Trump. ‘In hate we trust.’ Photo Gage Skidmore–Flickr.
Its been one year since Donald Trump called the American racists and Nazis who invaded Charlottesville, Virginia attacking peaceful protesters and murdering 32-year-old Heather Heyer “very fine people.”
Trump’s “very fine” bigots are back.
Over the weekend, these racists marched, this time in Washington D.C., the nation’s capital. They believe their spiritual leader and “grand wizard” is Trump, occupant of the White House.
Trump has said nothing of consequence about these racist vermin. Yet, he was once again busy creating racial division by criticizing Black NFL players who engaged in numerous forms of protests during preseason games last week.
Donald Trump has no problem castigating Black NFL players protesting police prejudice and institutional racism; but he won’t say anything meaningful against White racists?
Last Friday Trump talked trash on Twitter after several NFL players found a variety of ways to protest police violence and institutional racism within the judicial system, during the pre-season opening.
Trump tweeted: “The NFL players are at it again. Taking a knee when they should be standing proudly for the National Anthem. Numerous players, from different teams, wanted to show their ‘outrage’ at something that most of them are unable to define. They make a fortune doing what they love.”
Starting with the brave stance of Colin Kaepernick, Black NFL players have been crystal clear in defining what they are protesting: racial police violence, within a corrupt criminal “justice” system. The notion that those who make “make a fortune” should stay silent –“shut up and play”– in the face of injustice reeks of selfish immorality.
In a second tweet Trump said, “Be happy, be cool! A football game, that fans are paying soooo much money to watch and enjoy, is no place to protest. Most of that money goes to the players anyway. Find another way to protest. Stand proudly for your National Anthem or be Suspended Without Pay!” Is there a bigger rascal that deserves suspension without pay than Trump?
What right does a White person have—especially a spoiled rich kid like Donald Trump—to tell Black people how to protest against institutional racist police violence? It speaks to the level of all-consuming racism that has destroyed this man’s capacity to comprehend the consequences of his words and conduct.
Trump’s attacks on Black NFL players are always done with racial animus in mind. In fact, it is a continuation of his bigoted where-is-your-birth-certificate assault on President Barack Obama. Racism is the trump-card of Trump’s presidency; a presidency predicated on prejudice against non-White people.
As we all know, Trump called these racists—that marched wearing Nazi regalia and such—who murdered Heyer, a White woman of conscience, “very fine people.” Trump claims the Charlottesville violence was caused by “both sides.” Right-wing media have also created the false narrative that Antifa was somehow just as violent as those chanting “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.”
Evidence suggests more people would’ve died last year if it wasn’t for Antifa’s self-defense posture. In a Democracy Now interview, with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Dr. Cornel West, after last year’s Unite the Right rally, spoke of the lives saved by groups, like Antifa.
“The neo-fascists had their own ammunition. And this is very important to keep in mind, because the police, for the most part, pulled back,” West said. “The next day, for example, those 20 of us who were standing, many of them clergy, we would have been crushed like cockroaches if it were not for the anarchists and the antifascists who approached…they saved our lives, actually.”
Is this what Trump is equating as bad people “on both sides?”
The contrast between Trump’s positive characterization of racist neo-Nazis, and his vicious verbal onslaughts on Black NFL players, protesting peacefully, utilizing their First Amendment rights, couldn’t be clearer. Trump reportedly told Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones his attacks on Black NFL players is “a very winning, strong issue for me.”
In other words, in his demented mind, whatever advances his political prospects is good regardless of the consequences–including racist divisions and violence.
Recall, last September, at a political rally for failed Republican Senator Luther Strange –who later lost to alleged rapist and bigger failure Roy Moore– Trump unleashed his race-baiting tirade against NFL players protesting police violence saying: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now?'” Really? Is there any bigger S.O.B than Donald Trump in the United States today?
Faced with the fact that American Nazis and assorted racists were slithering in Washington D.C. this past weekend, Donald Trump tweeted a pathetic statement saying, “The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism.”
As some pundits have already noted his “all types of racism” phrasing signals the same sort of distorted moral equivalence Trump showed last year when he asked: “What about the ‘alt-left’ that came charging at, as you say, the ‘alt-right,’ do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact they came charging with clubs in hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? I think they do.”
There is no “all types of racism.” Racism was invented by rich White men to create division between Whites and non-Whites to justify and rationalize historical plunder and economic inequality. These conditions are maintained today by White men, in the United States and much of the world.
Donald Trump uses racism in the same fashion; to maintain political and economic power. His attacks on Black NFL players, like his attacks on NBA stars like LeBron James and Steph Curry, are calculated to feed racist red meat to the bigoted base of the Republican Party.
Recently, after Black CNN host Don Lemon interviewed LeBron James, Trump said “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do.”
Lemon retorted on Twitter saying: “Who’s the real dummy? A man who puts kids in classrooms or one who puts kids in cages?” Lemon was juxtaposing Lebron’s building of schools for at risk kids, while Trump has imprisoned Latino kids and separated them from their parents after they crossed the borders into the U.S. Trump, no doubt, is still stung from LeBron, rightly, calling him a “bum,” after Trump’s childish White House “disinvite” attack on Steph Curry.
Just prior to his racist smears of James and Lemon, Trump was busy calling California Representative Maxine Waters a “an extraordinarily low IQ person.” Of course, Representative Waters has been calling for the impeachment of this intellectually-challenged racist resident of the White House who can’t articulate complete sentences for months now.
Trump’s xenophobic invectives are done for one purpose: to exploit White America’s fear about the changing color of the country. America’s complexion is darkening and some White people are unjustifiably freaking out. Because of biology, White supremacy feels threatened.
In several past columns, I’ve talked about the darkening demographics of America.
According to William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institute, “Native-born Whites become less than 50 percent before 2040.” Frey noted that “These new estimates — showing declining White births…and pervasive losses in the nation’s under age 20 White population — indicate that future generations almost everywhere will be increasingly made up of minorities.”
In short order, America will be a majority non-White country. This is driving all the hysteria about “illegal aliens” coming across the border. The “make America great again” slogan really means: make America White again.
Last Wednesday, right-wing media personality Laura Ingram, revealed this ugly fear—of a sizeable portion of White America—on her program. Ingram issued a desperate warning that “massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people, and they are changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don’t like.” She called America’s darkening demographics “a national emergency” and demanded “that Congress act now.”
Ingram’s comments echo the fear of many Whites. Donald Trump is using this very fear for his political expediency.
When, in fact, competent policy is to foster agenda that informs all communities about the need for and benefits of getting along.
For the last several days, mainstream media have been abuzz with the claims being made by Omarosa Manigault that there is a recording of Donald Trump using the N-word.
Why should that surprise anyone?
We already know Donald Trump is a racist. This despicable president has attacked nearly every major ethnic group in America. Tellingly, his equivocations in denouncing racists, like the alt-right murders who ended the life of Heather Heyer, speaks volumes.
