Well, we
now have over 80+ days left in our ground breaking United States election. Why is it ground breaking, well our choices
will show the world who we are as a country.
There are too many issues on both sides to count with this election, so
I will narrow it down to one part of one issue with one candidate: Racism against Americans with an African
heritage (aka: African-Americans or Blacks).
The
Republican candidate for president has been accused of being racist towards
African American repeatedly. The
accusation recently occurred after he gave a speech that was specifically aimed
towards African Americans. Pundits,
Journalists and people in general have repeatedly stated this, but before we
accuse someone who is applying for the highest office. We should take a serious look at why this has
been said. So, I decided to create a
timeline.
70’s
The first
documented account of racism for this candidate occurred in the early 70’s. Trump Management Corporation was sued by the
Justice Department twice (1973 and 1978), for not renting to black people.
80’s
There was
almost no public record of Trump being racist towards blacks in the 80’s, until
1989 with the Central Park Five. In the
Central Park Five case five young black men were wrongfully convicted of raping
a white female jogger in Central Park. Before
any of the youth were tried…
(Trump) He
paid a reported $85,000 to take out advertising space in four of the city’s
newspapers, including the New York Times. Under the headline “Bring Back The
Death Penalty. Bring Back The Police!” and above his signature, Trump wrote: “I
want to hate these muggers and murderers. They should be forced to suffer and,
when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as
examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or
an act of violence.”
Note: In 2002, the actual rapist, who was already
in prison, came forward. It was proven
that he alone had raped the jogger. The
Central Park Five were freed and later received a civil suit settlement for
41 million. Trump responded in an
opinion piece for the New York Daily News.
“In an opinion piece for the New
York Daily News, he described the case as the “heist of the century”.
“Settling
doesn’t mean innocence, but it indicates incompetence on several levels,” Trump
wrote, alluding to how police and prosecutors initially involved in the case
have long maintained the five boys were involved in the rape, even after the
convictions were thrown out.
90’s
Trump
disparaged his black casino employees as “lazy” in vividly bigoted terms, according
to a 1991 book by John O’Donnell, a former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and
Casino.
“And
isn’t it funny. I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza.
Black guys counting my money! I hate it,” O’Donnell recalled Trump saying. “The
only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes
every day.”
“I think
the guy is lazy,” Trump said of a black employee, according to O’Donnell. “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.”
In 1992, “The New Jersey Casino Control
Commission fined the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino $200,000 in 1992 because
managers would remove African-American card dealers at the request of a certain
big-spending gambler. A state appeals court upheld the fine.”
In 1996, Trump
has also faced charges of reneging on commitments to hire black people. In
1996, 20 African Americans in Indiana sued Trump for failing to honor a promise
to hire mostly minority workers for a riverboat casino on Lake Michigan.
2000+
In the early 2000’s Trump took a break. However, his public display of racism was apparent again after the nomination of our current President Barack Obama. Here were his comments regarding our current president…
Trump: Obama a "Terrible Student" Not Good Enough for Harvard" Manhattan real estate mogul Donald Trump suggested in an interview Monday that President Barack Obama had been a poor student who did not deserve to be admitted to the Ivy League universities he attended.Trump, who is mulling a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, offered no proof for his claim but said he would continue to press the matter as he has the legitimacy of the president's birth certificate."I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records."Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York in 1983 with a degree in political science after transferring from Occidental College in California. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude 1991 and was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
Next, Trump joined the birther movement. An article in The New York Times suggests
that he took advantage of other’s perceptions of the idea of having an African
American president.
In the birther movement, Mr. Trump
recognized an opportunity to connect with the electorate over an issue many considered
taboo: the discomfort, in some quarters of American society, with the election
of the nation’s first black president. He harnessed it for political gain,
beginning his connection with the largely white Republican base that, in his
2016 campaign, helped clinch his party’s nomination.
However, based on Trump's past actions, I honestly believe
that he was uncomfortable as well. I don’t
think he took advantage of it for political gain, I think that he actually felt
this way.
This brings us to the present. Here is a more recent comment from Trump on
racism and the current racially-motivated violence.
There’s no such thing as racism
anymore. We’ve had a black president so
it’s not a question anymore. Are they
saying black lives should matter more than White lives or Asian lives? If Black
lives matter, then go back to Africa? We’ll see how much they matter there.
The going back to Africa has been a common response to
African Americans in regards to racism for decades before, during and after the
Civil Rights movement.
Based on this history, mostly in his own words, it is easy to
explain why many people became upset when at a June Rally, Trump said "Oh,
look at my African-American over here. Look at him," "Are you the
greatest?” They were upset because there
is a pattern. It is a pattern for him
that reaches back to the early 70’s and if you look at his father’s past, you
will find that it had to be something that he was raised with. The Trump family’s treatment of Blacks was
even written in the lyrics of a Willie Guthrie song.
This pattern continues and it isn’t going to stop. This week Trump addressed African Americans
at a rally in West Bend, Wisconsin. The topic
was the current violence in Milwaukee that has occurred due to another shooting
of an African American. This man stood
in a predominately White community (94.8% White and 1% African American), with
a predominantly White audience and asked African Americans to trust him,
because we have been taken advantage of by the Democratic Nominee and the
Democratic Party. It is funny, African
Americans are expected to take his word now, and ignore all of the other his
other words and actions in previous decades.
Based on his speech, I have come to the conclusion that Trump must think
that African Americans are too dumb to be aware of his actions and his
past. Or, believe that his actions
matter. Maybe, that is truly the final
insult.
Trump does have people and friends who have stated publicly
that he is not a racist. However, these
people fall into two categories… they are either White, or if they are Black
they are on the (Trump/RNC) payroll. I haven't seen anyone else.
Reviewing this timeline I have created, has caused me to ask
a few questions.
- What is the 1% of African Americans who do support him thinking?
- When does he have time to be racist and discriminate against others (Mexicans, Women, Muslims, Disabled, etc.)?
- Why do people even bother to argue that he is not racist?
#Trumpisaracist
#Trump_BlackLiesMatter
#Trump_GoBacktoAfrica
