An AP analysis explores the narrative that white aggression against people of color, a legacy of slavery, continues to permeate race relations in the US.
Donald Trump was president, stoking racial divisions during the summer of 2020 as protesters demanded justice for George Floyd and others killed by police. And as AP race and ethnicity writer Aaron Morrison covered the protests that grew out of the killings, he also saw Trump on TV trying to undermine the racial reckoning at every turn.
Sensing that the tension might spark a racial clash, Morrison reexamined his years of race reporting. His conclusion: A race war was already underway.
Fast forward to Jan. 6, when a mob of mostly white rioters, upset that Trump wasn't reelected, violently breached the U.S. Capitol.
“A war rages on in America,” Morrison wrote, “and it didn’t begin with Donald Trump or the assault on the Capitol. It started with slavery and never ended, through lynchings and voter suppression.” He continued: “Today’s battles in the race war are waged by legions of white people in the thrall of stereotypes, lies and conspiracy theories.”
Morrison’s analysis connected the dots of what he described as a war of white aggression — from the Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed four girls at a Black Alabama church, to the shootings of nine Black parishioners by an avowed white supremacist at a South Carolina church, to the mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart where the gunman was accused of targeting Mexicans. And most recently, the Capitol siege.
Chicago-based race and ethnicity video journalist Noreen Nasir crafted a powerful video to accompany Morrison’s text, including Capitol riot scenes and images of the South Carolina church gunman leaving after the killings. Charlotte, North Carolina, photographer Chris Carlson’s portraits of Malcolm Graham, whose sister was among the South Carolina church victims, added further depth to the package. Top Stories Hub photo editor Alyssa Goodman crafted a bold visual presentation.
Malcolm Graham holds a painting of his late sister, Cynthia Graham-Hurd, in Charlotte, N.C., July 15, 2020. Graham, a former state senator in North Carolina, firmly believes that America’s failure to confront white supremacism cost the life of his older sister, Cynthia Graham-Hurd. She was among the nine killed by Dylann Roof in 2015 during a Bible study meeting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.
AP Photo / Chris Carlson
Cynthia Graham-Hurd, left, who was killed in the June 17, 2015 shooting by a white supremacist at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., poses for a picture with her niece, Cortney Graham, and her younger brother, former North Carolina state Sen. Malcolm Graham. The photo was taken a month before Graham-Hurd’s death.
Courtesy of Malcolm Graham via AP
A man carries a Nazi flag into Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Va., during a white nationalist rally that turned violent, Aug. 12, 2017.
AP Photo / Steve Helber
White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017.
AP Photo / Steve Helber
A counter demonstrator directs a lighted spray can at a white nationalist demonstrator at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017.
AP Photo / Steve Helber
Rescue personnel help an injured woman after a car slammed into a group of counter protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. Several hundred protesters were marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them, killing one person.
AP Photo / Steve Helber
A protester holds a photo of Heather Heyer on Boston Common at a “Free Speech” rally organized by conservative activists in Boston. Heyer was killed when a car, driven by James Alex Fields Jr., plowed into a group of people during protests in Charlottesville, Va.
AP Photo / Michael Dwyer
Christina Pipkin, right, embraces Alex Briseno in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 5, 2019, at a makeshift memorial at the site of a mass shooting at a Walmart shopping complex. The gunman was accused of targeting Mexicans.
AP Photo / John Locher
Supporters of President Donald Trump, acting on his claims of election fraud, try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.
AP Photo / John Minchillo
Shattered glass from the Feb. 6 riot, by a mob loyal to President Donald Trump, is seen in the doors leading to the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Jan. 12, 2021.
AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
The package, published on a Friday, sparked discussion online and within the AP, and garnered some 100,000 pageviews on AP News — prominent play that continued throughout the weekend.
For a timely, compelling package that looks at the state of race relations with historical context and thoughtful analysis, the team of Morrison, Nasir, Carlson and Goodman earns this week’s Best of the States award.
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