20/20 in 2020?: Refractive vision, 45, and white supremacy

ABSTRACT

To examine events leading up to and occurring in 2020, we adopt vision, along with refractive diseases and disorders, as a metaphorical framework. Heuristically, a vision metaphor enables us to make sense of and assess acute events that marked the election season through obstructions that impinge on vision. We identify competing visions of America/Amerikkka, which facilitate explicating the nation’s vision and national vision.

KEYWORDS:

• Vision
• white supremacy
• Trump
• hate speech
• metaphor

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Stephanie Martin for inviting our contribution to this forum. We also appreciate her feedback and that of Karrin Anderson.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 “Visual Acuity,” American Optometric Association, https://www.aoa.org/healthy-eyes/vision-and-vision-correction/visual-acuity?sso=y (accessed January 11, 2021).

2 According to the website mappingpoliceviolence.org, “Black people were 28% of those killed by police in 2020 despite being only 13% of the population.” Mapping Police Violence Interactive Database, Mapping Police Violence, last modified August 18, 2021., https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/.

3 We acknowledge that some readers of the Quarterly Journal of Speech may lack understanding of “rona la cabrona,” which is a Spanish reference to corona virus. Due to the loss of nuance and layered interpretations following from usage of rona la cabrona, we refrain from offering a direct translation. The matter of translation or “un-taming the bilingual tongue” also raises issues of uncompensated time and labor to make a vernacular phrase intelligible and neglects academic, social, and cultural politics in doing so. See respectively: Michelle A. Holling and Bernadette M. Calafell, “Tracing the Emergence of Latin@ Vernaculars in Studies of Latin@ Communication,” in Latina/o Discourse in Vernacular Spaces?: Somos de Una Voz? (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011), 28; Stacey Sowards, “#RhetoricSoEnglishOnly: Decolonizing Rhetorical Studies Through Multilingualism,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 105, no. 4 (2019): 477–83, doi:10.1080/00335630.2019.1669891; Darrel Wanzer-Serrano, “Rhetoric’s Rac(e/ist) Problems,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 105, no. 4 (2019): 465–76, doi:10.1080/00335630.2019.1669068.

4 “Vision Loss: A Public Health Problem,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, last modified June 12, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basic_information/vision_loss.htm.

5 By “white supremacy,” we refer to production and reproduction of domination, power, exploitation, and oppression in thought, practice, and institutions that are consequential (ranging from erasure to death) in the lives of historically marginalized communities. Maulana Karenga, interviewed by Robin Bennefield, “Whiteness Studies: Deceptive of Welcome Discourse?” Diverse Issues in Higher Education, May 13. 1999, https://diverseeducation.com/article/139/; Elizabeth Martínez, “What is White Supremacy?,” February 1998, https://web.archive.org/web/20070707085517/http://prisonactivist.org/cws/betita.html; Dreama G. Moon and Michelle A. Holling, “‘White Supremacy in Heels’: (White) Feminism, White Supremacy, and Discursive Violence,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 17, no. 2 (2020): 253–60, doi:10.1080/14791420.2020.1770819.

6 Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 503.

7 Burke writes, “And to consider A from the point of view of B is, of course, to use B as a perspective upon A.” A Grammar of Motives, 504.

8 Burke, A Grammar of Motives, 504

9 We consulted“Hereditary Ocular Disease: A Database of Hereditary Ocular Disease,” University of Arizona Health Sciences, last modified 2019, https://disorders.eyes.arizona.edu/.

10 Examples include a tweet by Josep Borrell, representative of the European Union, see: @JosepBorrellF, January 6, 2021, “In the eyes of the world . . . ”. Twitter; Congressman Dan Newhouse, see: KREM Staff, “Gov. Inslee, Other Leaders Respond to Violence at U.S. Capitol: ‘Attack on Democracy Itself’,” KREM2 News, January 6, 2021, https://www.krem.com/article/news/politics/washington-leaders-condemn-violence-us-capitol/293-2ffc7053-8558-4055-9600-a4da623ff805; Representative Doug Lamborn, see: Ernest Luning, “‘This is Not Who We Are’: Colorado Officials Condemn Attack by Trump Supporters on US Capitol, Call for Calm,” Colorado Politics, January 6, 2021, https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2020-election/this-is-not-who-we-are-colorado-officials-condemn-attack-by-trump-supporters-on-us/article_47214526-505d-11eb-ad0b-7fe9cd993fa3.html; former President-elect Joe Biden, see: Joe Biden, “Remarks on U.S. Capitol Protesters,” January 6, 2021, Wilmington, DE, television, 8:33 min, https://www.c-span.org/video/?507742-1/president-elect-biden-at-hour-democracy-unprecedented-assault.

