I know that I write a lot about racism and racists on this site, and I always enjoy pointing out racists when they rear their ugly and vile heads. The truth is, though, that racists don’t bother me that much in my every day life. For the most part I ignore them, and I try not to let them affect my life in any meaningful way.
This all changes when the racist in question is the most powerful man in the world. There was a time when most people in this country would not say that their president is a racist. The thought that we elected a man to lead us who holds racist views was just so abhorrent to most people that they could not bring themselves to believe that Donald trump is actually a racist.
That has changed, as most people are finally starting to realize that Mr. trump is actually a racist. Of course it took trump himself telling them as much, and going all David Duke with some of his recent tweets for folks to acknowledge it.
Of course most Black folks have known all along that Mr. trump is a racist. We knew when he started questioning the legitimacy of the first African American president. We knew when he called for the death penalty for five very young (and innocent) men in New York city after an attack in Central Park. We knew when he declared that Mexicans were rapists, and that a Mexican Judge could not be fair. And we knew when he called countries being led by brown people, shithole places.
Black folks are still surprised that our white brothers and sisters won’t acknowledge the obvious when it comes to Mr. trump’s racism, but we understand that talking about racism and pointing out racism tends to make white folks uncomfortable.
The sad thing about trump is that not only is he a racist, but he is an ignorant racist. He is the type of racist that’s not smart enough to defend his racism or to understand the roots of it. Clearly he is not very smart, because he pretty much told three Congresswomen who were born in this country to go back to their own countries.
But we have come to expect this from Mr. trump. What’s sad is that his republican pals, for the most part, have been silent about his racist and ignorant screed. And the ones who had the courage to speak out have been few and far between.
Sadly, this too shall pass, and the racist- in- chief might even get a second term because there are a lot of people (particularly in his own party) who agree with him. They applauded him today at the White House when he doubled and tripled down on his racism, and leaders in the GOP like Lindsey Graham actually came to his defense.
Over the next few days cable news outlets will play the outrage card, a few people will make statements and write opeds condemning trump, and we will all clutch our pearls and act shocked that the man we elected to be our leader is an ignorant xenophobic bigot. But we have seen this rodeo before (“good people on both sides”), and I am pretty sure that we will see it again.
https://field-negro.blogspot.com/2019/07/and-racist-shall-lead-us.html?
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