It is definitely time for change in America. When President Donald J. Trump was elected to office on that fateful day in 2016, there was a sense of foreboding among a lot of American citizens, especially Black Americans. Trump basically ran on a racist platform. He promised to build a giant wall between the United States and Mexico, and threatened to ban all Muslims. Recently, he has spoken of all Haitian refugees as having AIDS, and has also said that Africans would not want to return to their huts back home, once being in America. There have been photos of Trump’s parents who were allegedly connected with the Ku Klux Klan, and his mantra of wanting to make America great again brings up images of the America of long ago that started with slavery for African Americans, all the way up to lynching, segregation and Jim Crow.
If all of that was not enough, Trump has outdone himself.
In discussing the issue of immigration, he wanted to know why America should consider opening doors to immigrants from Haiti and African countries, which he called “shithole” nations. He further opined that he’d prefer immigrants from Norway. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what that means. He prefers white immigrants.
This is no surprise to most people who have been watching this president, but what is taking people by surprise is the candor with which he is speaking. He did not offer an apology for what he said, but he did deny saying anything derogatory about Haiti. His excuse for his immigration statements, according to reports, was that he preferred immigrants who had education and skills. This alone is a travesty, since many immigrants from Haiti and Africa do have skills and have contributed greatly to the United States.
The other perplexing thing about the Trump administration is this president’s ability to do what he wants while avoiding proper Republican censure. It has been said that Trump was a bully in his youth, and perhaps this is why so many of his colleagues seem to be reluctant to openly oppose him. It is uncanny. He is doing more to potentially damage the Republican Party than any president in recent history. After all, this is the person who said that there were “some very good people” among the white supremacists connected with the Charlottesville protests.
But enough about Trump. The real issue is that Black people all around the world, no matter where, are viewed as being at the bottom of the barrel, and this is true even among Black people. The president of the United States can disrespect Black and Brown people, and apparently, there are a lot of Blacks who secretly agree that they do not deserve respect.
The seeming fact of the matter is that being Black carries a stigma everywhere. And as long as Black people feel that anything Black is inferior the oppression will continue. The disrespect shown by the world is a reflection of the sense of inferiority that many Black people feel.
This issue is extremely crucial during this backward thrust of America. A lot of people are in denial, but during World War II the United States gave shelter to members of the Nazi Party in an initiative called Operation Paperclip. These Nazis shared their technology with America, and the Nazi dream didn’t die with the end of World War II. Actually, we may be experiencing an attempted resurgence of issues that were faced during those times. We may be witnessing the attempted rise of the Fourth Reich.
Of course, this sounds ridiculous to most people. But there is a very real concern that African Americans are endangered, and should, therefore, develop a game plan, one that will help the community survive during these very troubled times. And even though all white people do not feel like the president and his people, it is imperative that the Black community changes to accommodate a winning attitude, one that does not automatically assume that anything white is superior to anything Black. Don’t get angry with this notion, get smart for the sake of survival! A Luta Continua.
