Kanye West. Nick Fuentes. Herschel Walker. Kyrie Irving. Enrique Tarrio.
If 2020 was the year that George Floyd’s murder made us confront systemic racism and 2021 was the year that made us face right-wing terrorism, then 2022 was the year that blew up our collective assumptions about what extremism looks like in the United States.
Hate comes in all colors.
Columnists Erika D. Smith and Anita Chabria look back and look ahead to the new year, as antisemitic rhetoric and hate crimes continue to change our understanding of the way political turmoil crosses demographic lines.
Chabria: Erika, you and I have been talking for a while about how people of color find their way into conspiratorial, far-right movements.
Last year, you wrote about Larry Elder being the “Black face of white supremacy” when the talk radio show host ran for governor, hoping to replace Gavin Newsom. California voters overwhelmingly rejected Elder in that recall election. So were you surprised to hear Republicans of color from other states mimic his inflammatory rhetoric on the campaign trail in 2022?
Smith: Not really. It’s depressing, but certainly not surprising.
During the recall election, I interviewed several Black Republicans in California, and many of them predicted that Elder’s high-profile candidacy would encourage other conservatives of color to run for office. The only question was whether those conservatives would be moderate or whether they would emulate Elder, with his hard-line bombast and friendliness with far-right extremists, including Santa Monica native Stephen Miller.
Ultimately, I think what we saw in the midterm elections last year was a mixture of both.
Herschel Walker shakes hands with former President Trump in Atlanta in 2021. Walker, who had been endorsed by Trump, lost his bid to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate during a runoff election in December.
(Michael Zarrilli / Getty Images)
On the one hand, Republicans managed to elect more…