Trump's White Supremacy Narrative Masks US Democracy Crisis

Kim Heller

The dying gasp of George Floyd's "I can't breathe" on 25 May 2020 will forever reverberate across the world and haunt the carefully crafted image of the United States as the greatest democracy in the globe. 

In the nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds that it took Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to snuff the life out of George Floyd, the brutality of state violence against African Americans was on full display. George Floyd had been arrested after he had allegedly used a counterfeit bill at a convenience store. But in truth, it may have been that his only crime was being black in the danger zone of the United States.

Floyd's death was no lone moment of madness nor was it a random rabid attack by a racist police officer. It was a real-time reality check of the systemic violence against black lives in America.

US scholar, Dr Cornel West spoke of Floyd's death as a lynching “at the hands of the police" and of how racial terror was built into the  DNA of America.

The American Dream is a precious and priceless vision. A paradise on earth with boundless promise of prosperity for all, irrespective of race, class, gender, or lowly beginnings, is both stirring and evasive. Through the ages, the United States has fashioned itself as the paragon of parity and a supermodel of democracy in a desperate attempt to cast off the ugly rag of slavery and black pain that was the country's foundational flag.

In 1965, the great African American author James Baldwin wrote about how the American Dream was built on the backs of black people. He reflected on how the US flag that African Americans pledged allegiance to has failed to protect them.

Sixty years later, Baldwin's words remain true. Racial inequality, state brutality against African Americans and the supersizing of white interests have yet to be arrested. Contemporary-day America is no democratic dreamland. In many instances, it is a living nightmare for African Americans.

This week marked the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's death. While there were widespread commemorations for Floyd across America, Trump was mute. But just a week before, the world watched as the President of the US trumpeted "Death. Death. Death. Death. Horrible Death", as he displayed disturbing news articles and images of what appeared to be attacks on white farmers in South Africa.

This dramatic scene unfolded as he harshly rebuked South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office. Many of the facts and images presented have since been exposed as fake news. Donald Trump is masterfully turning the world's glare away from the failings of American democracy, its systemic racial violence and its culpability in the unfolding Gaza genocide by supersizing and weaponising the fake news of white genocide in South Africa.

In the huff and puff of Donald Trump's signature brand of white supremacy, there is little outrage about black lives. White farm murders in South Africa constituted a tiny fraction of the overall murder carnage in 2024. Less than a handful of these were white farmers.

Statistics indicate that in the US, African Americans are almost three times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans. Mapping Police Violence reports 2024 as a particularly bloody year for the United States. Over one thousand two hundred people were killed by police. African Americans, who make up just 13% of the population constituted over 25% of all people killed by police officers during 2024 – an estimated three hundred to three hundred and fifty dead black bodies.

It appears as if George Floyd's murder in 2020 has not slowed or stopped the carnage. Over the past five years, reports show that well over five thousand people lost their lives as a direct consequence of police brutality. Very few police officers responsible for these deaths have been criminally charged. 

Trump has treated the issue of police violence and culpability with kid gloves. He has villainised the Black Lives Matter movement, calling them thugs, and labelling them as a "domestic threat". The legitimate cry for civil rights is not only being stilled but also criminalised.

Alarming statistics from the Federal Reserve point to the fact that in the few months of the new Trump administration, the inequality gap between white and black Americans has widened, while business opportunities and social welfare measures brutally slashed.

There are reports of books by significant African American authors such as James Baldwin being purged from school libraries and syllabi in a twisted attempt to maintain white hegemony.

Many years ago, Dr Cornel West spoke of how the "disregard for Black life today will haunt democracy tomorrow." In the second coming of Trump, the American Dream is vaporising fast and furiously. Not only is Donald Trump killing the American Dream, or the illusion thereof, but he is effectively putting to death the very currency of democracy itself, not only in the US but worldwide.

* Kim Heller is a political analyst and author of No White Lies: Black Politics and White Power in South Africa.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.