"President
Donald Trump's racist comments have legitimized fear and hatred of
new Americans and people of color" and 'strongly condemns' the
President's remarks, including 'that our fellow Americans who are
immigrants, and thosewho may
look to the President like immigrants, should 'go back' to other
countries.'"
This resolution comes
after Trump suggested in a series of tweets that the congresswomen –
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of
Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of
Massachusetts – should "go back and help fix the totally
broken and crime infested places from which they came."
The
House voted on Pelosi's words: The Democratic-controlled House voted
not to strike Pelosi's comments from the record and to allow Pelosi
to speak on the floor of the House again. The vote was 240 to 187.
Four Republicans and one independent – Rep. Justin Amash of
Michigan – supported the resolution as well as all Democrats who
voted.
What Pelosi said about
her speech: She told reporters she had "absolutely" no
regrets for her language describing the resolution. Why should she?
I am sure the Trump
faithful and most lily-livered Republicans fearing negative political
consequences will dismiss Trump's latest racist remarks as “just
Donald Trump being Donald Trump.” With a long history of bigoted
comments, Trump has once again confirmed his congenital prejudice.
Since October 1973, when the Justice Department sued Trump and his
father Fred for barring blacks from their apartment buildings, it has
been known that the president is a racist.
The question remains: Why
do people continue to support a person in the White House with such
racist views? The answer is simple, yet shocking: This quality is
central to his politics and to his appeal.
All Trump supporters,
especially supposedly omnibenevolent evangelicals, will eventually
have to ask themselves if they should go on believing Trump has
sufficient character to hold the presidency. I believe they will
simply dismiss his bigotry as something of which they have no
concern. This is deeply troubling and indicative of the real state of
civil rights in 21st
century America.
Donald Trump, himself,
admitted to “not being concerned” about white nationalist groups
finding “a common cause” with his racist remarks because “many
people agree with him.” And, confirmation of support for his
bigotry is evidenced by those who love his daily tweets, campaign
rallies, and executive orders. The faithful, like programmed
automatons on steroids, parrot his messages of hatred for anything
that doesn't meet his view of “making America great again.” Of
course, after Trump's divisive tirades, political parasites in the
GOP like Lindsey Graham debase themselves by supporting his
unquestionable bigotry.
Allow me to repeat my
thesis: Racism is central to Trump's politics and to his appeal. We
DO NOT live in a post-racist America. Systemic racism infects the
very structure of American society. It is in our schools, our
offices, our courts, our police departments, and in our government –
and it is now boldly implanted in our executive branch. Trump has
emboldened supremacists, hate crimes, and, most regrettably, those
who had suppressed their fear and loathing for people of color.
Sociologist Eduardo
Bonilla-Silva has said, "The main problem nowadays is not the
folks with the hoods, but the folks dressed in suits."
These racists fear
minorities will take their wealth, their jobs, their housing, and
their educational opportunities. The truth is that these whites blame
minorities for their own lack of ability and initiative. Trump feeds
their bruised egos with his own bigoted views, and they are then
emboldened to expose their own true feelings of prejudice.
Racism appeals to the
Trump minions. They support his white agenda. According to Gallup,
the percentage of Americans who agree that black-white relations are
good is at a 20-year low. And for the first time since the pollster
has asked the question, a majority of blacks rate race relations as
bad. The Trump era has set race relations back, and new, deep scars
threaten to cripple future progress.
What happens when those
with power and influence view the degradation of minorities as a
positive political move? Exactly what anyone with a speck of brain
would expect. It exposes the systemic racism in our country – all
of the policies and practices entrenched in established institutions
that harm certain racial groups and help others. Buoyed by a warped
sense of empowerment and privilege, marginal people feel justified in
seeing the "others" with suspicion and in attributing
negative characteristics to an entire group of people. They revert to
shouting slogans like “America, love it or leave it. They hate …
and hate … and hate.
It is precisely this that
results: Those who were, in truth, always racists – despite their
hollow claims of loving integration – affirm their prejudice by
word, by deed, or by indifference. They latch onto despair and
support a bigot. For whatever reason they find convenient, they
justify their dark actions. Some do so with claims of adhering to
religious tenets, others with claims of patriotism, and still others
with views of inherited superiority.
“Prejudice,
a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they
both begin where reason ends.”
– Harper Lee
If you follow bigotry –
no matter your political party, your faith, or your other beliefs –
you become complicit in enabling unspeakable hatred. You see, then,
no matter what political figure dismisses the obvious for whatever
reason, you are responsible. It is NOT Trump acting like Trump.
Instead, it IS you acting as you.
“Prejudices,
it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart
whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they
grow there, firm as weeds among stones.”
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