The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
  • Hangzhou Asian Games
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_X_on_2023.svgbt_X_over_2023.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
  • Hangzhou Asian Games
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_X_on_2023.svgbt_X_over_2023.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    INTERVIEWINFINITE's Nam Woo-hyun returns after battling with rare cancer

  • 3

    NATO chief says Ukraine inflicting 'heavy losses' on Russian forces

  • 5

    Robots slowly integrating into everyday life in Korea

  • 7

    Korea to double ceiling of immediate tax refund for foreign tourists

  • 9

    American man booked for writing graffiti in 155 locations across Seoul

  • 11

    Nexon, Kakao Games accused of using feminist hand gesture in promotional videos

  • 13

    Samsung retains top CEOs, launches unit to prepare for future

  • 15

    Mohegan Inspire integrated resort to hold soft opening in Incheon Nov. 30

  • 17

    PHOTOSIt's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

  • 19

    Korea attends NATO-led cyberdefense exercise

  • 2

    2023 MAMA AWARDS hits Tokyo Dome with stellar lineup

  • 4

    Enhypen's 'Orange Blood' debuts at No. 4 on Billboard 200

  • 6

    Final vote for Expo venue to take place today

  • 8

    Population of young Koreans expected to halve by 2050

  • 10

    Koreans need $2,830 a month after retirement: study

  • 12

    Former Hungarian ambassador honored with Gwanghwa Medal

  • 14

    Police lift travel ban on G-Dragon, request extension for actor Lee Sun-kyun

  • 16

    Record 165,000 migrant workers to enter Korea next year

  • 18

    Hyundai Motor chief named industry leader by Automotive News

  • 20

    YG's new girl group Babymonster debuts

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Wed, November 29, 2023 | 07:21
Deauwand Myers
Biden-Harris and race
Posted : 2021-02-28 16:34
Updated : 2021-02-28 17:15
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link
By Deauwand Myers

On Jan. 6, the world witnessed a shocking scene unfold at America's Capitol. The building, which stood through the Civil War and two World Wars unscathed, was ransacked by a horde of white domestic terrorists, fueled by the big lie Donald Trump had loudly and consistently pushed in speeches and online for months prior to the presidential election: his electoral defeat was a fraud; he lost the election due to a vast conspiracy to change, add, or delete votes and steal his rightful victory.

What became clear over the proceeding weeks was the danger and depravity on display during this failed and bloody coup attempt. The former Vice President Michael Pence, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (second in line to the presidency), the president pro tempore (the most senior member of the U.S. senate and third in line to the presidency) Patrick Leahy, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were all in the building at the time of the insurrection and feet away from the violent mob.

Had the white supremacist terrorists been able to capture some or all of the aforementioned elected officials, it would have been the most serious breach of American national security since Pearl Harbor, made all the more embarrassing by the lack of preparation and competence from America's national security apparatus, all told costing U.S. taxpayers nearly $2 trillion annually.

The depravity of these pro-Trump seditionists was immortalized in technicolor for everyone to see. Anti-Semitic T-shirts, Confederate flags, hand-made gallows constructed outside to hang politicians, guns, and profanity in spray paint, human feces, urine, and vandalism were all in this mix of what, for many people, was a strange and harrowing nightmare.

What fuels the Republican Party, Trump supporters included, is what it has been for generations. White supremacy, and the attendant xenophobia, religious bigotry, and disdain for human rights (except for white men) have been in the guts of the GOP at least since President Herbert Hoover. Again, no one was surprised of who showed up at that attempted coup Jan. 6, nor the reasoning behind it. Many Republicans cannot abide people of color and women outvoting them to defeat their unpopular presidential incumbent and give the entire body of America's federal, elected government to the Democrats.

The Biden-Harris administration has the Herculean task in unraveling and attempting to dismantle the ever-growing web of dangerous, well-armed far right-wing groups throughout the sprawling hinterlands and towns of Main Street U.S. We cannot fetishize or romanticize Trump and company as some aberration, an asterisk in history soon to be subsumed by America's moral character.

