“An Automated Autopsy”  is a column that connects the sociopolitical with pop-culture and history. Clare X. Ely is putting her Letterboxd account to use. 

This town ain’t big enough for two cowboys. One of them is a cattledriver and the other wears a particular white cloak. MAGA republicans appropriate the same cowboy hat historically created and worn by the people that Trump said have “bad genes.” It worked somehow, because 93% of rural states voted for the man.

The cowboy itself is a nostalgic figure from simple times. He pulls himself up by his cowboy boot straps, his gun is as fast as his mouth, he rides off into the Oklahoma sun after fighting the Apache people, and most importantly, he doesn’t need help from any other cowboy. The definition cowboy is specifically men who herd or drive cattle. However, this has become a catch-all way to describe rural Americana, a culture that prides itself on freedom and patriotism. 

Yet, as of writing this, the president’s new beef plan seeks to import Argentinian beef, effectively undercutting the lives of the American cowboy and rancher.  Many rural voters were outraged and betrayed, but it’s no surprise; While Donald Trump used this cowboy idea to win his election, he also vowed, “our country will be woke no longer”. How can he claim to love the cowboy when the identity of the cowboy has always been “woke”? 

At one point, 25% of cowboys were Black. Buckaroo is a mistranslation of the Spanish word Vaquero. The original cowboys were indigenous Mesoamericans and did the jobs that their white colonizers didn’t feel like doing. Despite this, according to the Pew Research Center, a sizeable portion of their descendants voted for Trump (15% of Black voters and 45% of Latino voters.)  

MAGA’s targeting of racial diversity has been a prominent feature in the Trump administrations fight against wokeness. The term “woke” started off as a term created by Black Americans to describe being aware of social injustice. Florida Governor and vocal MAGA republican, Ron DeSantis describes it as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”  

It would be ingenious to say the cowboy is an innocent figure. The cowboy is a direct result of systemic White supremacy. There wouldn’t be a wild west to tame if the US government did not murder and displace Indigenous populations. There wouldn’t be all that open land if the Bison weren’t slaughtered. At the same time, wealthy White people didn’t want to be cowboys, so the job was open for Black, Indigenous, and Mexican people. 

Trump says immigrants are “Poisoning the blood of our country.” What America is there without the blood of the Native and Latin Americans this nation was stolen from? No one is illegal on stolen land. The people who worked on these farms looked nothing like their White employers or masters. The Mexican vaquero was the original cowboy, in fact, most of the Southwest used to be Mexico. Trump claims to “love the cowboy”, yet his ICE crackdowns make it so ICE can detain anyone with a Latin face; Meanwhile, MAGA republican congress woman Lauren Boebert wears a racist Mexican costume with her date as an ICE Agent, along with holding an extremely racist sign mocking the Spanish language. 

Darren Beattie, our Senior Bureau Official in Public Diplomacy of the State Department, has made statements such as, “Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.” This rhetoric can be seen in Trump’s firing of many Black officials such as Lisa Cook and Robert E. Primus, making his administration and cabinet, the least diverse since the Reagan Administration. 

The cowboy was one of the few jobs available to former enslaved Black Americans after the Civil War. So, many Black Americans joined the cattle industry, taking low pay and constant Texan Klan presence. Trump doesn’t want you to understand historical oppression of Black Americans though. His administration has made tremendous efforts to remove Black history from the museums and national parks. 

This is a part of a larger effort to, as he claims, “restore truth in American history”, which has manifested itself in removing anything Trump deems woke. Beattie said, “Enforced diversity is just as evil as any war crime. Properly understood, it is a war crime.” This can be seen in the Trump administration’s mission to cleanse the Smithsonian Museums and shut down DEI programs in schools.

Restoring truth in American history involves reconciling an omnipresent history of White supremacy. Trump is avoiding a true restoration because the White supremacist with the largest platform can’t be the loudest. Trump doesn’t outwardly say he hates Black women, but he embraces Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer, who openly calls Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett exceedingly racist and misogynist names online. He doesn’t outwardly say he hates Latinos, he just violently detains illegal immigrants. 

That’s how he gets votes from the same people that he defames. These voters think to themselves, “he’s not talking about me” without realizing that the administration sees them as the same.  For a more in-depth look at Trump’s administration’s usage of White Supremacy, please read Editor-in-Chief Abigail Carsner’s “Opinion: The American Dream is on the Verge of Becoming a Fascist Nightmare.”  

It’s not to say the original cowboy identity has been forgotten. Recent projects like Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” or Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” highlight this well. The history of the cowboy was complicated, and will forever exist in the context of systemic White supremacy. However, it’s important to remember that it also acts as a shining example of a diverse resilience against White supremacist systems. Don’t let the MAGA machine erase history. In a time where it’s made hostile to be darker than a brown paper bag,  I urge you: be the cowboy.