Let’s have a healthy discussion about something. Every time I turn around the “racism” card is played, and it’s actually quite confusing to me, so I wanted to understand tangible talking points on both sides. When I posted this on social media, I set up ground rules to my readers to participate: Emotion-laden, profanity-ridden comments and rants were off limits; I would delete those posts, and block those people from the conversation. It’s not productive, and frankly I was tired of it.
I thought I understood racism, but it’s getting used a lot these days, mostly against Mr. Trump. So, I looked up the definition: Racism – prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. But here’s the deal – you can’t pick apart the definition to “stop” at the part that suits your narrative, right? And after reading an interesting take on this by Chris Ladd in Forbes, he rightly pointed out some factors I personally had not appreciated about the racist notion of a so-called “Master Race”: If there really were such a thing as a “master race,” evolutionary logic dictates that you would find it in Africa, the world’s oldest cauldron of genetic refinement. Huh. Interesting.
Now let’s take some of these thoughts, and apply them to Mr. Trump. Is he a racist? It can be argued that his actions to temporarily ban people coming from predominantly Muslim countries was a racist move, but was it? If a president is sitting on information that says (1) we don’t have an adequate vetting system in place to deal with these floods of undocumented refugees (many traveling with no ID at all) from these countries, and (2) since 2015 over 63 fatal attacks have occurred in the EU, killing over 342 people, all by Islamic Terrorists, what decision should he make? In 2017 alone, the EU estimated over 50,000 jihadists were in Europe, while that same year Germany estimated over 10,000 militant salafists were in their country. So, does that make Trump racist?
What about his poorly-worded comments on the Mexicans coming into the country when he started his campaign in 2015? His words were, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Yup. Could have worded that way better. I believe, personally, that most of them are good people. But I am also not blind to the human trafficking (I’ve run on those van accidents in Boulder County years ago when 15 were packed into a van that rolled; I was told later only a couple were legally here). I also truly believe a massive amount of drug trafficking comes across the border. Any of us that grew up in Boulder should know better than to argue that… And I do believe that MS-13 isn’t a boy-band from the 80’s. And I know friends that served in the DEA on those gunships along our southern border. They can tell some good, true stories. Our wanting people to come in legally, for legitimate work instead of coming across the sand and water in the middle of the night – is that wrong for us to want to vet these entrants? Is Trump a racist for wanting to do that? He has stated on many occasions that he wants people to come in; just legally. We’ve actually increased the visas issued along the southern border ports for seasonal work permits. But that’s not the popular narrative.
And then there’s his actions. He has appointed Ben Carson (who I see as a very wise, African American doctor) as a cabinet member to head the HUD. He appointed Nikki Haley (another very wise, Indian-American woman, and former governor of South Carolina) as a potent UN Ambassador. He has friendships with the likes of Kanye West and Mike Tyson, among others in the African American community. How do we rationalize that? He also campaigned directly (and still does) to the “forgotten men and women” (heavily mixed with multiple ethnicities), and has made a very strong manufacturing environment again (in 2017 over 138,000 manufacturing jobs were added, compared to 34,000 of those jobs lost in 2016). Why would you pursue that policy, benefiting lower income and minorities, if you were racist?
I welcome some thoughts from you all – to add talking points to both sides. I want to understand what I am perhaps not taking into account. To say his words are poorly chosen, unfiltered, and often inciteful or antagonistic, yeah – I agree. Got that. But does that make him a racist? What does?
