{"id":14684,"date":"2025-08-13T15:57:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14684"},"modified":"2025-08-13T16:01:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:01:32","slug":"on-social-media-the-department-of-homeland-security-appeals-to-nostalgia-with-motifs-of-white-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14684","title":{"rendered":"On social media, the Department of Homeland Security appeals to nostalgia \u2014 with motifs of White identity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Michael Williams<\/em>, CNN<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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A recruitment poster recently shared<\/a> on the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s social media pages depicts Uncle Sam at a crossroads. In one direction point the words \u201chomeland\u201d and \u201copportunity.\u201d Toward the other, \u201cinvasion\u201d and \u201ccultural decline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its caption, the agency overseeing the country\u2019s immigration system presents these choices as an existential national struggle: \u201cWhich way, American man?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a sentiment that the agency is trying to wield to recruit new employees. Many of its posts implore viewers to apply for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been infused with a windfall of cash from President Donald Trump\u2019s landmark policy bill<\/a> and hopes to hire 10,000 additional personnel to help with the administration\u2019s crackdown on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But underlining the new strategy are undertones that historians and experts in political communication say are alarmingly nationalist \u2014 and fraught with appeals to a specifically White and Christian national identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPersuaders succeed when they connect to emotional archetypes,\u201d said Nicholas J. Cull, a professor of communication at the University of Southern California and historian of the role of mass communication in foreign policy. \u201cFear is often the most prominent in propaganda, but nostalgia runs a close second.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOften they land like one\/two punches in a classic boxing attack,\u201d Cull said. \u201cThat seems to be the intent here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the caption of its post featuring Uncle Sam, DHS seems to allude to \u201cWhich Way Western Man?,\u201d a 1978 book by White nationalist William Gayley Simpson that is rife with antisemitic tropes and is a mainstay in modern White supremacist literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCalling everything you dislike \u2018Nazi propaganda\u2019 is tiresome,\u201d DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. \u201cUncle Sam, who represents America, is at a crossroads, pondering which way America should go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other posts shared by the agency depict its employees as not only performing a public service, but also rendering an edict. Heavily armed men are depicted preparing for an operation while an overlaid Bible verse describes them as deliverers of a divine vengeance. Uncle Sam implores citizens to report \u201cforeign invaders,\u201d<\/a> join the ranks of ICE and \u201cstep into the breach<\/a>.\u201d Pictures of handcuffed migrants flanked by masked agents are interspersed with calls to \u201cremember your Homeland\u2019s Heritage\u201d<\/a> and \u201cdefend your culture!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe siren song of the far right, whether we call them authoritarian or fascist, is to foment a counterrevolution against a revolution that never was,\u201d said Democratic political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio. \u201c\u2018Do you know why you feel down and out? Do you know why you feel challenged? Do you know why you feel out of place in your own society? It\u2019s because of those<\/em> people.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McLaughlin said DHS \u201chonors artwork that celebrates America\u2019s heritage and history\u201d and is \u201cpleased that the media is highlighting our efforts to showcase these patriotic pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Included in the posts are tinges of a Rockwellesque nostalgia for an America that was traditional, religious \u2014 and on its surface, racially homogenous. After Trump declared Monday he would take over<\/a> the Washington, DC, police department and rid the city of \u201cCrime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum,\u201d<\/a> DHS posted on Instagram a 1943 image of the US Capitol captioned with: \u201cWe Can Return.\u201d<\/a> The agency\u2019s ambiguity about what it means by words like \u201cheritage\u201d and \u201chomeland\u201d leaves their use open to several interpretations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an active effort to promote lies designed to create fear and hysteria in a population,\u201d said Ian Haney L\u00f3pez, a professor of public law at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of a book on the use of dog whistles in politics. \u201cIt\u2019s often associated with war-time efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe United States has certainly engaged in\u201d previous propaganda campaigns, he said, but DHS\u2019 posts are most reminiscent of \u201cdemagogic eras\u201d in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, historians have used John Gast\u2019s 1872 painting \u201cAmerican Progress\u201d to demonstrate the concept of manifest destiny, the idea popular in the 19th century that America\u2019s westward expansion was destined by Providence and rooted in an Old Testament concept of a \u201cchosen\u201d people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The painting depicts a woman, a personification of America, unspooling telegraph wire as she heralds settlers, education and new technology to sparsely populated land. Indigenous people and bison flee before them. As the Anglo settlers overtake Native Americans, the sky turns from dark to light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 23, DHS posted a picture of the painting<\/a> on its social media with the caption: \u201cA Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patrick Fontes, a history professor at Clovis Community College in Fresno, California, who has lectured on \u201cAmerican Progress,\u201d described the painting as \u201claden and saturated with racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd if you don\u2019t know the history, you wouldn\u2019t know that,\u201d he added. \u201cBut DHS knows the history behind this \u2014 it\u2019s a manifesto that\u2019s laden with racial connotations and bloody 19th century history against those who were not Anglo American.