What do you call a person who persistently makes racist comments and commits acts that are racist? You call them a racist. Right?
But what if they are not? What if it turns out the person is saying and doing these things, literally, without “a racist bone” in their bodies? What if they really are “the least racist person you’ll ever meet?”
Can that be?
Well, for Trump, maybe…
There is AMPLE, lifetime evidence of Trump’s racist statements and acts. Yet, also plenty of examples where he has treated people of a different race with preference, respect, loyalty, etc. So should we believe him when he says he is “the least racist person you’ll ever meet”?
I believe Trump is an extremely simple person. He hates big ideas, details, complexities, things that take too long. That isn’t to say he is stupid. He’s simple. Every act and utterance is simple for him, because the entire world flows in and out of him through a very simple filter — what makes Trump richer, more powerful, more adored. That’s it. His avarice and ego so all-consuming, that actions really do not require any other consideration or thought or concern. Simple.
If any act or words get Trump more of those things, then whether it is good, or bad, racist, sexist, treasonous, illegal, harmful to others, etc. simply does not matter, and is never considered. He simply does it.
When there was a chance to make profitable business in Africa a few years ago, Trump claimed Africa was full of bright people and opportunity. When there is currently a need to appeal to the ugly racism that percolates in his angry, lower-educated white base of voters, then Africa is a “shit hole.”
When he needs good, hard-working help at his resorts he hires immigrants, including some that were illegal. When calling them rapists and murderers helps him become and stay President, those same people become rapists and murders. In nearly the same sentence he says “white supremacists” are bad, he says that some of the people violently protesting in a white supremacy rally are “fine people.”
Does that make Trump a racist? Or is he something worse – a person who will so easily and callously give succor to the racism because it benefits him? In some ways it doesn’t matter. In others, it is really important. Racism is taught and can be “untaught.” Narcissistic avarice is a cancer with no cure. Maybe Trump isn’t a racist, but if not, he is something much worse and much more dangerous.
(425 Words)
Patrick On Politics 