By now, most people have either seen the disgusting video or heard about the racist incident last Thursday (May 2) at the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss”).
The video shows a bunch of furious young white men yelling at about 30 pro-Palestinian demonstrators huddled behind a barricade. A Black woman steps outside the barrier and records the angry counter-protesters, which intensifies their fury and scorn.
We see a frenzy of anti-Black hate on display, including a fraternity bro making monkey noises and gestures at the Black woman.
The angry white mob also pelted the demonstrators with the N-word and xenophobic insults and threatened them with violence, according to UMiss for Palestine, the student group that organized the demonstration.
Phi Delta Theta booted the monkey-antics student from the fraternity, and the university denounced the counter-protesters’ “racist overtones,” likely because the viral video forced them to address the incident.
Why do white supremacists feel free to express their hate openly? Politics is partly to blame for the enabling environment.
An amused Georgia Rep. Mike Collins watched the video and gave it a thumbs-up. “Ole Miss taking care of business,” he posted on the social media site X.
That post caught the attention of the national NAACP president and CEO, Derrick Johnson:
“A Black Woman was victim to pandering, racist remarks and gestures, and hateful speech with the hope of breeding fear, isolation, and retreat. She marched forward anyway. I hope racists like Mike Collins took note of that as well,” Johnson wrote.
Republicans, many of whom are also racist, avoid denouncing anti-Black hate because white supremacists are part of their political base.
For example, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose 2024 presidential bid crashed and burned, dismissed criticism when he refused to condemn a 2022 neo-Nazi demonstration in the Orlando area. Analysts say he’s a prime example of using racism as a tool to win elections.
DeSantis’ political godfather, former President Donald Trump, created the pandering-to-white-supremacists playbook during his 2016 campaign when he refused to disavow former KKK leader David Duke’s endorsement. As president, he blew his dog whistle to signal his support of neo-Nazis by refusing to condemn the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va.
At the same time, the Democrats have failed to legislate an anti-Black hate crimes bill, which civil rights advocates, including attorney Ben Crump and Change.org, have demanded.
In 2021, President Biden enacted anti-Asian hate crimes legislation to address the spike in attacks on Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. It left Black folks asking, what about us?
He also signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act in 2022. But according to critics the long-overdue anti-lynching law is only symbolic because it doesn’t specifically address hate crimes targeting Black people.
The unabashed hate displayed at Ole Miss is nothing new, especially in the Deep South. But the upward trajectory is dangerous.
According to the FBI, anti-Black hate crimes surged in 2020, which some experts blamed on the white backlash against the social justice movement ignited by the police murder of George Floyd.
This wave of anti-Black hate includes bomb threats against HBCUs, mass shootings in Buffalo and Jacksonville, as well as various Karens (the shortlist includes Central Park Karen, Utah Karen and Citibike Karen) targeting Black people going about their daily lives.
Ending this upsurge in anti-Black hate crimes starts with creating an environment where it’s not tolerated. Keeping Trump out of office would go a long way toward making that happen.