How Long Before the Muslim Ban Becomes a Brown Ban?

I don't want to write this. It makes me ill typing it. But it is time to acknowledge that the Bannon/Trump end game is about race. More specifically to reverse what demographers call the "Browning of America."

The Muslim Immigration ban will soon expand to be a #BrownImmigrationBan. Bannon/Trump won't add White majority countries that are terrorist nests like Russia, Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan. The only other non-White majority countries that may escape — for now — are  ones that line Trump's pockets. The purpose is not to confront terrorism. In fact, Bannon/Trump are reportedly directing the US anti-terrorism apparatus to ignore the rapidly rising danger of White Supremacist to focus solely on Islamist extremism. This comes as reports of White Supremacists infiltrating law enforcement agencies reaches new heights.

Put plainly, their goal is It is to reverse the demographic trend that is making America increasingly a country of older white people and young brown people. And more broadly, Bannon/Trump aim to be part of what they see as a resurgence movement for White Anglo-Saxon power. This is what connects Bannon/Trump/Putin, Brexit architect Nigel Farage and British Prime Minister May with forces working to oust Merkel in Germany and those backing Marine Le Pen in France. This isn't hyperbolic conspiracy theorizing: They are quite open in stating their intent. Read Le Pen's comments at a far-right gathering held after Trump's electoral college victory and ask yourself what the inevitable steps would have to be to reverse the declining white birth rate and lower the population growth of non-white populations.

As reported by The Independent, Ms. Le Pen told cheering crowds: “2016 was the year the Anglo-Saxon world woke up. 2017, I am sure, the people of continental Europe will wake up. It's no longer a question of if, but when.”

Marine Le Pen says May and Trump are 'putting her plan into action.

The Front National leader, whose father was convicted over racial hatred, xenophobia and anti-Semitism, denounced the EU as “a force of sterilization” and attacked German Chancellor Angela

Merkel — whose name was booed loudly — for her refugee policy.

Crowds chanted the Nazi era term “Lügenpresse”, which means “lying press” and was named Germany’s “non-word” of 2015, after several major news outlets were banned from attending that year’s far-right conference."

To be clear, the majority of Trump voters whose geography helped him outmaneuver Clinton's numeric advantage, did not sign on for this racist end game. But a dedicated minority did and each day Bannon/Trump stoke their extremism.

That is why our vision of an inclusive, diverse and indivisible America that is a beacon of freedom and democracy is so vital right now. The kindling for a race-based conflagration can be quickly gathered. The National Guard in Chicago. A "Reichstag Fire" pretext for declaring Martial Law. We have to gird ourselves not to play into his provocations.

Did Nazi's truly hate Jewish people? It doesn't matter. They didn't need to. Their dedication to the purification and dominance of their race was sufficient to inflict horror and to reduce Jewish existence to a math equation solved by concentration camps and gas chambers.

Dylann Roof had Black friends and said the hugs of the parishioners who welcomed him made him feel bad briefly before he opened fire. He has been radicalized for a mission he believes transcends what we understand as basic humanity and decency and that radicalization is spreading rapidly in the US.

We must assert the values we have claimed as Americans even when they were more aspiration than fact: Democracy, Equality, Liberty, Justice, the Separation of Powers, as John Adams wrote "a government of laws, not of men."

This is why we must confront hate crimes in our communities and give no oxygen to extremists. Why we must take to the streets to push back visibly when attacks come for anyone, any group, including the coordinated attacks on the media. It is why we must fortify the bonds between us as neighbors. Why we have to find a bridge to Trump voters who are or will awaken to the harm he has caused before he finds a new scapegoat for their pain. And it is why we must strike chords of resistance within people of faith. When we share Reverend Niemoller's "First they came..." meme we must remember that he was a Hitler supporter who became a resistor.

It is important to place the chaos of the past week into a context. There does not need to be a Final Solution manifesto circulating, just a prime directive from which decisions flow.

Trump is predisposed to eugenic hogwash but those who share Bannon's view have not consolidated power quite yet.

But we have to keep the pressure on. We have to find the flicker of courage in GOP legislators to resist and coax it into a roaring fire.

Nadine Smith is Executive Director for Equality Florida