In the wake of the political assassinations of nine African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, by a white supremacist, racial tensions remain high.

Fires have now occurred at seven Black churches in the South. So far, the “authorities” claim that there is no evidence that these burnings were carried out by racists, but they do admit that three were likely arson.

Whatever evidence may surface (or be suppressed), these fires are viewed with suspicion by many Blacks. “The idea that this could be about hate, by someone who had no hope, no outlet but to do something so tragic – we were devastated, I mean heartbroken, terrified”, said reverend Rhonda Kinsey, pastor at one of churches in North Carolina hit hard by arson.

Such suspicions are justified in light of attempts to downplay white supremacist and other right wing acts of terror. After the Charleston murders, FBI chief James Comey stated that the perpetrator, Dylann Roof, was not a terrorist because he was not politically motivated.

The assertion flies in the face of everything Roof said and wrote about his motivation. But facts are not the issue for the FBI. The political need to downplay the issue is what Comey is concerned about.

A new report on politically motivated killings, published by New America, a research centre, found that since 9/11 in the US, there have been almost twice as many politically motivated killings by white supremacists, anti-government extremists and other fanatics as by Muslims.

The former are barely mentioned in mainstream media; the latter are sensationalised. And the report left out some killings by rightists that were obviously politically motivated, including the murder of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by a white bigot.

Drowning out the discussion in the media about race has been an all-out blitz organised by the government around vague charges that Islamic State operatives planned to carry out attacks in the US over the 4 July holiday weekend.

Federal, state and local forces were put on a virtual war footing, in what has been described as the greatest mobilisation of police forces in recent memory, if not ever. No such mobilisation has been launched to protect Black churches in the South.

The media scare tactics included many interviews with federal and local police forces and other “experts” on the “danger”. One talking head on CBS solemnly intoned, “The greatest threat to liberty is terrorism”. No, the greatest threat to the civil rights and liberties of US citizens comes from the US government, as Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers have demonstrated.

It turned out that the “ISIS is coming, ISIS is coming!” scare was a dud.

Fears of further white supremacist attacks, however, are not the only developments since Roof’s attack. Blacks and their allies have focused on taking down the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina capitol grounds and other southern state sites where it still flies.

In June, a 30-year-old African American woman, Bree Newsome, climbed the flagpole to take down the racist symbol at the South Carolina capitol grounds. The police arrested her and a white accomplice, and charged them with defacing a monument – a monument to slavery and opposition to the civil rights movement. The cops ran the flag back up in time for a racist rally in defence of the flag to take place that morning.

Newsome is a filmmaker and political rap artist known for her activism. She exemplifies the kind of young African American leaders who have come forward in the Black Lives Matter movement. She and her accomplice face maximum penalties of three years in jail and $5,000 in fines, although it is unlikely that such punishment would actually be imposed because of fear of a huge public backlash.

Since Charleston, many other Confederate monuments have been defaced with the spray-painted slogan, “Black Lives Matter”.

The Ku Klux Klan is planning a rally in South Carolina in defence of its flag later in July. But it is fighting a losing battle on that front. The flag has become so discredited that even the racist South Carolina state legislature may vote to take it down, as the state governor has already proposed.

Many businesses also want to get rid of the stigma the flag represents. Many, including big German and Japanese auto companies as well as US firms, have opened factories in the south in recent decades, drawn by lower wages and more favourable conditions (for them) in the non-union region. You know that something’s afoot when Walmart and other major retail outfits suddenly decide to remove all merchandise with the Confederate flag symbol.

Almost the entire spectrum of Black spokespeople, from those in the establishment to the new radicals, have noted that while the Confederate flag is a symbol of racial oppression that must be taken down, the underlying reality of Black segregation in inferior housing and education, police violence against the Black communities, Black unemployment and underemployment, poverty and a host of other issues must be addressed.

After her release on bail, Newsome posted online, “It is important to remember that our struggle doesn’t end when the flag comes down. The Confederacy is a Southern thing, but white supremacy is not”.