There is now loud echoes of rants of racism made against
the World's most eccentric politicians- Mr. Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is the 45th president of
the United States of America of the Republican political breed. Since he mounted
the Presidential rostrum the accusations against him have largely centered
around racism which may have been instigated by his overwhelming aversion for
immigrants of both Blacks and Hispanics in a Country almost known as one of the
few Rainbow nation's in the World by virtue of the historical contexts under
which the different segments of the then fragmented nation's evolved into the
United States of America after many pre-independence battles that ended
in 1776 on July 4th with the proclamation of Independence (Lord May I be
right!).
He has somewhat a pedigree of immigrant parentage by
virtue of the fact that his parents are described in one opinion article as part
of the broader Trump family originating from Germany. His mother, Mary Anne
MacLeod, came from the Hebridean Island of Lewis, off the West coast of
Scotland. He hails from a very illustrious background and none of his fore
fathers is known for ownership of black slaves or any sort of slaves. So his
background is profoundly non-racist.
Business-wise just before venturing into politics,
Donald Trump’s father was Fredrick Christ Trump (October 11, 1905 – June 15th 1999)
was said to be an American real-estate developer in New York City.
His net worth was colossal and estimated to be between
$250-300 million USD as at June 1999 at the much fulfilled age of 93. This
means that Donald Trump's Dad must have been busy making legitimate money
and building an empire and had no time for the frivolity of racism. The younger
Trump who would later beat even reputable opinion polls to become President of
USA has the total DNA of his father in the World of entrepreneurial
spirit.
This is because, he, Mr. Donald John Trump however
before entering politics was a businessman and television personality of note
who related and partnered many black sporting personalities.
With his mouth Trump has said that he had fulfilling
times doing positive and constructive businesses with blacks and that amongst
the black people he respects includes Mike Tyson the former World boxing Super
heavyweight champion. Ben Carson the respected Brain Surgeon is his
political affiliate.
He was born and raised in the rich New York City borough
of Queens and he is a proud holder of a good economics degree of the
prestigious Wharton school.
Trump owned the Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty
pageantry from 1996 to 2015. Can you ever hold a beauty contests anywhere in
the World without blacks? Not at all. As I write, the person holding Miss USA
now is Miss Chelslie Kryst of North Carolina who was crowned on May 2, 2019 at
Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. Currently God holds the broadcast right
for the Pageant. A Nigerian Miss Agbeni Darego won the Miss World beauty
pageant in 2001.
Trump reportedly produced and hosted The Apprentice, a
reality television show, from 2003 to 2015. He is a man of considerable
financial means which in the estimation of Forbes, could be anywhere around
$3.1 billion USD. This makes Donald Trump a remarkable achiever Son of a very
prosperous father. So you can say with Donald Trump he is 'like father,
like Son' defined by business successes. His fundamental departure from his Dad
is the heated debates on political circles if he can be termed appropriately as
a racist. Trump who made money in the media industry is however hated by the
media and he too seems to hate the media passionately going by his cynicism of
branding most World's media as purveyors of fake news. So a check in the media
will nearly tellingly convince you that Donald Trump is a racist. We will
analyse those media contents before we draw the curtain to this brief
reflection which is motivated by the deadly mass shootings in USA targeting
immigrants in which over 50 persons were gruesomely murdered by White
Supremacists.
Historically, it was recorded that the grand Dad of
Trump who a German city was named Mr. Frederick Trump (born Friedrich Trump; 14th March
1869 – 30th May 1918) was a German American businessman and the
patriarch of the Trump family.
Born in Kallstadst, in the kingdom of Bavaria (now in
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). Trump’s grandfather aforementioned had
come to the USA at the age of 16 and started working as a barber just as it was
reported by historians that he Anglicized his name to Frederick in 1893 when he
became a United States citizen.
Although Donald Trump has stated his metropolitan
outlook and his rejection of the appellation of a racist and a supporter of a
white supremacist, there are insinuations accusing him of being a racist.
Although he, Donald Trump claims to have had a robust
business affiliations with some blacks and especially sportsmen, but his
largest critics have come from black sportsmen who think he is a racist. Added
to these accusations, is the review by the associated press which found out
that there are few, if any, black executives in the upper ranks of the Trump
organization.
CBC news of June 16th 2016 reported that
erstwhile executives of Trump organization say they could not recall a single
black vice president-level executive at Trump’s headquarters during their
combined tenures at the Trump organization LLC, which ranged from 1980 to late
in the past decade prior to 2016.
