Fascism Already Had a Name in America

Langston Hughes wrote, “Fascism is a new name for the terror the Negro has always faced in America.”

That line is often quoted, rarely examined, and almost never taken seriously enough.

Hughes was not arguing that America suddenly became fascist. He was pointing out that Black Americans recognized the structure immediately because they had already lived under it. State power was used to control movement, violence was carried out without consequence, labor was extracted through force and coercion, political participation was deliberately restricted, surveillance became normalized, and dissent was punished.

These are historical facts.

What Europe labeled fascism in the twentieth century, Black Americans experienced as slavery, Jim Crow, and racialized policing. The uniforms changed. The language softened. The hierarchy remained intact.

This is why conversations about fascism in America often feel disconnected from reality. They are framed as warnings about the future instead of acknowledgments of the past. They center fear of loss rather than recognition of continuity.

For many Americans, fascism is terrifying because it represents something new. For Black Americans, it’s terrifying because it’s familiar.

Hughes understood that naming matters. Giving terror a new label doesn’t change who has always borne its weight. It only determines who feels entitled to be shocked by it.

If we’re serious about confronting authoritarianism, we have to start by telling the truth about who has already survived it.

If you value historically grounded analysis that refuses selective memory, follow me on TikTok, Instagram, Threads, and Substack. I unpack power, history, and narrative framing with context and receipts.

-Smart Brown Girl