The MAGA Embrace of the Nazi Aesthetic

A few days ago, the Department of Homeland Security put out an ad for new ICE recruits that featured a rather distinctive font:

It was yet another wink and nod to Nazism -- the original, German variety -- a move that was already present during Trump's campaign but has become increasingly ascendant since he entered office.

Consider a few examples:

• Another ICE ad running the slogan "Which Way, American Man?" -- a reference to the neo-Nazi tract "Which Way, Western Man?"
• E.J. Antoni, the Trump administration's new nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Standards -- an unqualified hack on any metric whose main appeal is clearly a willingness to manipulate the data in Trump's favor -- did an interview where he put a giant painting of the Nazi battleship Bismarck (sunk by the Allies in 1941) as his background.
• Fox commentator Greg Gutfield urging conservatives to "reclaim" the word "Nazi" ("with a hard 'I'"), leading his panel in such hilarious banter like "what up, my Nazi" and "Nazi please!".
• The Washington Times ran a story on army recruiting featuring a pink triangle (the Nazi symbol for gay men) with a "cancel" slash through it; Trump himself reposted it image and all.

I will pause here so we can all let out the collective "CAN YOU IMAGINE IF ILHAN OMAR!!!!" that's slowly been building to a breaking point.

Now, in all these cases, one can -- with extraordinary effort -- try to explain them away. The DHS' font is not technically called "the Nazi font" (it's "Fraktur"), it's just wildly popular with neo-Nazis (despite being banned by the Nazi Party in 1941!). We've already heard tale from Harlan Crowe about how enjoyment of Nazi paraphernalia doesn't make one a Nazi, just a history buff. Even Gutfield's gleeful embrace of being a "Nazi" was framed as "reclaiming" a slur.

That all of these excuses are dumb and unpersuasive is no barrier. Indeed, the foolishness is the point -- recall Sartre's famous discussion of how antisemites like to "play"; to force their adversaries to take seriously their frivolous assertions, then mock them for treating the frivolous as serious. The antisemites wink at their fellows with their choice of font, then say "dude, it's just a font!" with a smirk when the alarm is raised.

But also, it's easier to dismiss these cases when they're viewed in isolation. Put together, there's a pattern, and that pattern is a straightforward embrace of Nazi imagery as a key part of the MAGA aesthetic. This, of course, is coupled with the promotion of policy and personnel who also align with neo-Nazism and White Supremacism. And while the policies are obviously more concretely dangerous, the aesthetic choice is, in its way, more damning as evidence of who this administration is -- it cannot hide behind putatively neutral "policy debates", it serves no purpose other than to elevate bigots and haters. That's what it's designed to do, and that's what it is doing. The arrows all point in the same direction. And we should not hesitate to name what is happening.

UPDATE: JTA has two news stories on these events, one on Antoni's "Nazi warship" and one on antisemitic dogwhistles coming out of the Department of Homeland Security.

A Great Replacement

Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News. His departure will be mourned by his loved ones, such as neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin and right-wing extremist Ben Shapiro.

The diabolical brilliance of his racist character was that he was able to occupy a grounds between traditional Republicans and actual Nazis, bridging the beliefs of both groups and winning the adoration of both. “Tucker Carlson is literally our greatest ally. I don’t believe that he doesn’t hate the Jews,” wrote neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin in the Daily Stormer, a white-supremacist publication. Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative, marked Carlson’s departure from Fox by calling him “immensely talented and one of the most important voices on the right, and he’s going to continue to be those things no matter what comes next.”

And while I have no doubt Fox will replace him with an ambitious right-wing go-getter who is eager to prove he can be just as racist as Carlson ever was, in this moment it's hard not to feel satisfaction.

Eat Your Veggies!

Yesterday, in response to the UC-Davis pepper spraying incident, Jeffrey Goldberg tweeted "Pepper spray is made from peppers, peppers are a vegetable, kids need vegetables, therefore schools should pepper-spray kids."