11 “45” made the remark during his “Save America Rally” speech on January 6, 2021. Associated Press, “Transcript of Trump’s Speech at Rally Before US Capitol Riot,” US News, January 13, 2021, Washington, D.C., https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-01-13/transcript-of-trumps-speech-at-rally-before-us-capitol-riot.

12 In lieu of his birthname, we refer to the former president with the moniker “45” to subvert his legitimacy and the authority given his actions (e.g. misogyny, xenophobia, racism, Islamphobia) that belie the nature of the most significant political office and conjure horrific imagery of the damage done to the nation and its citizenry. Moreover, the use of his name has had a polarizing effect on the nation such that the long-term consequences of his actions escape critical attention. In finalizing this manuscript, we located the following article for further reading on our point. Elizabeth Limbach, “On Not Saying His Name,” The Atlantic, February 14, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/the-power-of-not-saying-his-name/516483/.

13 “Trump–Biden First Debate,” C-Span, September 29, 2020, 1:06.04, https://www.c-span.org/video/?475793-1/trump-biden-debate&live.

14 “Debate transcript: Trump, Biden final presidential debate moderated by Kristen Walker,” USA Today, October 23, 2020, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/23/debate-transcript-trump-biden-final-presidential-debate-nashville/3740152001/.

15 45’s repeated assertion functions as both denial and deflection, rhetorical strategies used by white public figures who make racist statements. See: Michelle A. Holling, Dreama G. Moon, and Alexandra Jackson Nevis, “Racist Violations and Racializing Apologia in a Post-Racism Era,” Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 7, no. 4 (2014): 260–86, doi:10.1080/17513057.2014.964144. It is beyond the scope of this essay to consider 45’s many racist statements as protracted “racist violations,” statements, verbal and/or written, that offend on the basis of race, maintain racial formations, commit harm based on marginalized group identities, and violate the norms of colorblind ideology. To date, 45 has failed (and is highly unlikely) to offer a “racializing apologia.”

16 Violences resists singular forms of violence modified adjectivally that obscure “the sites, logics, processes, and subjects that generate violence”; instead, violences recognizes multiple and heterogeneous forms of violence that implicate both state and non-state actors as responsible. Roberto Hernández, Coloniality of the US///Mexico Border: Power, Violence, and the Decolonial Imperative (Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 2018), 32.

17 Amber Phillips, “‘They’re Rapists.’ President Trump’s Campaign Launch Speech Two Years Later, Annotated,” Washington Post, June 16, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/16/theyre-rapists-presidents-trump-campaign-launch-speech-two-years-later-annotated/.

18 “Muslim Travel Ban,” Immigration History, last modified 2019, https://immigrationhistory.org/item/muslim-travel-ban/.

19 Ali Vitali, Kasie Hunt, and Frank Thorp V, “Trump Referred to Haiti and African Countries as ‘Shithole’ Countries,” NBC News, January 11, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-referred-haiti-african-countries-shithole-nations-n836946.

20 Andrea Salcedo, “Racist Anti-Asian Hashtags Spiked After Trump First Tweeted ‘Chinese virus,’ Study Finds,” Washington Post, March 19, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/19/trump-tweets-chinese-virus-racist/.

21 Mark Hugo Lopez, Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, and Jens Manuel Krogstad, “More Latinos Have Serious Concerns About Their Place in America Under Trump,” Pew Research Center, October 25, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2018/10/25/more-latinos-have-serious-concerns-about-their-place-in-america-under-trump/.

22 Brad Brooks, “Victims of Anti-Latino Hate Crimes Soar in U.S.: FBI Report,” Reuters, November 12, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hatecrimes-report/victims-of-anti-latino-hate-crimes-soar-in-u-s-fbi-report-idUSKBN1XM2OQ.

