Thoughts for the Day, October 27, 2025: Racism, White Supremacy, or both?
Leah and I did not travel to Edwardsville, Illinois this weekend as originally planned. Therefore, I am writing my blog tonight.
Racism, White Supremacy or Both?
Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized: the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.
White Supremacy: the belief that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to the exclusion or detriment of other racial and ethnic groups.
Growing up in River Rouge, Michigan in the 50s and 60s, I witnessed racism throughout my time there. I saw racism against blacks by whites. I saw racism against whites by blacks. Our city was divided by railroad tracks, in which whites lived on the east side of the tracks and blacks on the west side. Our elementary schools were totally segregated. It wasn’t until eighth grade that blacks and whites attended the same schools. If you didn’t play sports prior to eighth grade, it was highly likely that you didn’t have any meaningful relationships or interactions with people of the other race.
I heard so many racist comments throughout my childhood I became immune to them. It was a natural part of the conversation. I am sure it was no different on the other side of the tracks.
I was fortunate enough to be part of a high school graduating class in which a large majority of my classmates looked past the racism which allowed us to develop friendships that have lasted a lifetime. Our class was blessed with highly intelligent students and extremely talented athletes, many of whom were both. This helped me and many others in my class overcome the racist environment of our city.
I share this as part of my concerns about the current environment in this country. I see a country led by president whose actions meet the definition of racism and white supremacy. I see a president whose actions and words are similar to those I grew up with in the 50s and 60s on the east side of River Rouge.
I am not alone in these thoughts. Here are excerpts from two articles which support my thinking. The first is by Detroit News Opinion writer, Kaitlyn Buss.
Chats from young Republicans revealed recently by Politico expose a dark streak of the conservative movement that should bother anyone concerned with the future of the GOP.
The more than 28,000 Telegram messages from a group chat of Young Republicans, made up of a dozen Gen Z and millennial activists, contain blatant racism and language that, even for the internet, is over-the-top malicious and vile.
They reveal a disturbing way of thinking within a younger, newer, and hard-to-manage part of the GOP that sees the world and those with whom they disagree as undeserving of basic decency.
The texts are nasty and should be easy to denounce. The fact that some Republican leaders are struggling to do so is a problem.
These 20- and 30-something political operatives, some of whom work in government or hold office, aren’t just kids making stupid jokes, as Vice President JD Vance said, characterizing the response to the chats as “pearl clutching.”
They are a significant part of the Republican Party’s future. They are the ones who will be, or already are making decisions, setting party messaging, helping run elections and getting out the vote in 2026, 2028 and beyond.
Politically, they tarnish the Republican brand and should be firmly denounced. Morally, their ideas are bankrupt and need to be cut out.
“If we ever had a leak of this chat we would be cooked [for real],” wrote Bobby Walker, posting as the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans while glorifying widespread rape.
The vice chair of the Kansas Young Republicans used racial slurs more than a dozen times in posts, including derogatory terms for Black people, Jews and those of other races, as well as enthusiasm for slavery.
Peter Giunta, who was chair of the same organization at the time, wrote in June that everyone who didn’t vote for him “is going to the gas chamber.”
Chat members reportedly spoke openly about how to avoid being called a RINO by President Donald Trump, the fondness for Nazi ideology within the party’s right wing and Trump’s alleged suppression of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex crimes.
Paul Ingrassia, who was nominated by Trump to lead the Office of Special Counsel, a watchdog group, allegedly sent messages saying that he had a “Nazi streak” and that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed in the seventh circle of hell.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other high-ranking Republican senators urged Ingrassia, who has also been accused of sexual harassment, to withdraw, which he did Tuesday. It’s not clear whether he’ll keep his current job at the White House as liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. He shouldn’t...
But the difference in response from Republican senators and the vice president exposes a concerning schism in the GOP, where at least a faction is willing to make excuses for the vitriol in those chats. But the real festering of these bad ideas is taking place online, where Hitler-lover Nick Fuentes has grown in popularity recently and is set to appear on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, according to Alex Jones. Other extremists within the MAGA movement, such as Steve Bannon, have helped normalize the beliefs. Younger conservatives have grown into politics as those voices have been elevated.
Clear lines of decency must be drawn within the movement…The party of Lincoln should be asking why the party of Trump has attracted this faction of individuals and doing what it must to shed them.
And then there is this from Elliot Kirschner on Substack.
It is White Supremacy. We can’t be afraid to use plain, unflinching language to name the outrages we see—lies, corruption, authoritarianism.
And white supremacy.
Some of these words are now common in public discourse about this regime. But not white supremacy. At least not nearly enough. That needs to change—now.
Let’s dive into the news from just the last few days.
In a recent New York Times article titled “Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People,” the word “white” appears several times; it’s right there in the headline.