Hahaha! Oh that's hilarious. And as if on cue, we turn to Fox News' Megyn Kelly: "I mean, [Pepper Spray is] like a derivative of actual pepper. It's a food product, essentially."

Life imitates parody, brought to you daily on Fox!

The Moderate JDL

Continuing his intense, but well-deserved, attack on the ADL, Jon Chait remarks on the occasion of the organization giving an award to Rupert Murdoch shortly after Abe Foxman complained about rising "polarization, rage, stridency and partisanship":

If you're interested in the general principle of tolerance and equality, then awarding Rupert Murdoch is preposterous. But if you define your values in a purely sectarian way, then a figure who advances an illiberal agenda that defines Jews as one of the "good" nationalities is right up your alley. Looks increasingly clear that Foxman has made his choice, and is defining the ADL's agenda not as the universalistic vision of the ADL's founders but as a moderate Jewish Defense League.

It's really sickening, watching Foxman mutate a once-indispensable member of the anti-bigotry coalition into this.

....FORMER ROOMATE!

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's book What's Right with Islam is What's Right with America, was published in America by a press owned by none other than Fox News' Rupert Murdoch. Which, under the Spaceballs criterion of guilt that the Cordoba Initiative is being forced to play under, makes Fox News a terrorist affiliate (and the Cordoba Initiative a conservative hack outfit, I guess).

Civil Rights Roundup: 08/14/08

Your daily dose of civil rights and related news

The census estimates that the US will become majority-minority by 2042. My projection is that many currently non-White ethnic groups will become or will be absorbed into Whiteness to keep the numbers up.

ICE has detained 42 suspected illegal immigrants working at Dulles Airport, stressing that their is no indication of terrorist activity.

An Egyptian Muslim women writes in the Washington Post: If Saudi Arabia doesn't allow women on its Olympics teams by 2012, tell them to not bother showing up in London.

A dispute over whether a school can prohibit its students from wearing the confederate flag has moved to an (all-White) jury.

A former convict turned inmate's rights advocate is proving remarkably adept at slowing down one of President Bush's District Court nominees (the chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America).

A Federal Judge said he was "shocked and disturbed" upon reading reports about mistreatment in the case of an immigrant detainee who recently died in ICE custody.

Unions are asking the FEC to investigate whether Wal-Mart violated the law when it allegedly attempted to persuade its workers to vote Republican.

Up to 600,000 Ohio voters are at serious risk of being purged from the voting rolls.

Can electronic voting be trusted?

Several Thai workers who were held as slave laborers in California have now become US citizens.

When Fox wants to talk free speech, it knows exactly who to turn to: anti-Semitic Holocaust deniers!

Marcia McCormick of the Workplace Prof blog has some good thoughts up about Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson's (R-TX) alternative to the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

The brewing conflict in the North Forest Independent School District took another turn.

A Mexican man was shot by a US officer on the US/Mexico border during a confrontation.

Nevada judges mete out harsher sentences to Black defendants than Whites. The study, however, does not take into account prior criminal activity.

Civil Rights Roundup: 07/23/08

Your daily dose of civil rights and related news

The HIV/AIDS infection rate for American Latinos is skyrocketing. In some urban cities, the proportion of gay Latinos who are HIV positive rivals that of sub-Saharan Africa.

Being handicapped in one's ability to have sexual relations constitutes a major life impairment under the ADA. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling is here.

New York City will officially begin offering services in six foreign languages: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.

I couldn't resist linking to this Houston Chronicle letter to the editor, where a Texan says of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), "How dare he even set foot here." Conyers was in town for a panel on abuse by local law enforcement officials.

The Chronicle also has an editorial up urging the state not to execute Jose Ernesto Medellin until the review ordered by the World Court can be completed. Legally, it's Texas' call whether to comply, but failing to do so could seriously undermine the protections of the Vienna Convention.

Did Chicago police engage in acts of torture to secure confessions during the 20 year period between 1972-1992?

Obama helps introduce bill to allow voter registration drives on VA campuses.

