I have been doing a lot of reading lately, and a book that I highly recommend, especially to Americans who deny their country's innate racism, is The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson. The book tells the history of the migration of over six million Blacks from the Jim Crow south that took place from WW1 to 1970. While revolving primarily around three people, whose stories she renders in heartfelt detail, it is a stark reminder of the terrible prejudice, injustices, abuses and murders Black people have faced for so many years, realities that did not end with their emancipation.
All of which brings me to state the obvious: Donald Trump is a blatant, unapologetic racist who uses his Executive bully box to cultivate and inflame, not heal, the deep divisions within his country. The latest of many instances of Trump's vile nature is perhaps one of his most shocking - the depiction of the Obamas as apes. It is a depiction for which, typical of his cowardly nature, he offers no apology,Donald Trump said on Friday evening, after a racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes had been posted to his social media account and then deleted, that he had directed aides to post the offensive video but that he hadn’t seen that portion of the clip and he refused to apologize for it.
The clip appeared during one of the 79-year-old US president’s increasingly frequent late-night posting sprees to his Truth Social account, and shows the laughing faces of the former president and first lady superimposed on the bodies of primates in a jungle setting, bobbing to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Trump accepts no responsibility for this loud dog whistle sure to appeal to his MAGAT followers..
Although the White House initially defended the video in a statement from the press secretary, the video was later deleted and reporters were told that it had been posted, without the president’s knowledge, by an aide.
What led to the deletion? Apparently, a rare instance of a few Republicans showing a soupcon of spine as they joined with Democrats to condemn the deeply offensive post.
Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator, the only Black Republican in the US Senate and a former contender for the party’s presidential nomination , posted on X: “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Earlier, Mike Lawler, the Republican congressman from New York, had posted: “The President’s post is wrong and incredibly offensive – whether intentional or a mistake – and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered.”
That spine was notably absent from Senate and Congressional leadership, however.
Neither of the top two Republicans in Congress, Thune and Mike Johnson, the House speaker, offered comment, prompting Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and the Senate minority leader, to post on X: “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country – where are Senate Republicans?
In the Wizard of Oz, the cowardly lion finally found his courage. In this reality, however, neither the cowardly Trump nor his most ardent supporters have any desire to find theirs.
I imagine President Trump has summoned the finest tailor in the Deep South to make his new hood and robe for the theatrical revival of The Birth of a Nation when the Trump-Kennedy Center reopens.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the tailor will agree to the small, tasteful, golden swastikas Trump will want on the hem and collar of the robe. There seems to be some Nazi terminology and symbolism coming out of the Trump regime.
I have been amazed at the blatant racism, xenophobia, and and misogyny that the Trump regime is displaying. Of course, in some of his purges, he may not just be being wildly prejudiced as simply afraid of having competent subordinates who might point out problems in his policies. Bathmats are easier to work with.
To carry out the purges and naked displays of racism , I think we need to assume that a lot of the Republicans in the US Congress and Senate either agree with Trump and his cabal (Hi Mr Miller) or just don't really care one way or another and they are likely joined by a goo few Democrats. My bet, from seeing some of his election rallies, is that a lot of MAGA types feel the same way.
For years, I have wondered why we have not been seeing young Black US males claiming refugee status at the Canadian border.
I stumbled over a rather amusing video about US Blacks moving to the USSR in the 1930's seeking a better life or fleeing persecution. It looks like 50% propaganda–Hollywood is not alone–but I suspect it has some truth in it. It sort of boils down to the idea that the USSR or parts of the USSR/Russian Federation may have oppressed or disliked minorities but for historical reasons these are not Black. Black in the USSR .
Come to think of it, Alexander Pushkin's great-grandfather, / Abram Petrovich Gannibal, is a good example of this in an earlier time.
Thanks for the links, Anon. I was not aware of any of this. Surely, even if serving propagandistic goals, the film is a stinging indictment of what Blacks were fleeing from in the U.S.
DeleteFrom my interest in jazz, I have learned that France offered a refreshing respite from the racism that many of the Black greats experienced in the U.S. I have often wondered why more didn't take up residence there. Perhaps they still had faith that things could change in Amerika?