By Barbara Reynolds
The ”sh*thole” debacle: It is one thing to rhetorically hate a race of people but it is quite another to have the power and the resources to destroy them. That is why Trump’s arguing that people from “sh*tholes,” like Haiti and Africa don’t belong here is so disturbing.
In a sense he is telling the world black and brown people have no place in America. He made that loud and clear when he said, “Haitians Get Out.” Will we see ethnic cleansing? Are we witnessing the rise of America’s Hitler? Character assassination precedes physical assassination.
First there is the slander, the painting of people of color as worthless, unpatriotic, and lawless. Here is a president who labeled black football players “sons of bitches,” had kind words to say about the White nationals who were beating up protestors in Charlottesville and refused to provide the help to Americans suffering from hurricane destruction in Puerto Rico. One of his first hires was Steve Bannon, an avowed white supremacist whose plan was deconstruction, which meant satisfying Trump’s base by dehumanizing people of color, robbing them of survival tools and ensuring more black men wound up in jail.
Trump’s father was reportedly a Klansman, so the hatred he has for Blacks was passed through his DNA. He tried to violate Barack Obama’s right to be president through the lie that he was born in Kenya – one of those sh*thole places. When that didn’t work as president he is obsessed with destroying Obama’s legacy especially through budget cuts that are destroying Obamacare. By cutting that he sees how he can destroy Obama’s legacy and the race that he sprang from.
The deconstruction of people of color is not only through his inhumane immigration policy but the cutback in EPA regulations which allow toxics to flow freely into places where people of color live. Cuts in Medicaid and Medicare will push seniors to cut back on preventive care, another measure that will hit blacks who are on the bottom of the economic poll. To pay for the billions his tax cuts provide to his rich friends, millions will not have health care, healthy toxic free environments, and their beds will be the cold sidewalks as he cuts out aid for the homeless.
The other problem is Trumpism, the Republicans do not stand with the America who believes that all are created equal. No they support Trump’s racism, the White evangelicals pretend that unmerited greed is not a sin and the Black pulpits are mostly silent.
But I still believe that there is enough of us – the Irish, the Italians, the Japanese, and hundreds of other races – whatever so-called “sh*thole” we may be accused of coming from will still rise to make America great again and not hate again. We will run for office, we will vote our strength, and we will never hate, bully, slander others. We will never lower our values to become the tyrants who are now ruining this country. We are better than those at the top, so we must rise up and reclaim the honor and dignity in the name of all those, black, white , red and yellow, who died to make us free.
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