A group of progressive media watchdogs is handing over a petition to Fox News demanding they stop their racist attacks on Michelle Obama. Particularly egregious cases include calling her "Obama's baby mama" and Bill O'Reilly saying that a "lynching party" was the way to deal with her.

Four Yonkers residents are suing the local police for civil rights violations stemming out of a warrantless search.

A Honduras man is urging immigration authorities create a new justification for asylum: sexual abuse. His three children were sexually abused by a relative. My knowledge of immigration law is slight, but based on what I do know I'm very skeptical his claim will succeed.

Latino groups are launching a huge new voter registration effort.

Latino transit workers in Boston are pissed about anti-Latino comments made by, of all people, the transit authority's anti-discrimination chief.

The city of Minneapolis has approved a settlement regarding its city police force that would require it to more closely oversee diversity and race issues. The lawsuit had been filed by five Black police officers alleging a long history of discrimination.

Yak Yak Yak

Scott Johnson channels Bill O'Reilly:

I'm scheduled to appear on a short segment of Hannity & Colmes around 8:15 p.m. (EDT) this evening to discuss Lynne Stewart's placement on the faculty of Hofstra University Law School's "Lawyering at the Edge" legal ethics conference. My counterpart on the segment is Temple University hip-hop professor Marc Lamont Hill. As Jack Paar used to say, I kid you not. I will declare victory if I am able to get a word in edgewise.

Huh? Since the chance that Hannity & Colmes will work aggressively to shut down their conservative guest ranges from slim to none, I can only imagine that Scott thinks Hill will filibuster him all night. But why would one assume that? Is there something about "hip hop professors" that makes them presumptively incapable of serving on televised panels? In general, I'm not sure what's the motivating factor behind Scott's apparent shock that there is such thing as a "hip hop" professor (would you prefer nobody studies it at all?). In any event, Hill is a serious scholar, but he's showing up on a Fox talk show. So I doubt there's much risk he'll be able to even finish a sentence, much less talk Scott out of the room.

Incidentally, Hill is also a co-blogger on BlackProf. You can access an archive of his posts here.

Blackroots Awakening

Blackprof contributor and GW Law Professor Spencer Overton has a fantastic post on how the controversial CBC/Fox News debate has really awakened the Black Netroots community (Blackroots). Overton notes that for many years the Black community has been stuck in a MLK/Malcolm X model of leadership, headed up by a few charismatic but unelected leaders, relatively unaccountable, and very top-down. The rise of the Blackroots offers an alternative mechanism for the liberal Black community to assert power and influence, outside the traditional channels. This is how there could be such a groundswell in the Black community against the debate, despite its endorsement by the epicenter of Black political power, the Congressional Black Caucus.

Obama Drops Fox/CBC Debate

Joining John Edwards, Barack Obama has announced he will not participate in the Democratic candidates debate co-hosted by Fox and the Congressional Black Caucus. While Obama had also withdrawn from Fox's planned debate in Nevada, the CBC's sponsorship made Obama's decision far riskier. Obama has been fighting persistent rumors that he is being rejected by the Black community due to his unconventional background and African (as opposed to African-American) father. To my mind, that's BS, and the reason that Black voters aren't automatically flocking to Obama is because they are intelligent people who will vote for who they think is the best candidate, not whoever can wave the right color swatch.

That notwithstanding, it definitely has been hurting Obama that he hasn't been able to solidify his support in the Black community, and the CBC debate must have been an awfully tempting venue to try and get his message out to them. He will still participate in another CBC debate co-hosted by CNN.

The Netroots, unsurprisingly, is quite pleased. Praises sing from DKos, Steve Benen, MyDD, and FireDogLake. In fact, I haven't seen a single liberal blog condemning him. But I'll admit that these are mostly White (or non-African-American) sources--I'm curious if Black Democrats feel differently--their opinion is the crucial one here, I feel. BlackProf--one stop shopping for Black political/legal commentary--hasn't written anything on it yet. Pam Spaulding, however, is quite pleased with Obama as well, lending credance to the notion that the CBC is out of line with mainline Black Democrats.