Reagan's Last Stand: How Trayvon Martin Represents the Foil in American Popular Culture

Conservatives pray to the God of Ronald Reagan.  The former President's one time speech writer, and current columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan turns misty and girlish when describing her days with Reagan.  Noonan wrote the book, so to speak, on Reagan worship, When Character Was King (2001).   The book begins with contrast.  Its title sets up a profound dichotomous premise that operates as the base from which present nostalgic conservative America operates.  And that premise, that white men must be idolized and worshipped as quintessential representations of American royalty and heroism--at all costs, and at the expense of everyone else--is dogging and dehumanizing every American who does not fall within that category or accept that reality.   Children like Trayvon Martin, without consent, function as foils for this hero.  For the mind bent on perpetuating this Reagan mythology, Trayvon Martin, a child, becomes the bad guy who highlights the outstanding qualities in the hero.

The Reagan worshipping conservative operates under this premise and as a result vilifies every other class of American, whether African American, Latino, LGBT, Immigrant, Female, Muslim, working class or poor.  Americans who do not look like Reagan or have the same daily life privileges as Reagan are made to struggle evermore, to provide some proof of their right to full citizenship rights and human status.  In fact, every other class of American is currently and unquestionably under attack, is currently and unquestionably being bullied by a class of Americans who wish to profit from our presence in America, yet who also wish to deprive us of our full rights as citizens.  We can look at George Zimmerman's acquittal as evidence of this fact.  

George Zimmerman and his representatives, especially and particularly the unapologetic Don West,  walked out of that Sanford, Florida courtroom with the same air of superiority, callousness, cruelty and impunity seen on the faces of the white supremacists Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam who smiled, snuggled and smooched with their wives after their Sumner, Mississippi acquittal in the murder of Emmett Till .  In his 1956 confession to William Bradford Huie, Milam explains exactly why he murdered Till,

 "Me and my folks fought for this country, and we got some rights.  I stood there in that shed and listened to that nigger throw that poison at me, and I just made up my mind.  'Chicago boy,' I said, 'I'm tired of em sending your kind down here to stir up trouble.  Goddam you, I'm going to make an example of you--so everybody will know where me and my kind stand.'"

Milam details his and his brother's pursuit of Till in the night.  Like Zimmerman, he justifies his brutal aggression.  As he speaks, he confesses to more than the killing.  His confession codifies the psychology of the supremacist who acts peremptorily.   Milam had to stop Till because he represented progressive attitudes, attitudes that rattled chains deep within the dungeon the American caste system had created for him.    Till hit on Milam's wife and thereby represented for Milam one who does not accept his place in an old oppressive world order.  He'd affronted the socio-sexual order for race, class and age in this slight act, and would actually have escaped death had he responded differently.  Till, like Martin, did not bow.  

Milam says he never meant to kill Till, but Till's defiance and lack of fear enraged him, so he knew he had to kill him.  Milam, a World War II hero, shot Till with the same Colt .45 he used to fight Germans in Europe.  He, like the overzealous neighborhood watchman Zimmerman, saw himself as a soldier in a war against encroachment.  For Milam it was The Civil Rights Movement.  For Zimmerman, it is a black President, a black Attorney General, a Latina Supreme Court Justice, women Secretaries-of-State, Un-closeted Gays and Lesbians, an increasingly brown citizenry, poor, working class and middle class people demanding economic reform and an overall evolving American populace.  And unfortunately, the innocent child, walking home from the store, caught the eye of a conservative white man (Zimmerman's words), primed for preemptive self-defense.  

In conservative minds, a dichotomy exists.  It is black and white and very clear.  It is easily managed and comforting.  A Reganesque hero, pure, uncomplicated, self-sufficient, square-dealing, handsome, white, and gun-toting sits high on a steed on one side of the battlefield assuming God's place for him as commander of the Earth.  He sits ready for battle with another who stands in opposition to his understanding of himself.  

In conservative minds, this Other is everything the Reaganesque character despises:  brown, dependent, queer, lazy, violent, unattractive, unpredictable, vengeful, illiterate, degenerate and more than anything else threatening.  The Other threatens the Reaganesque character's aerie perch.  Some may read these assertions as hyperbole, exaggeration.  Facts do not exaggerate.  We need only look to popular culture, especially the images of "Others" perpetuated in today's media.  

I challenge anyone to flip around today's television channels.  Dehumanizing stereotypes of the Other, particularly African Americans, Latinos, and women, that so many fought hard to debunk in the 60s, 70s and 80s have returned virulently.  We can begin with FOX News.  Many dismiss the channel with its absurd reporting and perpetuation of all the Reaganesque's character racist, homophobic, classist, sexist, anti-immigrant and fear-mongering presentments, but  FOX News consistently pulls in the highest ratings among day-time cable news channels.   In May, 2013 FOX News boasted 1.904 million total viewers and 322, 000 viewers between the ages 25-54.  So we cannot deny FOX'S relevance in American culture.  Millions of Americans believe FOX News is news and watch it like most of us watch other stations or read books and magazine articles, to gain information and insight into topical issues.  Imagine FOX News as a person's primary source of information.  Well, for many, it is precisely that.  

Besides the obvious biased offenses at FOX, what about the less obvious sources for stereotypes of African Americans, Latinos and women on other regularly consumed shows like Love and Hip Hop, Basketball Wives, Flavor of Love,  Devious Maids, Housewives of Orange County and Atlanta (let's say all the Housewives), Flipping Out, Bad Girls Club, Princesses of Long Island Princesses, Jersey Shore, Chelsea Handler.   The list could continue.  On these shows we see women, many women of color, portrayed as irrational whores and servants, often screaming and fighting each other like animals, over petty differences.  Across the television spectrum, we see African American and Latino men portrayed and depicted in violent, womanizing, and juvenile roles as we concurrently see white men overall, as voices of reason, saviors, heroes in essence.  Innocent entertainment?  Never.  Images influence thoughts and thoughts influence action.  What we see and hear determines our opinions--especially about people and especially about people with whom we have little to no contact.  

Compare these negative images of women and men of color with the righteous gun slinging, reasonable, hard-working, authority figures on those same shows and particularly in shows like Swamp People, God Guns and Automobiles, American Restoration, Pawn Stars, Duck Dynasty, and Scandal.  These ubiquitous images rise in stark relief of each other and operate to influence the perceptions of the American public.  These images influence everyone who sees them.  

All these shows draw high ratings as they play to our most prevailing American notions about race, class, personhood and history.   They demonize the Other and venerate the Reaganeque persona.  They vilify many Americans while making others feel bound to protect themselves through violence if necessary.  They legitimize untruths about Others as evidenced in Trayvon Martin's and Emmitt Till's murders.  They allow attorneys to manipulate the psyches of jurors who then acquit murderers of children.    And they finally tell us so much about who we are are, what we believe, and how we act that out.