“Do you think racists have gotten worse since Trump won?”
“Well, I think it’s a combination. I don’t think we have more racists than we used to, it’s just that they’re out in the open now. I think they’re more publicly violent because they feel solidarity with the president. I blame Trump for making hate an American characteristic.”
This is the way things go. Sometimes an outing for t-shirts is filled with Fortnite talk, sometimes it’s the latest school shooting or concern about growing up black in America. Nothing’s simple anymore.
I told my truth, as I know it, as I’ve always believed it. But if there’s anything I’ve learned while doing this work it’s that hate has always been an American characteristic, and it’s a uniquely white privilege to decide whether or not to recognize it. Trump isn’t the problem.
That’s not to say Trump isn’t a problem – his tweets and rallies rile up violent reactions – but it’s a mistake to believe he’s the whole problem. It’s an enormous mistake to think removing this one man from power will fix what’s wrong here.
This hate runs deep into the marrow of our country’s bones. It’s pounded against generations of people, treating them as less than human and putting their lives in danger. It’s built a system so stacked in favor of a particular population that the ripples are felt across every area of society. This hate is a living, breathing part of America.
So do I think the racists have gotten worse in the last 840 days? I suspect a Black person might say racists are exactly who they’ve always been. The only ones surprised by today’s vitriol are white folks who convinced themselves sweeping ugliness under the rug and giving Martin Luther King Jr. a national holiday meant real change was here.
Guilty as charged.
Riddle from the Middle 
The world is broken. Racism (or sexism) has always been prevalent- but hidden- sort of. Comedians shed the light on some of the darkest aspects of humanity. From films to stand up comedy- the jokes weren’t underlying, but rather experiences that have been engorged. To say Trump is responsible isn’t exactly a lie. What he did was made people proud to accept their indecent behavior and showcase it once more in the lime light. What we can do as a society is try and show that it’s wrong and explain with clarity our reasons. Even if we have to do it over and over again.
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Well said. I think we have light shining into the darkest corners right now, and instead of scattering the insects are standing proud. I’m just hoping there are more people who want to do what’s right than there are people invested in keeping the power structure as it is.
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Respectfully, racists are not confined to white persons. The most startling and most unwelcome change I’ve seen since that idiot got in office is that people of all colors who are racist at heart have come galloping out of the closet. Color is no longer the issue, it’s hatred of others who aren’t the same as the one with the problem, IMHO. You can be black, white, brown, red, yellow or any mix of those and be a racist. I am always angered by the profiling of whitey is the ONLY racist in the house. My ancestors weren’t, even though they were white. Nobody owned slaves nor thought of putting other allegedly ‘inferior’ races into servitude.
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I believe our opinions split on this matter based on the definition of racism. Your blog post indicates you’re looking at it solely from a perspective of prejudice/discrimination based on a belief that your own race is superior. I’m looking at it more broadly. Racism is about social actions/practices or beliefs/systemic structures that promote one race’s powers over another. It requires being in a position of power to affect that sort of change/environment/system, and people of color simply do not hold that sort of sweeping power in America.
Specifically — black, brown, red, yellow, or any mix of those can be prejudiced against whites (or any other race, or even people within their own race). They can exhibit hate, make snap judgments, be cruel — but that’s just not the same as racism, it’s bias and prejudice. And when white people cry that they’re being racist toward us we’re giving a knee-jerk reaction to being lumped in as Those Whites because we’ve been taught that we’re not a color, we’re the default, and we shouldn’t be defined like that.
I won’t speak to your ancestors, but I’ll share this for consideration. As far as I know, mine weren’t slave holders. They were immigrants who were sometimes treated as not white enough and unwelcome. AND YET I have no doubt they benefited from their close-to-white skin color and had access to the opportunities offered to Mayflower whites above them but NEVER to blacks below them. They didn’t have to think about putting blacks into servitude to benefit from the racist system in place. We need to own what whites have done over the centuries in America. This is our mess to fix.
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Yes – racism has gotten worse since Trump took office. He has publicly told people violence is okay. That he would pay their defense for violence. He has called violent people good and ignored the harm they did to other people. Trump took office. He swore an oath to uphold the constitution. To uphold the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I will not let him dodge responsibility for his actions. Or dodge his responsibility for failing to do his job. He has encouraged these acts against people. He has encouraged the people who committed these acts. He has done this not just as a private citizen. He has done this as president holding the highest office in the land. He is responsible. And he is not doing the job he swore to uphold. He is guilty as oath violated.
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Thank you, John. You eloquently summed this up. I do not like the helpless feeling I get when it seems like there’s nothing I can do but watch him burn this place down, but then I remember our country was founded on we, the people and I dig back in.
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Looking from afar. Trump hasn’t started it. But he frequently taps into it as a part of his support favour such views. But he’s not alone. Many politicians are doing the same now. It’s a sign of the times.
