Of the myriad character flaws
that make Donald Trump unfit both as a president and as a human being—corruption,
narcissism and vindictiveness, to name a few—the one that is the most troubling
is his racism. For decades Trump has
been consistent in his racism from the Central Park Five to leading the birther
movement against President Obama to his involvement in discrimination against
African Americans in housing. #hocopolitics
Since his descent down the Trump
Tower’s escalator to announce his presidential bid in 2015 when he called
Mexicans “rapists,” Trump had given the country and the world for that matter a
preview of what his 2016 campaign would be about and provided a glimpse of what
his presidency would be like.
While Trump has continued his
descent as a racist, increasing numbers of Americans are ascending, rising to
the occasion, especially in the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd and
other unarmed Black individuals at the hands of the police. He and most of the
nation are moving in opposite directions. The mainly young protesters comprised
of all races and backgrounds formed a beautiful mosaic of people trying to
bring justice to our society.
Trump can herald his
administration’s few accomplishments vis-à-vis African Americans all he wants,
it still boils down to one indisputable fact. Trump is a racist and a white
supremacist.
I want to be clear, not every
Trump supporter is a racist, but many are. He has given hope and life to a
white nationalist movement in the country that had been percolating under the
surface and in the shadows. His comment in the wake of Charlottesville where
neo-Nazis marched with torches chanting anti-Semitic and anti-Black slogans as “very
fine people on both sides” was a dagger to the core of the American conscience.
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| A despondent Trump arrives home following embarrassing Tulsa rally |
He has characterized African
countries as “shithole countries.” He called majority Black Baltimore “a rodent
infested mess.” He uses the term “thugs” referring to Black males. He
frequently calls Black female journalists “nasty.”
Trump’s response to the murder
of George Floyd reinforced his racist reputation. As people took to the streets to protest
police brutality the likes of which we have not seen in a half century, Trump labeled
the mostly peaceful but angry and determined protesters who were exercising
their First Amendment rights as “anarchists,” “rioters,” “arsonists,” “looters”
and other disparaging names.
Yes, there was arson, looting
and destruction. But the Black Lives Matter movement and other leaders quickly condemned
those acts, and the perpetrators comprised a very small portion of those
protesting. They were mostly outside agitators and criminal opportunists who
did not represent the largely peaceful protesters.
Rather than demonstrating
sincerity in the desire for much needed police reform, Trump stepped back 50
years and took a page out of another racist president’s playbook. He started
tweeting and conjuring up Richard Nixon’s call for “law and order.” Yet, Trump did
not condemn the instances of police violence occurring in the streets against
the protesters. Moreover, he seems more concerned about preserving the statues of Confederate soldiers.
With his presidential reelection
campaign looking downtrodden, he is using another Nixon-Agnew trope “silent
majority” whom he hopes will save his floundering chances. Trump has decided to
bank on this group by playing the race card. He knows his base, and they eat
this up.
To that end, he retweeted a
video, since taken down by him, whereby one of his supporters chanted “White Power”
during a protest in The Villages in Florida—a key swing state. Trump had sent this to over 80 million followers on Twitter on June 28. It is shown
below.
“Thank you to the great people
of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall.
Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!” he wrote in the tweet.
Trump’s racism is disgusting. He
has numerous character flaws but this is his most vile. With every passing day,
there is no bottom to his descent.
Trump retweeted this video of his supporters in The Villages yelling "white power!"— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) June 28, 2020
He's upgraded his dog whistle to an air raid siren. pic.twitter.com/zyKJOkt9By
A good article here on Trump's using racism as an election strategy.
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