A peep at Trump’s cabinet during his first ever cabinet
level meeting on March 13th following his inauguration shows
only just a few black Americans or Hispanics including Dr Ben Carson who he
made the Housing secretary because he believed that black dominated townships
are in dire need of new housing infrastructures but he is yet to deliver on
this ground.
The Guardian of Britain in a report done around December
2017 on Omorosa’s exit stated that it highlighted the lack of diversity at
Trump’s White house.
And I then ask, does it mean then that Trump’s White
House is dominated by whites in the White House?
The Guardian appeared to have answered my question in
the affirmative when it affirmed as follows: “The departure of the former
Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault-Newman from the White House this week
has placed the lack of diversity in Donald Trump’s administration under renewed
scrutiny”.
She even criticized Trump by accusing him of surrounding
himself with whites who have never worked with blacks.
Trump’s heightened rhetoric against immigrants and his
vitriolic against blacks and Hispanics have combined to make his adversaries in
the Democratic Party to increase their political accusations that he is a
racist. He recently charged at some blacks in the Congress whom he asked to return
to their original homelands if they are unhappy with the status quo in USA.
But Trump seems not to have helped himself by way of his
unrelenting tweets on the themes of immigration and his alleged attack of
Africa as a continent of 'shithole' countries. He also singled out the black neighborhoods
of Baltimore for attack as a squalor of drugs and violent crimes. One of his
most trenchant critics in the Congress is a black man who represents Baltimore.
His many media battles were still raging when the unthinkable happened which
are the two most recent deadliest mass shootings in US history but this time
around only immigrants were targeted by the ruthless extremists who from all
indications are White Supremacists.
Interestingly, the two recent mass shootings that
affected mostly immigrants in Texas have completely reinforced the allegations
that Donald Trump is a racist and a white supremacist.
He however partly deflated these unprecedented echoes of
accusations of racism by directly condemning extremism and white supremacy.
Trump blamed the internet for poisoning the minds of these evil attackers. He
also visited the scenes of the shootings and promised to speak in favour of
introducing legislations to modify gun ownership. However, the National Rifle
Association which is a powerful lobby cautioned him against backing any reform
of gun ownership laws that permits comprehensive background checks for
prospective gun owners in USA. A good number of parliamentarians were
sponsored by this powerful gun ownership lobby group.
Trump during his visits to the scenes of the bloody mass
shootings was quickly reminded that he too has played a role by stoking the
flames of hatred for immigrants through his unrelenting tweets and political
speeches. His media fight with the representatives of Baltimore has not helped
matters.
An analyst stated that if you ask President Donald Trump
if he believes that he is an unrepentant racist, he would inevitably respond
that he isn’t racist.
The reporter apparently doesn't believe him going
by what he wrote that to the contrary, he’s repeatedly said that he’s “the
least racist person that you’ve ever encountered.”
The analyst who thinks otherwise says that Trump’s
actual record, however, tells a very different story. On the campaign trail,
Trump repeatedly made explicitly racist and otherwise bigoted remarks, from
calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists to proposing a ban on all
Muslims entering the US to suggesting a judge should recuse himself from a case
solely because of the judge’s Mexican heritage.
The trend has continued into his presidency, the
reporter noted.
"From stereotyping a black reporter to pandering to
white supremacists after they held a violent rally in Charlottesville,
Virginia, to cracking a joke about the Trail of Tears, Trump hasn’t stopped
with the racist acts after his 2016 election."
The writer recalled that most recently, Trump tweeted
that several black and brown members of Congress are “from countries whose
governments are a complete and total catastrophe” and that they should “go
back” to those countries.
The tweets, aimed at Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
(D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI),
exemplify a common racist trope used against immigrants and minority groups who
criticize US policies, the writer observed.
The reporter then reminds us that Democrats, including
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, condemned Trump’s tweets as racist.
This the writer says is nothing new for Trump. In fact,
the very first time that Trump appeared in the pages of the New York Times,
back in the 1970s, was when the US Department of Justice sued him for racial
discrimination. Since then, he has repeatedly appeared in newspaper pages
across the world as he inspired more similar controversies.
"This long history is important. It would be one
thing if Trump simply misspoke one or two times. But when you take all of Trump’s
actions and comments together, a clear pattern emerges — one that suggests that
bigotry is not just political opportunism on Trump’s part but a real element of
Trump’s personality, character, and career", (see German
Lopez@germanrlopezgerman.lopez
However, it is yet to be made clear if truly Donald
Trump is a racist. Only time would tell.
*Emmanuel Onwubiko heads HUMAN
RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) and blogs@www.emmanuelonwubiko.com,www.
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