Shiloh Hendrix, a white Minnesota woman, went viral after repeatedly calling a child on a playground the N-word. The financial windfall she then received — reportedly over $700,000 — from crowdfunding donors, many of whom apparently saw in the unrepentant racist a fearless hero, is a despicable and miserable commentary on the current state of America's soul. But it isn't shocking. Far-right racism and white grievance culture have been ascendant and increasingly mainstreamed for at least a decade. Their most influential avatar — President Donald Trump — is once again in power. (It doesn't get more mainstream than the presidency.) But to many of those I call "MAGA centrists" — ostensibly nonconservatives who blame the left for making them either Trump supporters or very Trump-sympathetic — unabashed right-wing racism is a terrible, but entirely new, phenomenon. And wouldn't you know it, they say "wokeness" is to blame. They've even coined a name for Hendrix and her donors' style of racism: "the woke right." This is a preview of Anthony L. Fisher's latest column. Read the full column here. |
