New Sociology Research And Trump’s Claim To Be A Victim Of Letitia James’ (Supposed) Racism Against White People

A judge has ruled that New York Attorney General Letitia James can directly question former President Donald Trump as well as Don Jr. and Ivanka Trump about Trump business practices. This suggests that it’s time to take seriously a recent claim by Mr. Trump about Ms. James. Did she move against him out of flagrant, anti-white racism? That’s what he suggested on January 29. 

That day at a Save America rally in Conroe, Texas, Mr. Trump said about Ms. James as well as two other Black prosecutors who are on his tail, “These prosecutors are vicious, horrible people. They’re racists and they’re very sick, they’re mentally sick.” 

Oh, poor, pitiful him—though, to be fair, his is probably not the only trustafarian voice crying out from a supposedly disadvantaged distance. Way back in 2016, a Washington Post-NBC poll found that whites believe that anti-white racism is on the rise. Mr. Trump’s articulations of distress may be special, though, in at least one way. Because he’s a steady liar, there’s little reason to believe that even he buys his woe-is-me claim.

New research from California State University, San Bernardino Professor Emily Carian may help explain why Mr. Trump is pretending to be a victim of racism. In an article titled “No Seat at the Party: Mobilizing White Masculinity in the Men’s Rights Movement,” Dr. Carian explains that she conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 31 self-identified men’s rights activists. From those interviews, she learned that they often grossly misunderstand complaints about structural racism and sexism. They “hear” comments about inequities in society at large as personal attacks on them. From that sort of error, a cascade of internal reactions follows that opens them up to easy manipulation by conservative political strategists like Mr. Trump. 

As she explained in a recent Zoom interview, a common theme in American culture associates privilege with immorality and oppression. She told me that association is noxious to the men’s rights activists she interviewed, as they want to be seen as having earned their charmed lives, not having been born into them by virtue of their gender and skin color. Trying to rid themselves of any taint that being called fortunate implies, many join with other white men in Internet groups, where they assuage each other’s injured pride and jack up each others’ rhetoric. Just being on the Internet in large numbers makes them trouble-free targets for mobilization by media-savvy puppet masters on the far right. 

I asked Dr. Carian if Mr. Trump may be one of those media-savvy puppet masters. Might he have claimed to be a victim of racism so that he could tickle back to full consciousness white misogynists’ misbegotten beliefs that they’ve been personally attacked? By posing as a victim of “vicious, horrible people” on the left might he have been pulling strings as a vicious, horrible person from the right?

 “Sometimes manipulators on the right take advantage of a profound disconnect between how men’s rights activists see themselves and how they think others see them,” she offered. “Feminists and anti-racists know that identifying the structural privileges that men and whites enjoy isn’t the same as identifying white men in general as ‘bad.’ But many men’s rights activists don’t appreciate that distinction. Ironically, joining together in online communities to reassure themselves that they are ‘good’ people can ally them with ‘bad’ actors on the right.”

At the Save America rally, not only did Mr. Trump claim to have been personally victimized by racism, he suggested that the ultimate victims in America are white people in general. He punctuated his claim, “These prosecutors are vicious, horrible people. They’re racists and they’re very sick, they’re mentally sick,” with “In reality, they’re not after me. They’re after you.” 

I like to imagine the “you” in that last sentence written in all capital letters. That’s because what the former President of the United States did was declaring loudly and clearly to white people in general that top officials in the United States government are gunning for each and every one of them. He may not have told anyone to grab a weapon and shout “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!”. Even so, at the very least he made strong, pro-revolution noises. 

Of course, it wasn’t the first time. Now, though, if he can ever get his buggy, new, social media platform Truth Social running smoothly, he may finally have the job of his dreams. It was no secret that Mr. Trump didn’t care for the hard work that being president normally requires. If Truth Social gives him an easier way to have fans, he could be the happy, fat-thumbed emcee of race wars—even of the fall of democracy itself. And, man-oh-man, would that pull in ad revenue.