The edge of a Pogrom

Resisting violence against migrants on every level

Right now we’re in one of the most dangerous moments for migrants in decades. Proud Boys marched in Springfield, Ohio this weekend, and Haitian migrants have woken up to find their windows broken. Bomb threats closed two elementary schools and a middle school last week, parents are keeping their kids home, and the Republican Party along with the far-right media apparatus is bringing the town to the edge of a pogrom.

Even after the bomb threats, Donald Trump gave an interview where he spoke about the mass deportation of 20,000 Haitians from Springfield specifically, and dismissed the threats that shut down multiple schools. His running mate chose to go even further and claim that there's been a rise in infectious diseases in Springfield since migrants arrived, in addition to other lies.

These lies come directly from the Nazi playbook. Propagandizing the population with the idea that Jews spread disease was commonplace, and was one of the core methods of dehumanizing the Jewish people. And what the fascist media apparatus in this country – a network of far-right influencers who took a lie started by Ohio Neo-Nazis and promoted it to the national stage – have brought the town of Springfield to the edge of is also starkly reminiscent of violence against Jews. Namely, the small town appears to be hurtling towards — or rather has been thrust towards — is the edge of a pogrom.

The word pogrom is Russian, but may have come from Yiddish originally. It means “to wreak havoc.” Specifically, it was used to describe violence by Russian authorities and mobs of people against Jews, often officially-sanctioned slaughter and destruction. Centuries of antisemitism made Jews an easy scapegoat for Russian authorities who could point the masses at Jews as an outlet for anger and a source of blame during times of economic hardship, or when other misfortune befell the country.

America, of course, has its own history of scapegoating and mass violence. Race riots are, unfortunately, as American as apple pie. According to Learning for Justice, there were “27 separate race riots and countless lesser acts of racial violence” in 1919 alone. One illustrative case from the history of race riots in the United States comes from East St. Louis, a smaller and less prosperous city across the Mississippi from St. Louis with a high Black population. On July 1, 1917, a rumor spread claiming that a white man had been killed by a Black man. The next day, white people started attacking Black folks. They shot, beat, and burned. The riots raged for nearly a week, and hundreds of Black people were killed. The property damage, mostly to the businesses and homes of Black residents, was estimated at close to $400,000 – ten million dollars in today’s money. More than six thousand Black people ultimately fled the city. This was, of course, a pogrom.

And the past is not the past. Less than two months ago pogroms rocked the UK. Vicious far-right mobs spent days terrorizing Muslims, migrants, and people of color in cities across Northern Ireland and England at the beginning of August. A woman was attacked with acid, a library was burned down, and people of color were afraid to leave their homes, just as Haitians and other folks in Springfield are at this very moment. The far-right media ecosystem drummed up the race riots, or the pogrom, in Britain, and fascism is building power in the UK as it is in much of Europe and America. On both sides of the Atlantic the heirs to Nazi ideology are clear and united that migrants are the new primary scapegoats, the new primary targets of their violence and their campaign to seize power through fear-mongering and hatred.

Photo by Alex McCarthy on Unsplash

The stigmatizing and dehumanizing of migrants isn’t new, of course. In the U.S. there’s been a concerted effort over the last thirty years or so to shift the dialogue hard to the right on immigration. It might surprise some of you to learn that in 1986 Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted amnesty to 2.9 million immigrants who had come into the U.S. without papers. And although amnesty wasn’t exactly popular with the right, Reagan also hadn’t shied away from it, saying during his 1984 debate with Walter Mondale: “I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally.”

That bill, and that rhetoric, were far from perfect. And no one here needs to be educated on the countless horrors of the Reagan years. But if you look at Bill Clinton just a short decade later, the difference is striking. In his 1995 State of the Union, Clinton said: “Our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens.” The actions outlined here are profoundly harmful, and the rhetoric of “illegal aliens” from a Democratic president, or any president, should horrify us. That is the language that leads to dehumanization, and, along with a broad campaign by many other people seeking to blame migrants for problems they haven’t caused, helped get this country to where it is today.

The shift over the last thirty years has been a continuation and acceleration of that rightward trend. Republicans and Democrats have both shifted right, in rhetoric and policy. Yet, despite the Democrats’ attempts to ‘keep up’, Trump is still viewed more favorably on immigration than Kamala Harris by U.S. voters. And he’s making xenophobia and the racist dehumanization of migrants a cornerstone of his campaign. Democrats can’t keep running right to match him. Running to the right means conceding to fascist framing, which is putting people in danger as we speak. In this moment, where the far-right has catapulted Springfield, Ohio to the edge of mass violence against Haitian migrants, we urgently need a fresh approach.

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

It’s not just the threat of a pogrom in Springfield, the fascist forces of this country have accelerated their campaign to dehumanize migrants using this one town, but we know it won’t be limited to one place or one group of migrants. This move from the Nazi playbook to claim migrants are eating pets and spreading disease is part of a much bigger project, a project that must be opposed vigorously. The media must denounce the lies that Trump and his party are spreading, and Democrats must fight them as well – and the fight must be comprehensive. It’s not enough to shoot down this one deranged story, what’s needed is a narrative shift, a shift in policy, and a shift in power.

The shift must be towards telling an entirely different story. Anyone fighting fascism in a meaningful way can never cede to narratives of dehumanization, as Joe Biden did when he talked about “an illegal” during the State of the Union and as the vast majority of politicians appear willing to do with their immigration policy proposals and rhetoric. No, we need a story of shared humanity, of the people who come to this country looking for a better life in a world made difficult by massive forces out of their control. We need stories of towns like Springfield being revitalized by migrants coming and working in a community that has been passed over and abandoned by those very same forces. Most of us are just trying to do the best we can in this world, while the tidal waves of capitalism and imperialism toss us around, battering some and rewarding others.

If we, ordinary people everywhere, don’t halt the tide of dehumanization, this country could see horrific violence, roving mobs, and ultimately a pogrom like the one that rocked England just weeks ago. We could see moments far too similar to the darkest moments of America’s past. Using every avenue available to us we need to kindle relationships, connections across difference, and tell the story of people who have infinitely more in common than we do to divide us.

The voices of those seeking to divide and conquer, seeking violence directed at the oppressed, are often loud. But there must be more of us willing to reach our hands out to people coming into this country looking for a better life, and a better future for their families. There must be more of us who know that reaching out in generosity, in solidarity, in welcome builds a better country than fear and hatred and division. And we need to get louder, get organized, and protect our neighbors and ourselves from the pogroms that fascists are salivating over.

We need policies that welcome people to this country instead of criminalizing them. We need policies that crack down on the incitement to violence against immigrants, the incitement of pogroms. We need systems of care, both from our government and from ordinary people organizing for a better country. And we need to shift the narrative. Ultimately we can and will tell a different story, and we will build a different sort of society where those who scapegoat the vulnerable are powerless, and the people are powerful.