In Celebration of Black History Month

What Lyndon B. Johnson Understood About Classism and Racism in America

It’s a lesson Trump supporters never learned.

African American demonstrators outside the White House, with signs “We demand the right to vote, everywhere, March 1965 | Library of Congress | Public Domain

On a sweltering Tennessee afternoon, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s motorcade rolled through town. The crowd filled with mostly cheers — until Johnson spotted them. A cluster of scowling white Southern protesters gripped hand-painted signs smeared with racial slurs.

Now, Johnson wasn’t exactly the poster boy for DEI. In Senate cloakrooms and backroom deals, he threw around the n-word like a man fluent in bigotry.

But still, those signs gnawed at him.

Later that night, after the bourbon glasses had clinked and the local bigwigs had gone home, Johnson sat with his aide, Bill Moyers, reflecting on the day’s unsettling imagery.

“I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it,” Johnson said. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”¹

Decades later, Donald Trump has made a career out of perfecting the same zero-sum con. He distracts struggling Americans with scapegoats — immigrants eating…