Is Trump racist? He says he is not. But his actions indicate otherwise. If you ask a white supremacist if they are racist, they will either say they are or say that they merely believe that whites are superior and they don’t see that as racism. (Actually, that’s conjecture – as far as I know I’ve never met one and if I did, I don’t know if I’d ask.) But Trump really thinks he treats all people fairly when he obviously does not. And that should not be surprising to anyone. Trump is the least self aware person ever. He claims he is really smart in such an non intellectual way it is almost tragic.
And for this reason, I cut him some slack. I see his lack of being self aware as a sort of mental disability. And even if he was more typically self aware, there are many people who grew up thinking they were treating everyone equally when they were not. So can you be racist when you are not self-aware? Yes, definitely. In fact, I think the majority of racism in America is exactly that. People thinking they are treating everyone equally even when seemingly small choices may tend to be different depending on skin color. And those small choices when taken together can have big consequences.
However, that’s a far cry from overt and self-aware white supremacy. Trump’s defense of the people who were at Charlottesville and at least adjacent to the white supremacists was certainly weird. But I don’t think that even Trump, as terrible a President as he is, is actually a self-aware white supremacist. Nor does he actively endorse those who are. So I think the rhetoric indicating that goes too far and has the unfortunate result of somewhat normalizing the un-self-aware racist that he actually is.
Please do not take this as a form of defending the President, and I am aware that this is your journal and your opinion. Donald Trump is NOT a racist nor a bigot. I am very familiar with personal friends of Donald Trump who consist of many orthodox jews(it goes further than Jared Kushner) as well as African Americans, or people of color or whatever new p.c. nonsensical dialect people conjur up. He isn’t very smart though, he never claimed to be an intellectual, or did he? He’s a business person, not an academic. He is indeed somewhat of an idiot and expresses himself via his emotions. I knew racists, real ones, not millennial internet recruits, he is not one. Racists don’t allow blacks or jews on their lawn. The problem is that people continue to spread this type of talk and make further the mockery and ignorance that people like the current president propagate. Everyone has illogical repressed hang ups and idiosyncratic emotions regarding race, germs, color, etc. It’s what makes us human; the point is not to let it have a detrimental effect on society and not to make it vocally public to the point where you hurt others. Unfortunately, sometime emotions get the best of us. Tolerance shouldn’t consist of a policing system.
Anonymous, thanks very much for your comment. Well written and I get your point. You are right that there are some people who make overt intentional racist decisions and statements. Like the stay off my lawn kind of thing. When given an obvious choice, Trump has shown that he can make the fair choice. But my point in the post is that even small decisions like Trump has made can be racist. They are not intentional and Trump is unaware. But even small bias can have a racist result. And that’s why I reached that conclusion. Thanks again for the comment and for the dialog.