.When Donald Trump said that he is the “least racist” person in a scripted interview with a Detroit pastor whose church he visited in an attempt to win over black voters, the implication is that there are varying degrees of racism.
I’m sorry, but I have to break it to you: It’s either you’re racist, or you’re not. Yes, there are no varying degrees of racism. No, racism isn’t like milk. There’s no Whole Racism, 2% Racist, or Skim Racism. There’s just racism.
But to hear Trump tell it, comparatively, his level of racism can be measured by the actual strands of real hair on his head. And see that’s the problem. Like the dead rat that covers his head, we – black people – are able to see right through Trump’s most transparent version of bullshit.
“The President of the United States has to be a cheerleader. You have to bring the black, the white, different income groups together … There’s tremendous division right now and a lot of it has to do with the fact that in the inner cities, there are no jobs,” Trump said during a scripted pre-recorded interview with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson of Great Faith Ministries.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Trump added: “I say it proudly, you have record-setting crime, poverty that is horrible, bad education in inner cities. Everything is bad. What do you have to lose? I’ll fix it.” Trump continued, “That’s actually a statement of hope. You can go to war-torn countries like Afghanistan and it’s safer than being in some of our cities.” Wow! Afghanistan? Hyperbole much, Mr. Trump?
Now, I’ve never been to Afghanistan, but I have the sneaky suspicion that the streets of Detroit hardly resembles war-torn Afghanistan. No, not especially with the falling rates of crime in urban communities over the years. Sadly, this fact escapes the mind of the average Trump acolyte.
To them, everyone who happens to be black in America lives in an urban dystopian hellscape riddled with gun violence, drugs, and death. Why? Because this is what it means to be black in America. Yes, to be black in America is to have several children out-of-wedlock by the time you’re seven-years-old. And, of course, this is the way it is in the black community writ large. Quite naturally, it is this way because the Democrats have failed its most loyal sheep. Have no fear, however, all it takes is the black vote and the sprinkling of magic dust by Orange Hitler. Orange Hitler can fix anything.
We may never see Trump’s tax returns, but as a black person, it’s easy to see that Donald Trump is trolling us. When he asks black voters “What do you have to lose?” by voting for him. Images of a welcoming slave ship captain off the coast of West Africa should come to mind.
Everything he says is a lie and done with the sole intent to appeal to the color-aroused. That would be, the millions of white folks who see black people as a threat. These are the very people who find every way to justify the questionable deaths of black people at the hands of the police. Which, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense as to why Trump would declare himself the “law and order” candidate as he did a couple of months ago. It’s the very reason he has advocated putting more police officers in the black community. It’s also the reason why he’s advocating a national stop-and-frisk program, the likes of which has been deemed unconstitutional.
So, again, why would he do something like this? Well, it damn sure isn’t about protecting black people – he doesn’t care. It’s about projecting himself as the slave master with enough force to keep African-Americans in check. Because in the minds of many of his supporters, the reason black folks are out of control is because the current president has been an enabler of violence. Nevermind the fact that the Republican Party has been the roadblock to common sense gun laws and every attempt to legislatively keep guns off the streets in urban communities. Yes, facts aren’t important.
This is why Trump’s attempted so-called black outreach has been frustratingly laughable for most of us black folks. What he has done in recent weeks exhibits the pervasiveness of racism. Why? Because after a year-long crusade of normalizing white supremacy for mere political expediency, Trump believes that he can simply roll up in a black church, and all is forgiven.
What do you have to lose?
As white privilege would have it, Trump believes it’s as simple as swaying while black parishioners sang. Because, apparently, that’s all it takes for Black Jesus to wash the sin of racism away. Which in turn will bring him black votes? Yes, just like that, we’re supposed to forget the fact that as a businessman, Trump was once sued by the federal government for refusing to rent apartments to black people in New York City.
We’re also supposed to believe him when he says that Hillary Clinton is a “bigot,” but ignore that he once told a former executive of his business, John O’Donnell, that he didn’t want black accountants counting money at his Trump Plaza and Trump Castle casinos. O’Donnell quoted Trump in a memoir.
“I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza — black guys counting my money!” O’Donnell’s book quoted Trump. “I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. Nobody else. . . . Besides that, I’ve got to tell you something else. I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is; I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”
Trump needs better black surrogates
In the event that you’re still skeptical, in the interview with that Detroit pastor, Trump also said that we should ask Don King whether he (Trump) is racist or not. Yes, Don King. Right, that Don King. Yep, the boxing promoter.
