainstream society.
Take, for example, how South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is mulling a run for president in the 2024 election, has been treated by the Progressive Left. Senator Scott was the first African American senator to be elected from the American South since the end of the nineteenth century. Instead of celebrating this historic breakthrough of racial barriers in the Deep South, left-wing Progressives have attacked Senator Scott for the sin of being a black Republican with conservative views. In addition to being called “Uncle Tom,” the “N-Word,” and a “token,” Senator Scott has been accused of serving as “a Negro Whisperer for white supremacists.”
Nikki Haley, who was the first Asian American woman elected as South Carolina’s governor and has already thrown her hat into the 2024 presidential race, is the latest victim of the Progressive Left’s smear tactics. Daily Beast contributor Wajahat Ali went on MSNBC to accuse Ms. Haley, who is the daughter of immigrants from India, of “using her brown skin to launder white supremacy.”
Mr. Ali was just getting started. “For White supremacists and racists, she’s the perfect Manchurian candidate,” he charged. “She uses her brown skin as a weapon against poor black folks and poor brown-black folks.”
While Larry Elder, a conservative black commentator, was campaigning against California Governor Gavin Newsom during the recall election in 2021, Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero accused Larry Elder of spreading “his white supremacist worldview.” Another Los Angeles Times column described Mr. Elder as “the Black face of white supremacy.”
Dr. Ben Carson, who served as Housing and Urban Development Secretary during the Trump administration, was described as “a shining example of what a Black ‘White Supremacist’ looks like” by AframNews. This publication claims to speak for the African American community as if it were monolithic. AframNews declared that “You don’t have to be white to qualify as a white supremacist, you just need to spread and act on those white supremacist ideals at the expense of Black people.”
Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, the first black woman elected as lieutenant governor in Virginia, was vilified as “a Black face speaking in behalf of a White supremacist legacy” on MSNBC’s “The Reidout” show hosted by race baiter Joy Reid.
The Salt Lake Tribune published the disgraceful work of its white editorial cartoonist, Patrick Bagley, depicting Republican Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah, who is black, alongside a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
For example, former NBA player Rex Chapman, who has a large Twitter following and had a show on the short-lived CNN+ streaming service, lambasted Justice Thomas following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overruling Roe v. Wade. Mr. Chapman, who is white by the way, aligned himself with the characterization of Justice Clarence Thomas as a “Black White Supremacist.”
Baynard Woods claimed in an article he wrote in 2022 for NBC News’ publication THINK that Justice Thomas “has long been one of the court’s most staunch originalists.” Mr. Woods equated the judicial philosophy of originalism with “patriarchal white supremacy.” Baynard Woods is the author of a book entitled Inheritance: An Autobiography of Whiteness, in which he reviles his own “white privilege.”
Left-wing Progressives demand that all blacks and other public figures of color think and act as they are told. Otherwise, they will be ostracized as enablers of white supremacy or even as white supremacists themselves with a tan.
When it comes to race relations, the Progressive movement from its earliest days has been all about keeping non-whites in their place. Today’s left-wing Progressives claim to be anti-racist. But they are frauds. The hate and anger they display towards blacks and other persons of color who think for themselves rather than follow the leftist herd prove that they are just as racist as the founders of the Progressive movement.