The secret’s been out for a while now: Donald Trump is largely considered a racist by nearly everyone — even in some cases by fellow Republicans. From his campaign sloganeering that sounded an awful lot like “make America WHITE again” to his comments on Mexcans, from his “shithole countries” remarks to his failure to condemn the white supremacists who were 100 percent responsible for the death of peaceful protester Heather Heyer at an alt-right/Nazi rally just one year ago tomorrow, Donald Trump has had every opportunity to tell America that he isn’t a racist and to demonstrate it — but he refuses.
And it’s that last example that has us reeling today. Trump took to Twitter Saturday morning to “commemorate” the anniversary of the Charlottesville rally, and he still made it sound like it was possible that someone other than the Trump-supporting racists who hosted the event were responsible for the mayhem that occurred:
The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2018
No, Donald. The riots didn’t “result in” death and division. That was the whole point of the gathering. And when the President failed to immediately stand up and condemn the Nazis and white supremacists who were responsible — and them only, because it was their party — he made it clear who he sides with.
If seeing the word “Nazi” a few times in this article is making you cringe, I’m not totally upset by that. The news didn’t make a huge deal about it, but that’s who put that rally on. They apparently didn’t think anyone would be taking their pictures, but many of them have lost their jobs and their families after being outed as Nazis through pictures from that event.
The hand sign that guy is making in the picture here represents a “W” with the three fingers pointing up, and a “P” with the thumb and index and the wrist. It stands for “White Power.” It’s a symbol used by Trump supporters across the country. In fact, look back at the picture attached to the link you clicked to open this page.
Until Donald Trump specifically calls out his own base for their racism — and stops using racism to appeal to them — his words are empty.
Heather Heyer is still dead, and the President of the United States is still calling for unity, even as he uses racism as a tool to appeal to his voters: The NFL protests, the Muslim ban, and a family separation policy at the border that looks like human rights violations to the rest of the world, all combine to make Saturday’s tweet from Donald Trump absolutely meaningless.
Featured image via screen capture
