I embrace words that accurately describe me, even if they may not be said in a way that is complimentary. These words include activist, dissenter, feminist and cantankerous. I cannot deny that they are accurate, because I know what words mean.
Am I a socialist? Well, if socialism is passionately supporting public education, social security, affordable health care access for all people, taxing the rich at rates greater than the poor are taxed, public lands (city parks, national parks, national monuments, etc.), and taxes paying for social and public services then, yes, I am part socialist, because there are aspects of socialism I want in the USA. However, I also want people to be free to invest money and make money, to own their own houses and their own property, to become wealthy, to buy luxury items, to buy things they want but may not need - and a socialist, nor a communist, would be down with any of that. Karl Marx said, "The theory of Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." And I own a house and I love my house and it's mine, and I love my motorcycle and really don't want anyone else riding it EVER...
But, still, if I'm willing to accept the word socialism as a word that accurately describes of some of my beliefs, no matter how incendiary it is to some people, then why do people who are racists refuse to accept the description that they are racists? Racism is the belief that members of a category of people - a category based on their ancestry, their ethnicity - possess behavioral characteristics and intellectual abilities specific to that category, that race, especially so as to distinguish people of that race as inferior or superior to people of another race or races.
That means that if you think most people who are Latino, because of their biology, have a predisposition to rape and kill greater than people who are of European descent, you are a racist. If you believe that the biology of people from Asia makes them predisposed to be smarter than people who are black from Sub-Sahara Africa, you are a racist. If you think black Americans are predisposed to commit crimes at a much greater rate than whites because of their brain makeup, you are a racist. If you believe culture comes not from external factors and history but, rather, a person's biological makeup, then you are a racist.
By this accurate definition, Donald Trump is a racist, as are his supporters. There's no getting around that. based on his frequently stated beliefs and the crowds that cheer those statements. By calling Trump supporters racists, yes, I am insulting Trump supporters - but I'm also being accurate.
The list of Trump's racist remarks is too long for this blog. But here are just some highlights:
Trump characterizes cities with a large black population as dystopian war zones. In a 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump said, “Our inner cities, African Americans, Hispanics are living in hell because it’s so dangerous. You walk down the street, you get shot.” Trump also said to black voters: “You’re living in poverty; your schools are no good; you have no jobs.” Trump frequently offers false crime statistics to exaggerate urban crime in cities with large black populations, including about Oakland, Philadelphia and Ferguson, Missouri. This comes from his racist belief that black people are more violent than people of other races.
Trump frequently talks about crimes committed by dark-skinned people, sometimes exaggerating or lying about them (such as a claim about growing crime from “radical Islamic terror” in Britain). Again, this comes from his racist belief that people who are identified as not white are more prone to violence.
Trump is very slow to decry hate crimes committed by whites against dark-skinned people (such as the killing of an Indian man in Kansas last year). Trump called some of those who marched alongside white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., last August “very fine people.” This comes from his racist belief that white violence against other races is somehow justified, or not as bad as violence by people from other races.
Trump said a federal judge hearing a case about Trump University was biased because of the judge’s Mexican heritage. This illustrates his racist belief that people of Hispanic or Latino descent are inferior in their abilities to white people.
In June 2017, Trump said 15,000 recent immigrants from Haiti “all have AIDS” and that 40,000 Nigerians, once seeing the United States, would never “go back to their huts” in Africa. Do I even have to explain what makes this racist?
At the White House, Trump vulgarly called for less immigration from Haiti and Africa and more from Norway, because he believes people from Scandinavia - white people - are superior to other races because of their biology.
His favorite insult of black Americans seems to be that they have a "low I.Q." or are not "smart": he's used this insult for Don Lemon, LeBron James, Maxine Waters. By contrast, he likes to use sexist remarks to insult white women, and insults about character and appearance for white men.
In the 1990s, Trump took out advertisements alleging that the “Mohawk Indian record of criminal activity is well documented.”
Trump once referred to a Hispanic Miss Universe as “Miss Housekeeping.”
Those are just some of the racist remarks he's made. If words have meaning, then Donald Trump is a racist. Why doesn't he embrace the title? He almost has: he's now admitted to being a nationalist, which is an extremist form of patriotism and is a term beloved among fascists. And fascism is inextricably tied with racism - the two cannot be separated.
Trump's domestic and foreign policies are based on two things: increasing his family's wealth and promoting his racist ideology. So, if you support him, there is only one thing to call you: racist. Why not embrace it? The description CANNOT be wrong unless you also believe your ideology about race is wrong. Period.
There is no denying that the US, like most countries on Earth, was built on racist ideologies. It is my choice every day, not just on election day, to embrace that or to fight against that continuing. Regardless of the election results, I'm going to continue to fight. I won't be "coming together" with racists. I won't be "looking for common ground" with racists. If it makes you uncomfortable when I speak out or walk out - it should, and that's your problem, not mine.
Not ready to make nice, not ready to back down...
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