The Civil War Never Ended: The Racist Deep Culture Foundation of Trump’s Insurrection Riot (part 3)

This is the third installment of a three, but maybe we’re going to expand it to four, part series on the racist deep culture that is driving the political divide in the US. The first post laid the foundation by defining and discussing deep culture and how it linked to Trump’s insurrection riot and his Big Lie about the election. The second one examined the lingering influences of our Puritan and Calvinist forebears. And, this third one will look at how our racist deep culture has caused the worst compromises over race in our country. We’ll begin with a quick review of deep culture and the views of Puritans and Calvinists that have made it into American culture.

Introducing Deep Culture and the Contributions of the Puritans and Calvinists

Deep culture is the unconscious collection of beliefs, norms, and values that form the foundation of our behaviors and mental processes. It operates wholly outside of our conscious awareness yet still has great influence over our behavior and mental processes. These presumptions are what allow an armed white guy to present a fraudulent inauguration document and be armed with a loaded glock and carrying 550 rounds with him to be arrested and not shot to death as most black people would be in that situation. The police looking at this guy saw the same thing, a harmless white guy despite Trump’s insurrection riot having taken place a week ago and threats against the inauguration. And, deep culture allows police to see the same thing when they stop a black person, a threat so severe, they fear for their very lives. It allows us to predict the outcome of most social situations by allowing us to understand the motivations of those we encounter. These cultural beliefs are passed from one generation to the next, so it changes very slowly.

Puritans and Calvinists believed that god would show his love for us as individuals by preordaining us to live successful Christian lives. So, if you were successful, it was because god had preordained your trip to heaven. If you were poor or unsuccessful, it was because god didn’t love you and you were destined for hell. This belief gave rise to a mighty motivation to be successful and to watch and judge your neighbors. Since black people came to America as slaves, our forebears assumed it was because god wanted us not only to have slaves but to have these people as slaves. They had earned it by not being successful and loved by god. It made for a very convenient circular self-fulfilling prophesy.

This attitude coursed through all aspects of the fledgling country right up to and into our Founding Documents and beyond.

The Constitution: Enfranchising Slavery in the Fabric of America

After the Revolution, there was real tension between those advocating a stronger federal government and those for stronger states. We have seen this notion of state’s rights come up again and again in our history. Specifically, slave-holding states thought they should have the right to own real live human beings because it made them a lot of money and showed how much god loved them and hated them slaves.

The opposite wasn’t necessarily true, though. It wasn’t so much that the federalists were against slavery – most of them were proud slave owners – it was that they thought a stronger federal government would make the country easier to govern.

When it came time to cypher out how many Representatives each state would have in Congress, the slave states wanted the slaves to be counted as equals even though they weren’t real live white people.

From the Civil War and Reconstruction to Civil Rights and Trump’s Insurrection Riot

We fought the Civil War from 1861 – 1865 because the Confederacy refused to give up slavery. The South lost the military conflict, but it did not mean that the South gave up or stopped fighting for slavery and racism. Immediately after the Civil War came Reconstruction in which the South was to be re-integrated into American society and the economy. The South was never integrated into the country, though, it was only rebuilt.

Reconstruction, 1865 – 1877

Let’s run through a history of Reconstruction and see what our original attempt at forging national unity and healing after nearly tearing ourselves apart over racism got us:

• Lincoln’s plan for reunifying the country was both generous and non-punitive. It didn’t get enacted, though. Thanks Booth!
• Andrew Johnson’s plan just waved a finger at the South required them to sign a loyalty oath and presto bingo Bob’s your uncle and Fanny’s your aunt, the South was back in America again. And they promptly passed the “black codes” to control the labor and behavior of Blacks.
• Congress stepped in and appointed governors and the army occupied the South to ensure laws were followed and protect the state governments from insurrection. But, it gradually faded until the debacle of the 1876 election was created.
• The Compromise of 1877 allowed Rutherford Hayes to be president in exchange for withdrawing the few remaining occupying forces from the South and allowing white supremacy to reign once again. Blacks couldn’t be enslaved but they could do the next best thing through Jim Crow laws that oppressed Blacks in the South for the next eighty years or so culminating with George Wallace’s infamous segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever speech.
• The Civil War did not end. It carried on under a different means.

The Enduring Legacy of White Supremacy

White people were taught that the country was built on the backs of the Protestant work ethic (Calvinism) and American ingenuity, and because of that, hard work was rewarded. But, we had a significant segment of society for which this wasn’t true. When Black people were slaves, they had plenty of hard work, but no reward. In modern America, they just don’t have work. Black unemployment is always the highest and their work the lowest paid.

White people have justified it by mixing the laziness and criminality of Black people into our deep culture. It is a deep and abiding belief that if Black people would just straighten up and fly right, pull themselves up by their bootstraps and work hard at menial jobs, they, too, would enjoy the fruits of the American dream… eventually… in their own neighborhoods… which we burn to the ground and massacre Black people for their success, so sure, tell us about how Blacks can pull themselves up by their bootstraps as long as they don’t pull themselves up too far.

Image Attribution

“Bunkersystem Batterie di Marta, 3.groundfloor deep underground… (1 von 1)” by Piefke La Belle is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0