Reassessing the racial reckoning of 2020

Did the culture wars and progressive excesses of the past decade help pave the way for Donald Trump’s second presidency? A recent book, “Summer of Our Discontent” by cultural critic, writer and academic Thomas Chatterton Williams, delves into this contentious topic, causing more controversy — particularly about the racial “reckoning” of the summer of 2020, which is at the center of the book. The issues remain relevant today, and we need, so to speak, a reckoning with the reckoning.

Williams, who was born in New Jersey to a Black father and a white mother, has previously written about transcending racial identity. He has the reputation of a liberal critic of progressive views on issues of race and culture; this has earned him some strong negativity on the left, despite his unambiguous opposition to Trump. Yet, as “Summer of Our Discontent” demonstrates, Williams is not a strident “anti-woke” warrior; he brings nuance and humility to the issues he examines.

He recognizes, for instance, that the emergence of a “woke” antiracism that is intensely pessimistic about race relations in America and views everything through a simplistic “oppressor/oppressed” lens was in part a reaction to the racial negativity often directed at Barack Obama — which undercut the hope that Obama’s election signaled a “postracial” moment in America.

But despite such justified frustrations, Williams argues that the rise of “woke” antiracism was deeply damaging. It promoted a crudely reductive view of social relations — and, sometimes, false or vastly oversimplified narratives of conflicts such as police shootings. It led to “cancellations” on often flimsy charges of racism. It sought to muzzle debate on difficult issues through shaming and social pressure, on the assumption that questioning claims of racism or other bigotry caused “harm.” It promoted a revisionist history that portrayed the American Revolution as a pro-slavery enterprise. And, in the summer of 2020, it led many to justify looting and riots — which, in some cases, saw white anarchists and revolutionaries destroy the property of Black business owners.

Williams concludes that the backlash against these extremes helped fuel Trump’s reelection, just as he believes the riots of 2020 helped create excuses for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill riot. The culture wars, he writes, “rendered for millions of Americans the disastrous illusion of Trump even more plausible” — and even “desirable,” as a way to counter one wrecking ball with another.

Some critics, such as Yale Law School Professor Justin Diver, have faulted Williams for letting Trumpism off the hook. But to point out contributing factors is not to excuse. Diver thinks that the parallel between Jan. 6 and the 2020 riots is unwarranted because most 2020 racial justice protests were peaceful. But given the vast number of protests, even a small percentage of violent events still amounted to an extraordinary outbreak of mayhem — which, to many onlookers, meant that settling political conflicts with violence was now acceptable.

Today, as the second Trump presidency nears the one-year mark, we are in a drastically different landscape. Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which once seemed a permanent new feature of every major institution, are now embattled targets of the new administration. Museums are under pressure not to focus on the evils of slavery too much. The new “cancel culture” is directed at TV networks that have displeased the president.

We must find our way back to the sane liberal center. But, as Williams compellingly argues, that requires confronting not only right wing authoritarianism but the abuses of the progressive left.

Opinions expressed by Cathy Young, a writer for The Bulwark, are her own.

By Cathy Young

Cathy Young is a writer for The Bulwark.