When someone does something reprehensible, it is our duty to stand up for what is right. That is one of the principles that the United States of America was built on.
Racism is wrong. There is nothing anyone can say to justify it or make it right.
Recently Donald Trump has launched into a campaign of overt racism against elected members of the United States Congress.
Using every medium available, he has called upon the American people to send four U.S. elected officials who happen to be women of color, “back where they came from.” He insinuates because they have colored skin, they are not worthy of living in this country, much less representing the people who voted them into office.
Interestingly, that three of the four women he wants to “send back” to their home countries were born in the United States. The fourth came to the U.S. as a child as a legal immigrant and became a U.S. citizen as a teen. This is unlike Trump’s current (3rd) wife who came to the U.S. illegally. The difference, of course, is that Trump’s wife is white.
The four members of the House of Representatives upon whom Trump has waged his racist war are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Unlike Melania Trump, all have college degrees. Unlike Melania, they are all women of color.
It’s also interesting to note that the four Congresswomen that Donald Trump continues to attack on the basis of their skin color, all won their positions. Unlike Donald, they won their elected positions via popular vote. Ocasio-Cortez won her seat with 78.2% of the vote; Omar won with 78% of the vote, Pressley won with 98.3% of the vote; and Tlaib won with 84.2% of the vote. Even with the aid of Russian interference, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes. It is only on a technicality that he was given the office of President.
I don’t care if you agree with the politics of the four U.S. Congresswomen or not. That’s a matter of intellectual debate. Attacking them strictly because of the color of their skin is not acceptable.
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery in 1865. The 15th Amendment , passed in 1870, gave African-Americans the right to vote. Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 ruled that racial segregation in public schools is illegal. In 1964 Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality.
There should be no place for racism in modern America. Sadly, there is a very vocal minority of Trump supporters who campaign for him because of the fact that he is a racist. That’s what they like about him – that he gives voice to their hatred of people with colored skin.
The sad thing is, these racists think they are “normal.” They don’t recognize themselves as racists. They think discrimination is a normal thing. And, they assume that others have the same point of view.
In fact, the gullible Trump supporters who feed on his hate speech, seem honestly dismayed when someone doesn’t believe the same way they do. That’s why they believed it when Trump claimed he had a crowd of 80,000 attendees at a North Carolina rally to vilify Congresswomen Omar, when in actuality the venue only seats 8,000 and many of those seats were empty.
I personally know Trump supporters who claim they aren’t racists because they don’t use the N-word in front of black people, only when they’re not around. This is not right. This kind of thinking is a disease that needs to be eradicated.
Trump wants to Make America White Again. I disagree. The color of a person’s skin does not define them. It is wrong to say that it does. Racism should have no home in modern America. Instead, we should all strive to Make Racism Wrong Again.
Peace. Love. Trust.
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