Political Scientists Harry Targ and Valeria Sinclair Chapman discuss the connections between the history of the United States political economy, the construction of race, and the institutionalization of racism politically and culturally. The rise of Trumpism is related to this history of white supremacy. What are the problems and prospects of combatting it in the new Biden Administration? These include legislation around reparations, inequality in the incidences of the pandemic and responses to it, assistance to small business and the poor, and the possibilities of a renewed “fusion politics” around Rev. William Barber’s New Poor Peoples Campaign.
Harry Targ is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Purdue University.
Valeria Sinclair Chapman is also at Purdue University as well as a member of Editorial Board of the American Political Science Review