23 Editorial Board, “Hate in America is on the Rise,” Washington Post, November 25, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hate-in-america-is-on-the-rise/2017/11/25/33808364-c94d-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html.

24 Salcedo, “Racist Anti-Asian Hashtags.”

25 Kimmy Yam, “Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Increased by Nearly 150% in 2020, Mostly in N.Y. and L.A., New Report Says,” NBC News, March 9, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-asian-hate-crimes-increased-nearly-150-2020-mostly-n-n1260264.

26 Brian Fung, Ryan Nobles, and Kevin Liptak, “Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting Social Media Companies,” CNN, May 28, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/politics/trump-twitter-social-media-executive-order/index.html.

27 Sara Fischer and Ashley Gold, “All of the Platforms that Have Banned or Restricted Trump so Far,” Axios, January 11, 2021, https://www.axios.com/platforms-social-media-ban-restrict-trump-d9e44f3c-8366-4ba9-a8a1-7f3114f920f1.html.

28 Issues arising from hate speech are powerfully explored in several works, some of which we offer here: Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Must We Defend Nazis?: Why the First Amendment Should Not Protect Hate Speech and White Supremacy (New York University Press, 2018); Gregory Gondwe, “Online Incivility, Hate Speech and Political Violence in Zambia: Examining the Role of Online Political Campaign Messages,” Journal of African Media Studies 13 (2021): 35–51, doi:10.1386/jams_00032_1; Mari J. Matsuda, “Public Response to Racist Speech: Considering the Victim’s Story,” in eds. M. J. Matsuda, Charles R. Lawrence III, Richard Delgado, and Kimberlé Crenshaw, Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment (Boulder: Westview Press, 1993); Wendy Leo Moore and Joyce M. Bell, “The Limits of Community: Deconstructing the White Framing of Racist Speech in Universities,” American Behavioral Scientist 63 (2019): 1760–75, doi:10.1177/0002764219842615.

29 Jeffrey W. Howard, “Free Speech and Hate Speech,” Annual Review of Political Science, 22 (2019): 93–109, doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-051517-012343.

30 Eugene Volokh, “There is No ‘Hate Speech’ Exception to the First Amendment,” Washington Post, May 7, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/07/no-theres-no-hate-speech-exception-to-the-first-amendment/.

31 Dipayan Ghosh, “Are We Entering a New Era of Social Media Regulation?” Harvard Business Review, January 14, 2021, https://hbr.org/2021/01/are-we-entering-a-new-era-of-social-media-regulation; Emily A. Vogels, Andrew Perrin, and Monica Anderson, “Most Americans Think Social Media Sites Censor Political Viewpoints,” Pew Research Center, August 19, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/08/19/most-americans-think-social-media-sites-censor-political-viewpoints/.

32 “Dry Eyes,” Mayo Clinic, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dry-eyes/symptoms-causes/syc-20371863 (accessed January 30, 2021).

33 One of the authors heard political anchor Jake Tapper make the remark on November 7, 2020; it is also accessible at Aditi Sangal “Jake Tapper: ‘The son of Scranton and the daughter of immigrants are headed to the White House,’” CNN Politics, November 7, 2020 https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-biden-election-results-11-07-20/h_40c0e91346cfad3c403e9c64cb7ce5ab.

34 Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb,” January 20, 2021. See: Jennifer Liu, “Read the full text of Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem ‘The Hill We Climb,’” CNBC, January 20, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/20/amanda-gormans-inaugural-poem-the-hill-we-climb-full-text.html.

35 Gorman, “The Hill We Climb.”

36 Victoria Cavaliere, Grace Dean, and Allana Akhtar, “Google is the Latest Corporate Giant to Halt Donations to Republican Lawmakers Who Voted Against Biden’s Certification as President, Joining Amazon and Walmart,” Business Insider, January 28, 2021, https://www.businessinsider.com/marriott-suspends-donations-gop-lawmakers-objected-biden-win-2021-1.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Michelle A. Holling

Michelle A. Holling is professor in the Department of Communication and Director of Ethnic Studies at California State University San Marcos.

Dreama G. Moon

Dreama G. Moon is professor in the Department of Communication at California State University San Marcos.