No. President Joe Biden, and even more so Vice President Kamala Harris, know that the biggest threat to national security is not Islamic fascism, a strengthening, and increasingly violent China, or a recalcitrant Russia. The vast majority of terrorist acts done on American soil are done by other Americans, usually white men in cells or alone.

The disturbing trend of organized white supremacist, anti-government, neo-fascist groups increasing in number and sophistication began at the end of the Clinton administration. Under Obama, these groups saw interest in their ideology swell, and with the advent of the internet and the dark web, these groups could radicalize and recruit from a large pool of individuals disaffected with society and enamored with the faux-glory of violent revolution and the preservation of a white America.

During the Obama-Biden administration, the growing numbers of these radical groups was studied and noted by the Justice Department, but for political reasons (mainly that Obama is black, to be honest) it was deemed inconvenient to seriously engage the threat, and certainly not in a public fashion.

President Biden suffers no such affliction. The Biden-Harris Justice Department has already created a task force and garnered new resources in rooting out, and where necessary, prosecuting white supremacist groups. Unlike Trump's Justice Department, which in many ways downplayed white extremism because it was and is a source of political support for the GOP, Biden, and with Vice President Harris advising him, has made it one of his foremost priorities to combat the scourge of violent white extremism in all its forms, and because of his age, race, and long political tenure, no one can seriously say Biden is pursuing racial justice with ulterior motives.

The Biden-Harris administration cannot eliminate white supremacy in one term of office or four. Internalized racism is a matter of the heart. What the administration can do is use the vast resources of the federal government to award contracts and furnish more business loans to black businesses, better fund historically black colleges, and pursue every legal means to extricate violent white extremism from American politics and civil society. And from what I have observed thus far, our government is beginning to do all of these and more.


Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.


 
Top 10 Stories
1[PHOTOS] It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas PHOTOSIt's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
2US, S. Korea cast doubt over NK's satellite photosUS, S. Korea cast doubt over NK's satellite photos
3How can Korea become more migrant-friendly? How can Korea become more migrant-friendly?
4Why are major South Korean stocks persistently undervalued? Why are major South Korean stocks persistently undervalued?
5As Christmas nears, people feel growing income disparityAs Christmas nears, people feel growing income disparity
6Hyundai Motor unveils universal wheel drive system Hyundai Motor unveils universal wheel drive system
7Jefferies to open Seoul office in January Jefferies to open Seoul office in January
8Economist challenges Yoon's immigration policies Economist challenges Yoon's immigration policies
9Hyundai Card's overseas usage skyrockets with Apple Pay partnership Hyundai Card's overseas usage skyrockets with Apple Pay partnership
10Rights experts criticize China for denying torture in North Korea Rights experts criticize China for denying torture in North Korea
Top 5 Entertainment News
1[INTERVIEW] INFINITE's Nam Woo-hyun returns after battling with rare cancer INTERVIEWINFINITE's Nam Woo-hyun returns after battling with rare cancer
22023 MAMA AWARDS hits Tokyo Dome with stellar lineup 2023 MAMA AWARDS hits Tokyo Dome with stellar lineup
3NMIXX to showcase unique allure with 'Fe3O4: BREAK' album next year NMIXX to showcase unique allure with 'Fe3O4: BREAK' album next year
4Perrotin brings Shim Moon-seup's seascape-inspired canvases to Paris Perrotin brings Shim Moon-seup's seascape-inspired canvases to Paris
5Han Sun-hwa leads subtle heartfelt film 'A Letter from Kyoto' Han Sun-hwa leads subtle heartfelt film 'A Letter from Kyoto'
DARKROOM
  • [PHOTOS] It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

    [PHOTOS] It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

  • 2023 Thanksgiving parade in NYC

    2023 Thanksgiving parade in NYC

  • Appreciation of autumn colors

    Appreciation of autumn colors

  • Our children deserve better

    Our children deserve better

  • Israel-Gaza conflict erupts into war

    Israel-Gaza conflict erupts into war

  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel: 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844
Date of registration: 2020.02.05
Masthead: The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group