Trump's crackdown exposes Americans' shocking 'cognitive dissonance': analysis

The fatal shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti during President Donald Trump's militarized immigration raids in Minneapolis are fueling large protests not only in that city, but also, everywhere from New York City to Seattle to Milan, Italy — where, on Saturday, January 31, hundreds of protesters demanded that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents assisting with the Winter Olympics leave the country.

Bruna Scanziani, an 18-year-old protester in Milan, held a sign that showed photos of Good and Pretti and said, "Remember them." Scanziani told National Public Radio (NPR), "All the videos are public and everyone can see what's happening. The perception of America has changed."

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, according to Salon's Amanda Marcotte, Democratic officials are having a robust conversation about possible ways to respond if that city is targeted for a militarized ICE operation similar to the one in Minneapolis.

A recurring theme among protesters is that it's shocking to see this sort of violence inflicted on U.S. citizens. But Salon's Chauncey DeVega, in an article published on February 1, stresses that their comments fail to take into account the United States' long history of violent racial oppression.

"The cognitive dissonance is dizzying," DeVega laments. "Disorientation is one of the authoritarian leader's most powerful weapons. Hours after Pretti was killed on January 24, hundreds of people protested near the site in Minneapolis where he died. There, an older white woman told a reporter that 'the government is not supposed to be doing these horrible things to the American people. It is unbelievable. This is something like Nazi Germany or Russia.' I yelled at the television. 'What d--- country do you live in?'"

DeVega continues, "But her sentiments are common among people who are gathering at protests, community meetings and town halls all across the country. Like many other white Americans, and too many Black and brown Americans, she seemed willfully ignorant of her own country's history, which includes genocide and land theft against First Nations; white-on-Black chattel slavery; Jim and Jane Crow; the Black Codes; the Red Scare; violent social and political repression of LGBTQ Americans; the Palmer Raids; mass incarceration and the War on Drugs, to name just a few examples."

DeVega argues that hearing Good or Pretti, both white, described as "regular people" implies that non-whites are something other than "regular."

The Salon journalist writes, "The leaders of the Civil Rights Movement understood that images of those who were often referred to as 'respectable white people' being beaten, arrested and even killed would move white moderates — and, crucially, white elites — to oppose Jim and Jane Crow apartheid…. Now, 60 years later, similar images of 'respectable white people' being abused by police and other law enforcement are having a powerful impact on public opinion."

Chauncey DeVega's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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