What does “Make America Great Again” mean, exactly?
What era are people referring to when they say, “Make America Great Again?”
If there is an era that people wish they were living in, what did they like about that time?
Do people who refer to the “good old days” or like the slogan, “Make America Great Again,” want to go back to the time of, when:
- soap didn’t exist
- there were no women teachers, politicians, lawyers or soldiers
- a woman had breast cancer on one breast, doctors would also remove her arm because they thought the cancer would spread down her arm
- It was controversial for doctors to wash their hands between patients and those doctors were treated with hostility
- black people were forced into unpaid labor (1)
- The rape of black women for the pleasure of white men occurred to produce more enslaved workers (1)
- black children were sold (1)
- there was educational discrimination (1)
- there were Indian removal acts (1)
- there was lynching and mob violence (1)
- there were Chinese exclusion laws (1)
- there were Japanese American internment camps (1)
- there were Jim Crow laws (1)
- there was mandatory segregation (1)
- women could not vote
- medical sterilization and experimentation occurred (1)
- There was employment discrimination (1)
- There was redlining (1)
- There was mass incarceration (1)
Is “Make America Great Again,” a racist slogan? If a person wants to go back in time because there were discriminatory acts and laws in place based on age, gender, religion, skin color, or origin, then, yes, “Make America Great Again” is racist.
Or is “Make America Great Again” referring to times when there were no unions, no ECOA, no FEHA, no Department of Labor, no protections for employees, no corporate regulations, no overtime, and/or no minimum wage. Maybe “America” is code for “American Companies” and “Great” stands for “wealthy” and “unregulated.”
Is there an era you’d like to revert back to? If so, which one, and why? Let me know in the comments below.
I don’t want to go back in time and relive events from the past; there were problems then and there are similar and different problems now. There is a lot of work to be done, and my hope is that we all have a bright and happy future, but that won’t happen if people are afraid to speak up, if people act out of fear instead of doing what’s right, if corporations can do whatever they choose, and if government policies are tied to the rich and powerful.
- Source: White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
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