Why Do Gen Xers Support Trump Despite His Racism?
Gen Xers were raised on the mentality that the Civil Rights Act ended racism in the U.S. and were convinced we shouldn’t talk about it
Talking to Generation X, most will act as if our generation was a benevolent one. They once spoke as if racism didn’t exist and pretended that things were better in that regard. But they weren’t. During our time we witnessed former President Bill Clinton sign two very racist pieces of legislation into law: the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (1994 Crime Bill) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA).
The 1994 Crime Bill is a bill that created funding incentives to entangle people into the net of the criminal justice system. The legislation came on the heels of the crack epidemic and was used to disproportionately incarcerate Black people for excessive prison sentences on drug charges. Police used the new powers to target Black communities despite drug use being about the same among every race. Many families and communities were destroyed by the law.
Similarly, the IIRIRA criminalized many aspects of immigration. Constitutionally protected rights such as due process were eliminated from most cases and expanded aggravated felonies were implemented. In addition, it created the 287g program which allowed federal agents to act as law enforcement officers in our communities – another constitutional violation. Like police and the Crime Bill, Border Patrol agents used the law against Latinos with impunity.
Most of this occurred without broad condemnation from Gen X who was led to believe racism was over thanks to the Civil Rights Act (CRA). However, Gen X was never taught or told about the broad backlash after the CRA’s passage. That backlash created an environment for many politicians and political advisors to adopt racist policy ideas but in a more coded way – dog whistles – instead of targeting nonwhite groups more directly.
It wasn’t uncommon for anyone doing antiracist work to hear that we shouldn’t discuss racism and that we should ignore hate groups. We would be told not to give them attention because that’s what racists sought. However, this mentality paved the way for the explosion of hate groups and the normalization of hate we see today. Many Gen Xers are behind this normalization.
Despite how angry many have gotten with me over the years for highlighting this, what they don’t realize is that they are solidifying my point. Arguing that racism existed long before we came around is part of the problem. While we should never ignore history, the use of this logic in this discussion fails to address the problems we face today. It fails to address the growth of hate and far-right extremism that occurred during our time and continues to grow today.
While many of us did fight racism and bigotry, the pushback we received from our own generation should not be ignored as it remains a problem today. While other journalists and writers suggest that Gen X's support for Trump is mostly economic, what they are not addressing is how those Trump supporters can easily ignore his racist and bigoted ideology.
They can do so because our generation and the generation that preceded us were taught to look away and not give it attention; that the CRA solved racism.
Let me be clear, this is an issue with white America predominantly. Latinos and other groups were also subjected to the tone-deafness about racism. I grew up surrounded by Black people as friends and as members of my family. There was no escaping the reality of racism in the United States. I witnessed it, I helped fight against it in very harsh terms. This does not absolve my generation as our individual experiences are not representative of our demographic.
Ignoring the silence of our generation will only serve to help perpetuate the issue that has caused great harm and continues to do so. All the evidence you need is right in front of our faces on social media and in the real world. Whether it be the suburbs or rural America, it’s an issue that white Gen Xers can no longer ignore. An issue that they cannot pretend doesn’t exist.
As a Gen Xer who has fought racism my whole life, enough is enough.
I’m a freelance writer and journalist for The Antagonist Magazine and Unicorn Riot. Find me on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work become a paid subscriber or donate on Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp
We thought, at least I did, that boomers were the worst generation ever ... we're now learning we are ... (The gen X that is.)
The fourteenth amendment takeover by the settler colonial court for their corporate masters in not studied or covered in museums etc thus preserving a Klan complaint version of progress.