“The need to look down on Black people and other marginalized groups manifest from cultivated hatred and a need to maintain a false sense of racial superiority.” By John Johnson II
By John Johnson II
America entered the twenty-first century carrying an ideological disease it never completely cured. Critics argue that among a segment of staunch white conservative Republicans exists a fear that an increasingly multiracial democracy—and the political empowerment of Black Americans, immigrants, LGBTQ Americans, and other historically marginalized groups—threatens a social order historically dominated by white Americans.
Critics contend that white-supremacist ideology depends upon hierarchy: equality requires sharing political power, economic opportunity, and social standing with people historically considered inferior. To those psychologically invested in superiority, sharing can feel like losing. Without the euphoric reassurance of presumed superiority, what remains of that identity?
Who were the architects of this ideological dogma, and what purpose did it serve. This abominable ideology was not created by one person. History reports that it was developed over hundreds of years by European colonialism and 19th century false scientific theories to justify slavery.
Part of the answer for the survival of this ideology lies within America’s own government. Racial hierarchy wasn’t merely social prejudice; it was repeatedly codified into law. The original Constitution accommodated slavery.
Former president Thomas Jefferson and Founding Fathers helped immortalized white supremacy by embedding systemic falsehoods into founding documents such as the Declaration of Independence: the characterization of Indigenous people as “merciless Indian savages,’ and the hollow words, “all men are created equal.”
The Civil War destroyed legal slavery but couldn’t destroy the ideology rationalizing it. The Reconstruction Amendments abolished slavery and prohibited racial discrimination in voting. Yet Jim Crow subsequently denied millions the practical enjoyment of those constitutional promises.
Americans fought back not realizing that a “Culture War” was raging. They remained determined through elections, protests, litigation, civil-rights organizations, and legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, in 2013 and 2026, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts carried out his vendetta to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965, by gutting Sections 5 & 2 respectively. Southern states immediately began enacting draconian voter suppression legislation.
Today, the Democratic Party, its voters, civil-rights groups and voting-rights organizations describe themselves as defending an inclusive multiracial democracy. Republicans and conservatives dispute Democratic policies and reject characterizations equating conservatism or Republicanism with white supremacy. That distinction matters.
Meanwhile, America’s prolonged war with Iran has itself become a powerful distraction from the Culture War unfolding at home. While Americans confront another foreign conflict costs, casualties, economic consequences, and uncertainties, an equally consequential struggle continues within our own borders.
What kind of democracy will America become—and who will be considered fully equal within it?
America’s Culture War becomes abominable when political disagreement becomes a struggle over who belongs, who votes, and who is equal.
It is a struggle demanding that America’s original democracy—which tolerated and protected a white-supremacist social order—now strive toward a more inclusive and perfect Union for its people.
Two voices from America’s past sound crucial alarms that should warn this nation of its current perilous charted course. The fate of the Titanic can’t be changed. Yet America’s fate is in the hands of the people.
John Adams warned in 1814: “Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.”
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln warned: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Adams warned of democratic self-destruction. Lincoln warned of the national division.
Will America’s abominable culture war fulfill their warnings—or will Americans prove that democracy can overcome its historical divisions and continue striving toward a more inclusive and perfect Union for all?
QuestionWhatYouBelieve!