[Begin ChatGPT 3.5 summary of Guardian article]
A recent Guardian article tells the story of Patrick Braxton, the first Black mayor of Newbern, Alabama, a small rural town. Braxton’s election in November 2020 disrupted a long-standing political system dominated by white leaders. This made him the first Black mayor in the town’s 169-year history. However, his victory was met with resistance and racial animosity from the previous white mayor, Haywood “Woody” Stokes III, and his supporters.
Upon taking office, Braxton faced multiple challenges. Stokes refused to recognize Braxton’s legitimacy and engaged in various tactics to undermine his authority. Stokes changed the locks on the town hall, preventing Braxton and his city council from accessing essential records and funds needed to govern effectively. Stokes and his allies held secret meetings to try to maintain their grip on power, even as Braxton followed proper legal procedures to run for office.
The article highlights the deep-seated racial tensions in Newbern, where the majority Black population had long been governed by white leaders. Racial hatred and intimidation became apparent as Braxton and his supporters faced threats, hate mail, and even a fire at the home of one of his allies. The hate mail contained racial slurs, threats of violence, and symbols of hate.
[End ChatGPT 3.5 summary of Guardian article]
One hand written hate mail sent to LaQuenna Lewis, a female supporter of Braxton, contained a disturbing though morbidly fascinating intensity of racial hatred and slurs. Quoted in the Guardian article it reads:
“You f**cking n****r b***h get your n****r ass out of my town right now with non n****r mayor braxton or die or get burn down. I’ve been watching you 4 kids right and your n****r new home. If you do [sic] get out of my town you and that n****r non mayor Braxton gona [sic] die.”
The letter included images of swastikas and a drawing of Braxton and Lewis being hung from a tree.
Much worse than this letter is that Lewis’s home was indeed burned down. And much worse than that is the fact that black people in the USA throughout its history have suffered and still suffer murderous hatred from many, though by no means all, white Americans. Yet the hate letter can in a sense be seen as being as horrifically powerful as reading about the actual lynching, rape and mutilation of enslaved black people in the past. Or even of today’s continued discrimination and horrific mistreatment of black people at the hands of police and white citizens, as was seen in the murders of George Floyd and many others.
Though vile, the hate letter nonetheless elicits a morbid fascination, offering a clear window into the mind of a common or garden racist, and not a sophisticated demagogue – or unsophisticated one in the case of Donald Trump – who blows dog whistles to garner votes from those who spew such hatred openly. It is a written record, a hand written self-testimony, penned by the racist individual themselves with nothing held back, laying bear in the starkest terms how their mind functions in relation to another human being who is black. Yes the letter is fascinating. It elicits a wonder and awe as to how anyone can end up like that.
Being entirely honest, one may even feel a kind of pity for the individual who inhabits such a mind and is capable of such vile thinking. Simply from their command of grammar, or the lack of it, without even accounting for any of the underlying twisted beliefs, one can see the author is an unfortunate soul. Most of the 132 inhabitants of Newbern live below the poverty line, both white and black. Few will have travelled far and some may not even have graduated from high school. This is no defence for the vileness expressed, nor does it explain it, as the reality is that people do not end up like this out of poverty and deprivation. They actually begin life that way, because they are born into families and communities with a legacy of hatred for black people stretching back centuries.
What is important to note is that the legacy did not arise among uneducated, poor, deprived people struggling to survive, but among wealthy slave owners who created and perpetuated the myth of inferiority of black people. But like religion, love of the theatre, acting, politics or any other socio-cultural phenomenon, this belief of inferiority of black people and the inevitable hatred that accompanies it has been passed down through the generations. Racial hatred, particularly Small Town racial hatred, is as much a cultural phenomenon as any of those that we hold worthy, and in a perverse sense it is also just as fascinating. Except rather than being noble and worthy, it is vile.
If one were to ask this individual why they are so filled with such intense racial animosity it is almost certain that after the expected, illusory reasons are trotted out, they would not be able to give a plausible answer. All the talk about blacks taking jobs, straining healthcare, lowering standards and simply not being as capable as whites (that is, being inferior) would crumble if it were understood that the cause of their underdog position in a white dominated society, despite the fact they are white, is political and economic, and not racial. Rather than viewing black people as being the cause of their misfortune, poor whites have every reason to ally with black people. To the rich and powerful who are still largely white, they, the poor disenfranchised whites, are the n****rs. Poor, racist whites are not victims of black people. They are victims and in some cases the slaves of the political and economic dynamics of capitalism as practised by whites.
As Fredrick Douglass observed, the supposed inferiority of black people has for centuries allowed poor, deprived, downtrodden whites gain credibility in their own disenfranchised view of themselves. At least, they can say to themselves in consolation, they are better than blacks, even whilst they are exploited by the same societal structures that oppress and marginalise black people.
[Begin ChatGPT 3.5 summary of Frederick Douglass]
Frederick Douglass: prominent African American abolitionist and social reformer in the 19th century. Douglass noted that the concept of white superiority, even when held by poor and disadvantaged white individuals, has historically been used as a way to maintain social hierarchies and divert attention from economic disparities. This dynamic allowed some poor white individuals to align themselves with the societal structures that marginalized Black people, giving them a false sense of superiority and a means of bolstering their own self-esteem, despite their own challenging circumstances.
