Trump’s Legal Battles: White Supremacy Mythology’s Fight for Dominance

Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

I find myself unexpectedly captivated by Donald Trump’s legal battles, in a way that goes beyond schadenfreude, if only a bit. I think that a big reason for his current ubiquitous exposure goes beyond the face value of a mediocre, in some ways demonstrably disabled, powerful white man on trial. The ever multiplying and widening cracks in his defenses, and the gaslighting, narcissism and lies he’s frantically spewing to tape his delusions back together mirror the deepening cracks in the foundations of the white supremacy mythology foundation upon which U.S. culture is built. Trump gets the spotlight because he’s its quintessential avatar. His courtroom shenanigans serve as proxy for what’s really on trial, and competing for dominance as the figurehead of our country: white supremacy mythology itself.

White supremacy mythology (WSM), arguably a constitutive bedrock belief system of life in the United States, encompasses notions of both superiority and dominance. White people aren’t actually superior, but our dominant culture is organized around the lie that we are. That lie has resulted in centuries of harm and fatalities to Black and Brown people, escalating now that the mythology’s bedrock has begun to show signs of cracking.