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department said in its statement to CNN that the Trump administration \u201cis unapologetically proud of American history and American heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DHS is not the only government agency trying new tactics to draw attention or solicit engagement. But government agencies typically \u201cavoid leaning into using those types of posts to explain policy decisions,\u201d said Kristy Dalton, the founder and CEO of Government Social Media, a network of professionals who operate government social accounts. \u201cI think that that\u2019s the unique part of what we\u2019re seeing here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DHS\u2019 posts provide the agency with engagement that could bolster its strategic vision. The agency\u2019s new posts are heavily geared toward recruitment \u2014 images of Uncle Sam pointing toward the viewer with the phrase \u201cJoin ICE Today\u201d and paired with captions like \u201cSecure the Golden Age<\/a>\u201d and \u201cProtect. Serve. Deport.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other DHS posts include AI-generated artwork aiming to respond to news of the day or troll ICE\u2019s detractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn the one hand, you get a lot of engagement with this type of light-hearted content, and that\u2019s something that we see with government agencies who are experimenting with it,\u201d Dalton said. \u201cOn the other hand, how do you ensure that you build trust with everyone, with all Americans?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some owners of artwork shared by the agency are not pleased. DHS has been asked by several artists, or their foundations, whose creations have been shared by the agency to stop using their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 14, DHS posted a painting by the artist Morgan Weistling titled \u201cA Prayer for a New Life,\u201d which depicts a White pioneer family praying while holding a baby inside a covered wagon. The agency captioned the image: \u201cRemember your Homeland\u2019s Heritage,\u201d<\/a> and incorrectly titled the painting: \u201cNew Life in a New Land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weistling told CNN in an email that he \u201cwas never contacted by DHS and this was done completely without my permission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey even changed the title of the painting to fit whatever they were trying to say,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a complete misuse of my copyrighted material.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another post features a painting by the artist Thomas Kinkade titled \u201cMorning Pledge,\u201d<\/a> which depicts schoolchildren gathered around an American flag in an idealist suburban setting. It is captioned: \u201cProtect the Homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family foundation for Kinkade, who died in 2012, said it strongly condemns \u201cthe sentiment expressed in the post and the deplorable actions that DHS continues to carry out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike many of you, we were deeply troubled to see this image used to promote division and xenophobia associated with the ideals of DHS, as this is antithetical to our mission,\u201d the foundation said in a statement, adding that it has asked the agency to remove the post and is exploring its legal options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One band whose song is featured in a recruitment video the agency posted to Instagram sent a cease and desist letter, only for it to be rebuffed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video<\/a> depicts law enforcement surveying the borderlands from a helicopter, accompanied by dialogue from a movie quoting Isaiah 6:8 \u2014 a verse in which the subject declares a willingness to serve God. It\u2019s also accompanied by the alternative rock band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club\u2019s copyrighted rendition of \u201cGod\u2019s Gonna Cut You Down,\u201d a traditional American folk song that talks of divine punishment as the consequence of sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band was outraged and demanded DHS stop using its music. In a July 30 response obtained by CNN, a DHS lawyer declined to comply. The audio has since been removed from the video on X and Instagram; a person involved with the band\u2019s management told CNN that occurred after it complained to both companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDHS\u2019s use promotes the public interest, as its purpose is to advance the work of a government agency \u2014 specifically removing dangerous illegal aliens from our communities,\u201d a lawyer for the agency wrote in its response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If attention is what DHS is seeking in its new strategy, there are some indications it is paying off. Among federal agencies on social media, DHS routinely receives a significant amount of engagement \u2014 and job applications. The agency announced this week it has received more than 100,000 applications over the past two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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