The Teeming Mass: Trump, Authoritarianism and the Dehumanisation of Marginalised Groups

Dystopian worlds extrapolate on the faults and fears of the writer’s contemporary society, one of many ways of contextualising a dystopian novel and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is no exception. He was incredibly aware of the power of language, having fought against fascism in Spain in the 1930s and lived in a time where Jewish people were scapegoated and referred to as ‘vermin’ by Nazi propaganda. This is reflected in his writing, where it is neither the constant surveillance nor the strictly controlled relationships that is frightening, but the careful manipulation of language which allows these atrocities to take place. The frightening thing about this is its realism. This manipulation is believable because it happened; in Orwell’s time, throughout history, even in our own society the manipulation of language is present.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the proles, the masses or working-class, are dehumanised, presented as the equals of animals as “proles and animals are free”. This kind of dehumanisation occurred in Nazi Germany, in 1990s Rwanda, where a Hutu leader referred to the Tutsi as cockroaches, and even in modern-day America, where President Donald Trump has frequently referred to minority groups and immigrants as less than human. As in Rwanda and Nazi Germany, the dehumanising language used against marginalised groups in America allows atrocities to be committed. The treatment of immigrants under Trump’s leadership has resulted in his name being attached to border detainment camps. Conditions there are horrific, families are separated and the people in these camps, casually referred to as ‘illegals’ by Trump, are treated as subhuman, yet Trump claims they are content with their situation and that if immigrants feel they would be unhappy in these centres then they should not come to America at all. Trump’s language is dehumanising, and as a result, their detainment does not cause the uproar it should, as immigrants are presented as inherently different. The treatment of immigrants in these centres is inhumane, and as shocking a statement as it may be, these people are human too and are as deserving of compassion as any American citizen.

However, immigrants are not the only group targeted by Trump’s racist rhetoric. Anti-Chinese hate crimes saw a surge after Trump referred to Coronavirus as ‘the China virus’ and his time in office has largely ignored the disproportionate killing of Black men, women, and children by the police. People have been campaigning and protesting over the murders of Black people for a long time, but there has been a recent worldwide reaction to the acceptance of systematic racism and police brutality. The murder of George Floyd on 25th May has sparked Black Lives Matter protests everywhere, from the biggest cities to the smallest towns. Trump’s reaction to these protests has been highly negative, referring to the protestors as “thugs”, a sharp contrast to his references to textbook ‘covidiots’ protesting the lockdown in America a few weeks earlier, who he called ‘Great people’. In his language choices, Trump has presented the protestors as violent, a presentation which, for the large majority, could not be further from the truth. But by presenting the protestors this way, Trump can justify the threatening language which followed. He used his online protestors to suggest that there would be no tolerance for “anarchy, rioting, and looting” and that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. His language suggests these brutal tactics used by the police are necessities, due to the presumed violence of the protests. However, the violence used by the police and the national guard is excessive, and the targeting of the press and medics breaches the Geneva Conventions. Trump is trying to justify this violence, but his control on the narrative surrounding the protests in America is not watertight, and as a result the atrocities are being reported and making their way into the public sphere, shocking many and challenging the acceptability of police brutality.

The parallels between Trump’s America, Nazi Germany and Nineteen Eighty-Four are shocking, negative and deeply problematic, but it is only by acknowledging the faults that we can dismantle the system built to serve a white wealthy elite. Importantly, systematic racism is not confined to police brutality, its presence is felt everywhere, including in healthcare and education. Additionally, this is not a uniquely American problem, everywhere has a part to play in dismantling the system which oppresses people of colour. White people should be doing more, our silence makes us complicit. We need to educate ourselves, hold ourselves and other accountable and challenge racist views when we encounter them. It is no longer enough to declare ourselves ‘anti-racist’, action is needed to support our BAME peers now more than ever before.