What’s missing—though it sits at the heart of the entire story—is the term white supremacy.
I mean, consider this example from one of the internal documents The Times reviewed: “The sharp increase in diversity has reduced the level of social trust essential for the functioning of a democratic polity,” according to one of the documents. The administration should only welcome “refugees who can be fully and appropriately assimilate and are aligned with the president’s objectives.”
In other words: white people.
I didn’t see the phrase white supremacy anywhere in mainstream coverage of the recent Supreme Court arguments in a case that could destroy the last vestiges of the Voting Rights Act. While “liberal” publications like The Nation and Mother Jones used it, most of the press wouldn’t dare put the term in print.
The Times framed the case in political terms, with an article titled “The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans.” They even published a map showing what congressional districts could look like after the likely ruling: A sea of red. But when I look at these maps, I don’t see politics. I see race. They look like something out of Jim Crow, when white supremacy was written into law, enshrining the near-total denial of Black political agency.
This is what led to the Voting Rights Act in the first place. When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law at the Capitol Rotunda, he said, “Today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield. Yet to seize the meaning of this day, we must recall darker times.”
Johnson then recalled the long and bloody history of white supremacy that has defined this nation since before its founding—though he never used the term himself.
It’s no accident that the white supremacists running the country are trying to literally whitewash this history. Trump recently posted on his social media platform—which also happens to amplify white-supremacist voices:
The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,
Heaven forbid we talk about how bad slavery was. After all, that tends to make white supremacists uneasy.
In another recent New York Times article titled “Trump Fires Black Officials From an Overwhelmingly White Administration,” reporters noted that “in the administration’s first 200 days, only two of 98 Senate-confirmed appointees to the most senior jobs in government were Black.”
A few days ago, Politico published a bombshell report after obtaining thousands of pages of texts from leaders of Young Republican groups. The article summarized the racism bluntly:
They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.
And don’t let the “Young” in “Young Republicans” fool you. J.D. Vance may have tried to brush this off as the misplaced words of “kids,” but these are grown-ass men and women in their twenties and thirties.
At least in the Politico article, white supremacy is addressed head-on—because it can’t be ignored in the texts. In one exchange:
(Luke) Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, mused about how the group could win support for their preferred candidate by linking an opponent to white supremacist groups. But Mosiman then realized the plan could backfire — Kansas’ Young Republicans could end up becoming attracted to that opponent.
In another exchange, a participant in the chat said they had checked into a hotel and got room 1488:
White supremacists use the number 1488 because 14 is the number of words in the white supremacist slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” H is the eighth letter in the alphabet, and 88 is often used as a shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”
I remember when much of the press was afraid to call Trump’s words a “lie,” worried it might seem unfair or impugn his motives. Too many in the press—and even political leaders—have tiptoed around words like authoritarianism and fascism. Doing so is a grave disservice to the truth.
And the same holds for white supremacy.
The evidence is overwhelming: we are witnessing the greatest effort to strip Black and brown Americans of political power and civil rights since the 1960s. It’s happening in the courts, in the White House, and at every level of government. We see it on the streets—masked ICE agents pulling people out of cars, raiding apartment buildings, putting children in zip ties. These forces are giving racists ….permission to shout their bile without repercussion.
…there will be a howl of outrage if they’re called white supremacists. They’ll trot out the old “some of my best friends are Black” line, and probably point to Clarence Thomas. Or maybe Kanye West? But it doesn’t matter what they say, or who they pose with in pictures. What matters is that they’re tapping into the deep racism that courses through this country. And doing it to entrench their power.
I don’t think most Americans want to go back to Jim Crow….The future of this country must reflect the vision promised by the Voting Rights Act—not the one pushed by white supremacists trying to drag us back into a segregated society, where political power is stripped from those who see these bigots for what they are: white supremacists.
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Quote of the Day: “If we ever had a leak of this chat we would be cooked [for real],” wrote Bobby Walker, posting as the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans while glorifying widespread rape.
Orchid of the Day: My brother Larry and his wife Geri, who received the President’s Award from the President of the Western Wayne County Chapter of the NAACP on Sunday October 19 at a banquet. The award was given for all the work Larry and Geri do in the community.
Onion of the Day: The 12 penalties incurred by the MSU football game against Michigan, six of which incurred before or after the whistle. At one point late in the game, MSU had more penalty yards than they had rushing yards. MSU lacked discipline throughout the game which reflects the lack of good coaching.
Question of the Day: Racism, White Supremacy or Both?
Lyrics of the Day: “Oh, wait a minute, mister, I didn’t even kiss her
Don’t want no trouble with you. And I know you don’t owe me
But I wish you’d let me ask one favor from you”
Lyrics of the Day for October 22, 2025. Rock and Roll All Nite: Kizz.
Video of the Day: From my window living room window this evening.
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