It’s almost unthinkable that a nation built on the bones of Democracy would ever consider being ruled under a dictatorship... until now. On the winding and sometimes treacherous road to Nov. 5, Black Americans have been hit with everything possible, including bubbling fears of fascism.
Just this week, Vice President Kamala Harris called her opponent, former President Donald Trump, “a fascist,” a term if used 50 years ago would evoke a witch trial. Now, “fascist” and “dictator” have found a comfortable place in American politics, and more notably, these words are thrown mostly at one person: the GOP nominee.
Suggested Reading
Most worrisome of all, John Kelly, Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, said in a series of interviews this week Trump fits “into the general definition fascist’’ and that the former president spoke of his loyalty to Hitler’s generals.
If that wasn’t scary enough, Kelly also told the New York Times Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”
Trump’s campaign has denied all this. Alex Pfeiffer, Trump campaign manager, told reporters these comments from Kelly are “absolutely false. President Trump never said this.”
Whether it’s true or not, the fact that people close to the GOP candidate are throwing around the word “dictatorship” should make African Americans uncomfortable. Trump has had a lot to say about Black people, so it would be a understatement to say some of us are just scared of a second Trump. And experts say Black folks, in accordance with history, have the most at stake.
“I don’t think many of us have processed the trauma of living under a Trump administration let alone being prepared for what he is better equipped to do,” Dr. David Johns, the chief executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), told The Root. For him, this election is more than just about a president. Johns fears for the political and civil safety of marginalized groups, especially Black and queer people.
A recent survey conducted by YouGov found 84 percent of U.S. voters say “America was more divided than 10 years ago.” If that’s not enough, the same poll reported “more than a quarter of Americans believe that civil war could break out after this year’s presidential election.”
Johns remembers the anti-immigrant sentiments of Trump’s first presidency, citing his Muslim ban and Trump’s border wall. The LGBTQ+ activist also recalled all of Trump’s anti-Black and “tough on crime” rhetoric which further polarized the country, leading to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
Most recently, the former president has emphasized plans to weaponize the U.S. government against what he calls “the enemy from within.” Out of the GOP candidate’s own mouth, he threatened violence against American citizens by saying, “It should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”
These alarming words coupled with his “Make America Great Again” slogan have Black Americans rightfully scared. Dr. Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow at the Brooking Institute, told The Root even with the government’s checks and balances system preventing a dictatorship in theory, he looks at one of the most notorious dictators in history as a clear cut example of why we should still be paying attention.
Ray said it was a gradual process to Adolf Hitler enacting what we know now to be Nazi Germany. And with Trump, the sociologist argues, “some of the nuts and bolts are being put into place.”
One of the first steps towards dictatorship is “allowing for the president or the ruler to be above the law,” he said. “And in many regards, we’ve seen that with the Supreme Court.”
This past summer, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump, saying presidents “are entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for certain actions conducted while in office,” The Root reported.
Ray, who spent time teaching in Germany, struggles with hearing that Trump said “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” according to Kelly.
Right or wrong, these words are worrisome. According to Ray, such words “speaks to literally aiming to wipe out an entire group of people— aiming to creating a system where we do not have the freedoms that we have now.”
With civil rights, bodily rights, and even the right to higher education all at stake now, the battle between Trump and Harris is shaping up to be arguably the most important one of modern history. Ray said “by no means is the United States of America perfect, but by all means, it’s better than it was 50 and 100 years ago.”
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.