(Todd A. Smith)
Make America Great Again (MAGA) has always meant Make America White Again and Make America Hate Again.
From welcoming White South Africans into the country and fast-tracking their citizenship, while ending deportation protections for legal Haitian immigrants, President Donald Trump’s political movement has always been about preserving White supremacy despite disguising it as patriotism.
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd in 2020 by putting a knee to his neck for almost 10 minutes, receiving support for a presidential pardon by MAGA leaders like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shows that when they say they want to take their country back, one of the meanings behind that statement is that they want to go back to a time when Black people had no rights that a White person had to respect.
In President Trump’s defense, he said that he has no intention of pardoning Floyd.
But with his track record of lying almost every time he opens his mouth, people should take that declaration with a grain of salt.
Furthermore, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stated that if Trump grants Chauvin a presidential pardon— a constitutional right of the president— the disgraced former officer would be transferred to begin serving his state sentence, which the president has no power to influence.
On X, Rep. Greene wrote, “I strongly support Derek Chauvin being pardoned and released from prison. George Floyd died of a drug overdose.”
Greene’s comments are not factual.
A jury found Chauvin guilty of murdering Floyd, even though the court said his past drug use might have contributed to his death.
During the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, media personality and Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe stated that saying Floyd died of a drug overdose implies he would have passed away on May 25, 2020, at the exact time of his death, even if Chauvin had not knelt on his neck for almost 10 minutes.
Anyone with a brain would find that assumption far-fetched.
People who claim that Chauvin died of a drug overdose are doing so to vilify a deceased Black man while excusing the violent behavior of a former White cop.
That is straight out of the White supremacy handbook.
Disparage a Black man while showing sympathy for a violent White man.
It is also a conspiracy theory.
But conspiracy theories aside, Greene’s calling for the release of Chauvin harkens back to a time when White men, especially police officers, could kill any Black person with impunity.
To MAGA, that would make America great again.
A great example of America being “great” and America “backing the blue” is the murder of civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson on Feb. 18, 1965.
During a voting rights protest in Marion, Ala., state troopers broke up a march violently, forcing the protestors to seek refuge in churches, homes and businesses.
As Jackson attempted to protect his mother from a police officer assaulting her, the cop shot and killed Jackson.
The officer James Bonard Fowler admitted to killing Jackson.
However, he said that Jackson attempted to take his gun, although witnesses disputed that account, saying that Jackson was not violent.
Two grand juries failed to indict Fowler initially.
He did not face indictment for the murder of Jackson until 2007.
Fowler pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2010 and received six months in prison.
However, he only served five months of the sentence before getting an early release for health reasons.
In 1965, a White officer would have never been punished for murdering a Black person, even after admitting to the crime.
But in the 21st century, more police officers like Chauvin are facing consequences for their abhorrent behavior.
To many in the MAGA movement, that is not great.
White Jan. 6 protestors can get presidential pardons for assaulting police officers.
But the relatives and friends of Black murder victims could see their murderers receive pardons for their crimes.
That is pouring salt on an open wound that has never fully healed since 1619.
Many in the Black community simply want a country where all lives are respected and valued by law enforcement.
But that is considered “woke” by MAGA minions.
To them, America is not great when all lives are respected.
To them, America is not great when everyone has protected rights.
That is why many Republicans have attempted to make it harder for people, especially minorities, to vote by enacting unnecessary voter restrictions.
That is why many Republicans have begun to take money from public schools and use taxpayer money to help affluent families send their children to private schools.
That is why many Republicans want to ban books and rewrite Black history.
That is why immigrants of color are being snatched from the streets and deported without due process, while White South Africans are welcomed into our country with open arms.
That is why Trump campaigned on giving police officers absolute immunity, which essentially legalizes murder.
And since African-Americans are more likely to have violent encounters with police officers, many of those murdered will probably be African-Americans.
That is why many African-Americans who get a high-profile job are called DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) hires, while unqualified White guys like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continue to show that they are truly the ones unqualified for those positions.
Calling African-Americans DEI hires is saying that they are inferior.
Hiring unqualified and inexperienced White men like Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is saying that the least qualified White person is better than a qualified minority.
That is preserving White supremacy and America’s racist caste system.
And that is what some Americans consider great.
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