ATLANTA — When two young, Black, and outspoken state representatives were expelled earlier this month by the Tennessee legislature for joining a protest against gun violence, Marc H. Morial saw an alarming pattern.
“It was a serious effort tied to hate and extremism. Part of a movement in this country to undermine Black progress,” said Morial, the CEO of the National Urban League.
The civil rights organization released its 47th annual State of Black America Report on Saturday. The report argues right-wing extremism is spreading in classrooms, law enforcement, the military and Congress, resulting in rising violence, oppressive laws and racial polarization.
“The mainstreaming of extremist ideology is an existential threat to American democracy, the rule of law, and decades of hard-won progress toward an equitable, inclusive, more perfect union,” Morial told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview.
Using data and analysis gathered by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League and UCLA Law School, the report argues “shady political operatives and violent extremists” are dangerously close to dismantling American democracy by making it harder to vote, chilling debate and other tactics.
It coincides with growing political polarization in the U.S. as former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters continue claiming, without evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Prominent elected Republicans like Marjorie Taylor-Greene of Georgia have accused Democrats of being “communists” and say that a left-wing “deep state” wants to take away Americans’ freedoms.
The Urban League report, “Democracy in Peril: Confronting the Threat Within,” argues right-wing extremism is being normalized by authorities. It cites a preliminary study at California State University, San Bernardino that hate crimes increased by 44% in 2021, but that the Anti-Defamation League reported a 22% drop in hate crime reporting from law enforcement agencies over the same period.
The report says more than 180 government entities across the U.S. have introduced more than 500 legislative bills, executive orders and related actions against critical race theory since September 2020, according to a University of California, Los Angeles research project. Critical race theory argues racism is systemic in the country’s institutions, helping maintain the dominance of white people.
“America’s democracy is at risk and we have to understand the need to build a coalition. These are not the old Republican/Democratic fault lines,” said Morial, who is marking his 20th year at the helm of the Urban League. “This is something very different. This is democracy versus authoritarianism.”