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Sadly, this is so true. I never thought in my lifetime I’d see politicians literally rally their base to want to hurt or hunt down or exclude brown/black/gay/fill in any “not me” category here.
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More violent than say…Antifa? Good question for all those ” blacks, Latinos and immigrants for Trump” groups.
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I haven’t done a lot of research on Antifa — what I picked up said they use violence as a means of self-defense and don’t equate property destruction to violence. I’ll have to do more reading on that angle. As for those groups you mentioned, I would surely love to hear some of their reasons for supporting this particular president. Thanks so much for reading today.
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Antifa cover their faces, show up a support rallies and run up behind people, swinging socks filled with metal and or rocks, hitting them in the head. They’ll run up on peaceful marchers or circle an individual and group attack and beat them. They are know to be quite violent and known for it thus the covering of their faces.
I wasn’t a trump supporter and certainly not a Hillary supporter as I lived in Arkansas during the Clinton governorship, rife with scandal and crooked antics even then I might add, but I found it dubious that the trump ” racist” labeling came after a debate that I happened to watch. What he actually relayed was that inner city low income black families need help and want the ability and opportunity to better the lives of their children. Suddenly news outlets were saying ” OMG! He said black people! Hes a racist!” That’s when I became suspicious of political agendas. He virtually said nothing that black community leaders had been saying for decades. He’s literally the only racist I know that fought the system to allow black patron’s to enjoy his clubs and resorts many years ago.
Hes pretty crude. If you get nasty with him, he comes back harder, certainly. Is he a good husband? I dont think so. But, that’s not the job the American people hired him for.
In 8 yrs, we heard “change” & “hope” but what low income families recieved was an “Obama phone”.
What they really wanted was what they are beginning to get now. They want a job, the ability to provide for their families, to better their lives. The facts are unchangeable, lowest unemployment rates in decades.
Some years ago, while walking my dog, a neighbor ran outside yelling, ” don’t get on my grass! This my yard! This not Russia” in thick Russian accent. It was powerful to see what owning his own home meant to him. The stark contrast to the life he had where you are get only what you are given and there’s nothing you can do to change or better your life.
I think most have simply become jaded by career politicians becoming millionaires in office, talking big about fixing the problems but never actually doing anything and realizing they’re all pushing an agenda of division to keep the people at odds thus controllable, sick of the deceptive manipulations so they voted into office a non politician who would expose it and clean it up.
He aint pretty but hes not one of them either and that’s what the people wanted.
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Thanks for sharing your perspective. I just finished a May 3rd CNN article on Antifa and learned quite a bit about the group. I understand their frustration but can’t say I’d be on board with some of their methods. As for Trump, we may just need to agree to disagree. It isn’t a single incident that made me see him as racist — it’s a pattern of behavior he’s shown in tweets, at rallies, and in legislation. The being crude part is abrasive and goes more to how I wish our president would represent us on the world stage, but it’s not like people didn’t know that about him when they voted him in. It will be interesting to see what kind of changes happen with the latest shift in congressional makeup — a lot of those new people ran on the same sort of “your career politician isn’t working for *you*” message.
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As Dan and Paula have said, I don’t think Trump increased racism, but I do think he opened the closet door and set it free. I think, as a society, we are failing in many ways, which we all see now because we have so much access to what’s going on. Maybe it’s time to start over.
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Absolutely. You know, I’ve read several things from people of color that said they’d rather have it be right up front like this because at least they know what they’re dealing with. That the underhanded, smile-while-I-stab-you-in-the-back “I’m not racist” is worse. I don’t think we’ll make real progress until we dismantle the system we have and build one that’s truly equitable.
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I agree with Dan, and like you Laura I am guilty. I saw a lot of hate online during the Obama years, but I thought it was concentrated among a few angry folks who couldn’t stand the thought of a black President. I never realized how widespread the bigotry ran, and how it wasn’t limited to blacks either. I didn’t realize how much hate there is toward gays. I didn’t realize how many Nazi groups there are who hate everyone. And for petes sake I didn’t understand how many millions of people wanted to erase all progress on women’s rights!!!
But luckily for all these haters, Trump has given them a free pass to come out into the light and be horrible to the rest of us. We have to fight back!
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I’m encouraged by people who see this — that fighting back is the only hope we have for saving ourselves and our country. The number of times I’ve had to check in on my Jewish friends after a synagogue shooting or my teacher friends after a school shooting…there is SO much hate running rampant. If we’re not careful it’ll swallow us whole.
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I agree that he hadn’t created more racists. However, he has given them more perceived freedom, and that’s a bad thing. Also, given his acceptance by the far right, he had a unique opportunity to influence that group to remove hate from their list of attributes. He squandered that opportunity. That is sad. When you evaluate a president, you have to consider the opportunities lost.
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I agree — we’ve lost so many opportunities to shift the agenda for the better over the last two years. I feel like often he actively chooses the greater of two evils. It makes me wonder where we’ll be two years from now…
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