Racism and Trump
I’ve tried to reconcile in my mind whether Donald Trump has
been, and continues to be, truly a racist individual. i.e. does Trump feel that
whites are superior to other races, and does he take actions to marginalize those
races. He has stated on many occasions
that all Americans, regardless of race or ethnic background are equal under the
law. By his actions in government, he
has improved the economic status of all Americans, and he is particularly proud
of raising the economic standards of black and Hispanic Americans. So by these standards of his stated beliefs
and actions, he is not a racist.
Trump’s many (90%) detractors in the mainstream media cite
the numerous times that he has spiced his rhetoric with racially inappropriate
comments, as indeed he has. Of
particular objection were his comments during the Charlottesville riots that
there were some decent folks on both sides of the argument, and that there were
rioters opposing the white supremacists that were as bad as the white supremacists.
Can these truisms be held as racist statements?
Also cited is Trump’s long record of being picked up, on open mike, of being
inappropriately racial.
Without seeming too much to condone his blurting of racial
epithets, let’s remember Trump’s background as an Eastern U.S. and NYC
construction contractor and later as a media personality. Past generations of
people from the northern parts of the country like the Bronx and Queens were
much more aware of their ethnic backgrounds than in other parts of the country
or in the present day. Sometimes this
resulted in an under-current of racism, but for the most part it served as
good-natured pride in ones origins. For
the most part, people were pragmatic, and looked at results, rather than
someone’s last name or the color of their skin.
Derogatory epithets like “wop” or “polack” or “kraut” or “mick”, and
yes, “nigger” were there, but many times not used in a truly hateful manner.
And of course, eventually, the world changed as minorities
sought true equality, and we mostly stopped calling each other these colorful
names. Along with the recent phenomenon
of political correctness, came the “social justice” police or identity nazis,
who picked up every nuance of these once pretty harmless ethnic nicknames as
egregious racial slurs, and “exposed” them on the broadcast and social
media. Such that any “slips” from Trump
or other septuagenarians steeped in the past verbiage of ethnicity, became
unpardonable displays or “dog whistles” of the horrors of racism and worse.
It is increasingly obvious that leftists reduce much of what
they deem as objectionable in society to “racism”. They manufacture supposed transgressions from
what were originally quite innocent words and actions, and paint them with
derogatory accusations that liberal activists try to make part of our culture
and society. So calling Trump a racist
falls on somewhat deaf ears, since the left tries to paint anyone that
disagrees with them as “racist”
So is Trump a racist?
I think the best answer is that he is no more racist than anyone his age
and background. He has put his foot (or his thumbs) in his
mouth, and has been caught verbalizing some racially inappropriate things. His actions, on the other hand have not shown
him to be racist, and in fact he has done more for the economic well-being of
minorities than most of his predecessors. The old saw “actions speak louder
than words” seem appropriate here, particularly when the words are 30+ years
old, in some cases, or are sourced from heated campaign rhetoric.
This is a good dissertation on the differences between
individual and group racism and the societal effects.
Ray Gruszecki
Jan 29, 2019
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