On September 14, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis manipulated roughly 50 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia into boarding a plane bound for Martha’s Vineyard.^[1]

There are many possible reasons for Governor DeSantis’ publicity stunt. Some say he wanted to expose liberals’ hypocrisy, expecting that the ‘liberal’ residents of Martha’s Vineyard would recoil from immigrants^[2] (they didn’t^[3]). Many believe he wanted to call attention to President Joe Biden’s border policies.^[4] Others opt for a simpler explanation: “the cruelty is the point,^[5]” and Governor DeSantis, like the Republican party writ large, is cruel to ‘out-groups,’ just because he likes it.^[6]

All of these explanations are likely true. But there is another related explanation; one that, tragically, dovetails perfectly with America’s long history of racism intersecting with political considerations. This stunt was a manipulation of Brown and Black bodies as a ploy to get votes.

Politicians using racism to get elected is nothing new. Examples range from Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy^[7] to George H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton ad.^[8]Also not new is physical manipulation of or violence toward people of color. ^[9] The United States has always been home to significant racial terrorism and violence.^[10]

What might be new–or at least, what might be becoming more common–is politicians combining those two trends. Governor Desantis’ actions may be a further indication of a new phase in our racial history: one in which politicians rely not just on racist rhetoric, but on the actual, physical manipulation and violence toward bodies of color, timed just before elections, to stoke white peoples’ fears and get them to the polls.

One only needs to look at the last few years to see this emerging pattern. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump sent 5,200 American troops to ‘secure’ the border, endangering migrants’ lives in a naked attempt to convince those frightened of immigration into voting in the midterms.^[11] Two years later, he tear-gassed Black Lives Matter protesters in front of the White House so he could walk to a nearby church and hold up a Bible to project strength, a stunt that his reelection campaign quickly utilized to appeal to voters.^[12] Texas Governor Greg Abbott, up for reelection in November, has sought to shore up his right-wing flank in the same way Ron DeSantis has, busing migrants to places like Washington D.C. and New York City.^[13]

Then, there is the most infamous instance of election-related violence in, arguably, the country’s history: January 6. On that day, President Trump incited a mostly-white mob to attack the Capitol Building and attempt to prevent Joe Biden, who was elected by a historically diverse coalition and had selected the first Asian- and African-American woman as Vice President, from being certified as President.^{[14] [15]}

Governor DeSantis is up for reelection in less than two months, and he is widely considered to be a strong contender for the 2024 Republican nomination for President. In his pursuit of power, the Governor is only the latest in a long line of politicians who have understood a revolting, dispiriting truth about American electoral politics: cruelty equals votes. Cruelty, deployed against the right people, in the right form, is a kind of point system. The better the cruelty, the more votes you get. Governor DeSantis shipped those 50 human beings to another state because he knows that cruelty will win him more votes.

In the past, the strategy of cruelty was more constrained to simple rhetoric and policy decisions. But that may be changing. We may be entering a phase in which Republican politicians will rely not only on racist rhetoric and policies, but more on physical manipulation, and even violence, toward people of color as part of their election strategies.

^[1] Amy Simonson et al.,, DeSantis claims credit for sending 2 planes carrying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, CNN, September 15, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/14/politics/marthas-vineyard-massachusetts-migrants-planes/index.html. See Eve Zuckoff, et al, Migrants on Martha’s Vineyard flight say they were told they were going to Boston, NPR, September 15, 2022,  https://www.npr.org/2022/09/15/1123109768/migrants-sent-to-marthas-vineyard

See also John Kennedy, DeSantis sends migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, lashing out against President Biden’s border policy, Tallahassee Democrat, September 14, 2022, https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2022/09/14/desantis-sends-migrants-marthas-vineyard-protest-biden-undocumented-immigration-us-mexico-bofder/10383839002/

^[2] Philip Bump, Ron DeSantis corrals immigrants into his effort to own the libs, Washington Post, September 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/15/desantis-immigrants-martha-vineyard/

^[3] ​​Jonathan Franklin & Eve Zuckoff, After migrants arrived in Martha’s Vineyard, a community gathered to welcome them, NPR, September 16, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/09/16/1123369533/migrants-marthas-vineyard-community-help

^[4] Matt Papaycik, DeSantis demands Biden ‘do his damn job’ after Florida governor sends migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, WPTV, September 15, 2022, https://www.wptv.com/news/political/desantis-demands-biden-do-his-damn-job-after-florida-governor-sends-migrants-to-marthas-vineyard

^[5] Adam Serwer, The Cruelty is the Point, The Atlantic, October 3, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/

^[6] Catherine Rampell, Opinion | Don’t worry! GOP governors are abusing immigrants for a good cause, Washington Post, September 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/19/immigrants-marthas-vineyard-desantis-performative/

^[7] James Boyd, Nixon’s Southern Strategy: It’s All in the Charts, New York Times, May 17, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/books/phillips-southern.pdf

^[8] Rachel Withers, George H.W. Bush’s “Willie Horton” ad will always be the reference point for dog-whistle racism, Vox, December 1, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/12/1/18121221/george-hw-bush-willie-horton-dog-whistle-politics

^[9] Whitewashing of American Racism, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/05/us/whitewashing-of-america-racism/

^[10] Documenting Reconstruction Violence, Reconstruction in America, Equal Justice Initiative, https://eji.org/report/reconstruction-in-america/documenting-reconstruction-violence/

^[11] David Smith &David Agren, Trump accused of stoking immigration fears by sending 5,200 troops to border, The Guardian, October 29, 2018, ​​https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/29/trump-immigration-troops-border-midterms

^[12] Peter Baker et al.,, How Trump’s Idea for a Photo Op Led to Havoc in a Park, June 2, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/us/politics/trump-walk-lafayette-square.html

^[13] James Barragán, Long the subject of rhetoric, migrants have now become props in political theater, The Texas Tribune, September 22, 2022, https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/22/migrant-busing-abbott-desantis/

^[14] Dalton Bennett et al.,, 41 minutes of fear: A video timeline from inside the Capitol siege, Washington Post, January 16, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/01/16/video-timeline-capitol-siege/

^[15] Ted Barrett et al.,s, US Capitol secured, 4 dead after rioters stormed the halls of Congress to block Biden’s win, CNN, January 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/us-capitol-lockdown/index.html