Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images When President Trump ordered the deployment of federal troops to Washington, D.C. in August 2025 and then threatened to do the same in Chicago weeks later, the move was not actually about crime. It was the latest expression of a longstanding racist narrative: that Black and brown communities represent danger, disorder, and lawlessness—and that only overwhelming force can restore control. This problematic and untrue framing has deep historical root