Author: Scot Nakagawa

Scot Nakagawa is a political strategist and writer who has spent more than four decades exploring questions of structural racism, white supremacy, and social justice. Scot’s primary work has been in the fight against authoritarianism, white nationalism, and Christian nationalism. Currently, Scot is co-lead of the 22nd Century Initiative, a project to build the field of resistance to authoritarianism in the U.S.

Scot is a past Alston/Bannerman Fellow, an Open Society Foundations Fellow, and a recipient of the Association of Asian American Studies Community Leader Award. His writings have been included in Race, Gender, and Class in the United States: An Integrated Study, 9th Edition,  and Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence.

Scot's political essays, briefings, and other educational media can be found at his newsletter, We Fight the Right at scotnakagawa@substack.com. He is a sought after public speaker and educator who provides consultation on campaign and communications strategy, and fundraising.

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The Confusion Era In American Politics


I often call this period in America the confusion era, a reference to the paradigm shifting post-WWII period of the allied occupation of Japan documented by art historian Mark Sandler. During this time, Japan, once distinguished from the rest of Asia by its extraordinary isolation, opened to the world and underwent dramatic, sudden, and disorienting change.

Today the global economy is growing more complex even as it is expanding. Massive population shifts are occurring as wars, environmental catastrophes, deprivation, unfair trade policies, and international debt drive millions to migrate, especially from the resource exploited Southern hemisphere toward the so-called … Read more “The Confusion Era In American Politics”

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A Capital Idea: What We’re Talking About When We Talk About Race

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) is described as “the style manual of choice for writers, editors, students, educators, and professionals in psychology, sociology, business, economics, nursing, social work, and justice administration, and other disciplines in which effective communication with words and data is fundamental.” One of the widely recognized goals of the manual is to suggest word choices that best reduce bias in our language.

Recently, the APA manual started suggesting that words referring to groups by race should be capitalized, as in, “Black” and “White.” They also say we should “avoid language that reifies race” … Read more “A Capital Idea: What We’re Talking About When We Talk About Race”

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Five Things You Should Know About Asian Americans

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. In honor of the occasion, here are five things that I think you should know about Asian Americans.*

1. We Don’t All Look Alike. In fact, most of us aren’t alike at all. When many non-Asians conjure a picture of “Asian American” in their minds, they see an East Asian person – someone whose roots can be traced to China, Korea, or Japan. But Asian America includes dozens of distinct and linguistically diverse ethnic groups originating from a region that encompasses much more than the Far East.

Moreover, we are immigrants or the … Read more “Five Things You Should Know About Asian Americans”

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What We’re Fighting About When We Fight About Racism

A few days ago the Q-Center, Portland, Oregon’s aspiring LGBTQ community hub, hosted a discussion about racism. The event was organized in response to a mostly-online fight that erupted over a local gay bar’s Facebook ad for a performance by white drag performer, Chuck Knipp.

Knipp’s bread and butter is the character, Shirley Q. Liquor, whom he describes as “an inarticulate black welfare mother with 19 children.” I’ll spare you video. The act is performed in black face and plays to damaging and hurtful stereotypes for laughs.

Hundreds weighed in on whether Shirley Q. Liquor is an example of racism, … Read more “What We’re Fighting About When We Fight About Racism”

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The Obama Paradox

I’ve gotten some grief lately over critical comments I’ve made about President Obama. Folks reference a piece I wrote a while back about why I was a supporter of Obama’s candidacy in the last election, calling on other racial justice advocates who were critical of his first term to join me. Why, folks now ask, would I so strongly support the candidacy of our nation’s first Black president, only to be so critical of his reign?

Here’s my answer. In politics, silence is often as good as consent.

We ought not stand mute in the face of human rights violations … Read more “The Obama Paradox”

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How Transformation Became Reformation: The Religious Right and the Rest of Us

The fight for same sex marriage rights has surfaced deep political divisions within the LGBT movement. On one side of the divide, marriage advocates say that winning marriage inclusion is just a step in a larger civil rights struggle. Meanwhile, marriage critics remind us that the movement that began with the Stonewall rebellion was a movement for sexual liberation and radical feminism, and not just civil rights. That movement included many who called for an end to state sanctioned marriage.

At the heart of the debate is a disagreement over strategy. One side wants to focus on liberation writ large, … Read more “How Transformation Became Reformation: The Religious Right and the Rest of Us”

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The GOP’s Uneasy Alliance

What, me worry?

– Alfred E. Neuman

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the GOP trying to change its image with minority voters. They’ve obviously gotten the memo on demographic change and are scrambling to catch up with history. Yet, in spite of their apparent desire to change, the party just affirmed its bullheaded opposition to same sex marriage at their annual spring meeting. Apparently, the GOP is being strong-armed into acting against its long-term interests by evangelical leaders whose loyalty is necessary in order to address short term needs like maintaining a GOP House majority through the … Read more “The GOP’s Uneasy Alliance”

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More on the Accidental Racism of Brad Paisley

Yesterday I wrote about Brad Paisley’s Accidental Racist, his musical response to accusations of racism he faced for flying the rebel flag on his chest. Its message? The past is the past. Let’s get over it and move on.

But the song is worth further dissection because I think it reveals a great deal about why the GOP’s racist Southern Strategy was successful, and why it’s going to be tough for them to simply re-brand that strategy away in order to meet the challenge of demographic change.

For the uninitiated, the Southern Strategy was built on the ruins of … Read more “More on the Accidental Racism of Brad Paisley”

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The National “Conversation” Brad Paisley Would Like Us To Have About How He’s Not A Racist

Country singer Brad Paisley wants to have a national conversation on race. Paisley began that “conversation” with his single Accidental Racist, a painfully tortured defense against accusations of racism brought against him for wearing a rebel flag.

The rebel flag, I remind you, is a symbol of white supremacy, raised by the rebel army in defense of slavery, and then brought back after the war by the Ku Klux Klan as a symbol of resistance to Reconstruction.

The song includes a performance by rapper LL Cool Jay who provides the counterpoint in the conversation. He asks, among other things, that … Read more “The National “Conversation” Brad Paisley Would Like Us To Have About How He’s Not A Racist”

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What Does Pork Have to do with the U.S. Immigration “Problem?”

Years ago, I moved to Eastern Tennessee to work at the Highlander Research and Education Center. Highlander was founded as the Highlander Folk School, but reincorporated under its current name after its charter was revoked by the State of Tennessee in 1962 in an effort to dislodge the school from its pivotal position in the African American Civil Rights Movement.

Highlander is famous for hosting students like Rosa Parks, Dr. King, John Lewis, and Ella Baker. But I’ve always felt that its greatest accomplishment was organizing the Citizenship Schools. Under the leadership of Septima Clark, Bernice Robinson, and Esau … Read more “What Does Pork Have to do with the U.S. Immigration “Problem?””