Uh-huh, the one who hasn’t combed his hair in 45 years. Yep, the same one who’d sell his own mother into slavery for a dollar. Yes, that Don King. The fast-talking “Only in America,” shuckin’ ‘n jivin’, Negro.
The problem with asking Don King to say anything positive about Donald Trump on issues of race – aside from the stated obvious – is that black folks have intentionally lost that fools phone number a long time ago.
Yep, I think it was somewhere around the time when he greeted Mike Tyson upon being released from an Indiana prison with an “As-salaam Alaykum,” right before Tyson ditched him for stealing his money. To be blunt: Collectively, black folks haven’t fucked with o King in a long time.
Don King isn’t exactly a pillar of the black community. And, he’s definitely not the guy anyone trying to make inroads with the black community should use as their Negro Whisperer. But then again, with the assortment of racially ambiguous black surrogates Trump has assembled – from Omarosa to the blue-contact-wearing fake pastor that nobody knows, Mark Burns – what else can we expect from the Trump campaign? No wonder he’s polling at 1% with would-be black voters like he has. Seriously, when you consider the violence at his campaign rallies, it’s hard to imagine him having that much support.
Donald Trump is who he is: Believe me!
It’s easy to say, “Well RiPPa, Trump deserves some credit for reaching out to black voters.” However, to do so would be like giving the Ku Klux Klan a NAACP Image Award for attempting to be more inclusive and diverse by passing out flyers in the black community.
Now, I don’t know about you, but the way my mind is set up, Trump asking black people to vote for him sounds just like that. And I’m sorry, but after spending the last eight years basking in the afterglow of post-racialness with Barack Obama as president, I’d be damned if I made the ghosts of dead slaves and every person lynched cry more tears of sorrow than they and their families have. Why? Because what little dignity and political capital we have ever built, will be lost by voting for Donald J. Trump.
There’s nothing racist about being a Birther?
Remember, this is the same man who pushed the Birther lie that Barack Obama was not an American citizen. For five years – even after Obama released his birth certificate – in an attempt to delegitimize his presidency, Trump continued to perpetuate the lie. So, when Donald Trump said that he was the one who put an end to the Birther conspiracy a few weeks ago, I was outraged. Upon hearing it, I felt like I was awakened from sleep to find some random dude’s balls resting on my face.
If my intelligence was an actual body part like my face, I would’ve filed sexual assault charges. Yes, my intelligence felt sexually violated by Trump’s version of events. And no, I’m not into having the wrinkled scrotum of some dude on my face. Not that having a guy’s balls on your face is a bad thing if that’s your thing. However, for me, it’s just not my thing.
Nope, not if I didn’t ask said dude to do just that. Again, I’m not into balls on my face, but the least Trump could’ve done was ask first. And even if it’s your thing, I’d like to think that you too would be pissed if said scrotum owner didn’t ask your permission first. I realize that this may sound a bit graphic to some, but this is exactly what it felt like hearing Trump declare his Birtherism a public service during last week’s Presidential debate. To hear him tell it, it was as though he did everyone a favor by getting Obama to produce a birth certificate (like we were really curious?). And, of course, he was the only one able to do this. Because Hillary Clinton started the racist Birther lie. And, well, I guess with her being a girl, she couldn’t finish it.
Guess what? It’s all a lie!
Trump is a pathological liar
So yeah, I’m mad at Donald Trump for raping my intelligence; and, I’m obviously not happy about it. In fact, I’m pissed. Highly pissed. So pissed that I’m dedicated to making sure that everyone that I know votes for Hillary Clinton on November 8th, 2016. Why? Because, politics aside, I got a lot to lose. Besides, it’s not like Trump has explained to black voters what we have to gain by voting for him, or how he’s going to do anything.
It’s often said that when America catches a cold, the black community comes down with pneumonia. At a time when black folks are attempting to claw ourselves out of the hole after the Great Recession of 2007, the last thing we need is Donald Trump as president. According to Moody’s Analytics – you know, the people who America goes to when they check their credit? – Trump’s economic policies will force the country into recession. It would be a recession that’s sure to increase unemployment. Which in turn means,
It would be a recession that’s sure to increase unemployment. Which in turn means, instead of pneumonia, black folks in America would surely be coming down with HIV/AIDS. Yes, every single one of us would; and yes, economically speaking, it would be that serious. So serious that it would almost be like our only hope would be to once again pick cotton for free.
I may not know more about ISIS than the generals do like Trump claims he does. However, I’m black, and what I do know, is that none of his proposals – be they economic, or otherwise – will have a positive impact on people who look like me. Now, if you care, think about that and vote wisely, my people.