From the vantage point of June, the first half of 2020 promised to be unprecedented in American history. In January, the American President, accused of seeking foreign assistance to delegitimize one of his strongest Democratic opponents in the November election, faced an impeachment trial. The trial ended in his acquittal, but within weeks it was lost to memory as the nation had begun to grapple with a pandemic. COVID-19, a deadly new virus, threatened to create havoc in the American economy and kill scores of citizens, especially members of minority communities. At the time that states and localities started to impose lock-downs and the wearing of masks outside the home, we didn't know that before year's end, the nation would bury more than 350,000 people and people of color would be represented in these losses well above their share of the national population.
In May, we watched in awe and disbelief as scores of mostly white and male armed protesters, goaded by extremist right wing media and a President who downplayed the epidemic, stormed the State Capitol of MI, chanting about “revolution” and demanding an end to public health measures. Little did we know or could imagine that such scenes would be repeated eight months later at the nation's capital where rioters goaded by the President's claims that the 2020 election was “stolen,” attacked the Capitol building.
In June, the nation erupted once again. In response to yet more brazen police shootings of Black people, a multiracial movement led by Black Lives Matter activists took to the streets to demand racial justice, economic fairness, equality, and an end to all forms of state violence. In many locales, protesters took down symbols of white supremacy and violence. These largely peaceful protests have been characterized as the largest progressive movement in American history (Buchman et al., Reference Buchman, Bui and Patel2020). Thousands across the country joined these demonstrations despite the pandemic and despite the President's threats against the protesters (Itkowitz, Reference Itkowitz2020).
This was the context which prompted me to ask numerous accomplished scholars in our field to submit a thought piece. As specified to my invitation to the participants, the purpose of this collection was to invite a discussion about what brought us to this historic moment and what this moment means for American politics. Furthermore, what is the future of race, gender, and class relations in America on the “Day After [the Trump Era]”? Are we headed to a reckoning? What should we expect for (from?) the 2020 election? Are we going back to “color-blindness”? How do we recover from this? Additionally, what is the future, near and far, of our field, what new questions we need to address? Where are we as a discipline and as a subfield? How do we take stock of what we know and what we need to figure out?
My goal with this special collection has been to help guide the field with thought-provoking arguments about the meaning of this moment in time for America, American identity, partisan politics, and American society more broadly. Is this the end of the current party system? The end of the American century? Is there momentum for institutional reform in any and every domain, and what will it take to get us there? How does the current moment inform our understanding of the Presidency, American exceptionalism, America's relationship with the world, its imperial and colonial projects, the meaning of American citizenship? How does it inform our understanding of our intra-disciplinary divides, both within American politics, and in political science in general? What new knowledge and insights do we have to impart for those in other subfields within American politics and more generally? Are there new ways for non-race scholars to think about their fields given the emergent centrality of racial identities in politics?
The invitation went out to numerous prominent scholars in the REP field. Not everyone was able to accept, which is completely understandable given the demands of this year on our time, physical health, and mental strength. I am extremely grateful to those who graciously agreed to dedicate time and effort to this JREP special collection. Given the purpose of this collection, I asked scholars to provide essays, not research papers. This allowed participants more freedom to present broader ideas and theoretical arguments. I worked closely with all participants in editing the essays, but it is important to make clear that this is an edited collection that has not been submitted to peer review. I hope that JREP readers will find these essays thought-provoking and a starting point for new ideas and new research projects.
