A picture that portrays Trumpist America
BarcelonaSometimes a single image is capable of condensing the spirit of an era. In this case, the photograph by Cheney Orr, from the Reuters agency, showing a young black girl surrounded by white supremacists with their faces covered in a subway car, perfectly captures what it means to belong to a minority in the midst of Trumpism. Furthermore, the fact that the image was captured during the celebrations in Washington of the 250th anniversary of the United States' independence gives it even more value, because it shows that, a quarter of a millennium later, what was once the world's most advanced democratic experiment has still not resolved what has always been its pending subject: the real equality of all human beings, regardless of their race, gender, or religion.
The fact that these openly racist groups, heirs of the Ku Klux Klan, have been able to parade with impunity through Washington, instilling terror among minorities, such as we see reflected in the eyes of the girl on the subway, is part of the new normal imposed by the government of Donald Trump. Let's remember that the President of the United States inaugurated his second term by pardoning those convicted of the assault on the Capitol in 2020, where five people died, and which is the closest thing to a coup d'état against the legislative power that the United States has experienced. Among those pardoned were members of the so-called Proud Boys, a violent neo-fascist group that proclaims the superiority of the white race and only accepts men, not women. These groups, along with security forces like ICE, which is dedicated to pursuing immigrants, effectively function as Trumpist shock troops on the street and aim to spread terror among minorities and also among Democrats.
It is incredible to think that just 18 years ago the United States elected Barack Obama as president, a milestone that at the time seemed to serve to close wounds and reconcile the country after centuries of racial segregation. Reality has gone in a very different direction, meaning that during Obama's presidency, enormous resentment was forged among part of the white male population, in addition to errors attributable to his administration, which led to the election of Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
It can be stated that, from that moment on, the United States is a country fractured into two almost irreconcilable halves. With the added danger that Donald Trump has zero respect for the checks and balances system established by the founding fathers precisely to limit the personal power of the president. That is why Cheney Orr's photograph is the perfect counterpoint to Trump's triumphalist discourse and his defense of "American exceptionalism." American exceptionalism was not this, as Martin Luther King and other civil rights fighters already denounced at the time. The dream of a country "where all men are created equal," as proclaimed by the 1776 Declaration of Independence, is still far from being achieved.
