Threatens U.S. Diversity 

 

By C.C. Campbell-Rock

White supremacists are fighting in several states to keep Confederate-era monuments and symbols that celebrate the progenitors of America’s original sin, slavery, in public places.  The KKK is marching, white nationalists are marching, and Nazis are marching. No matter how they self-identify, they are all sending a message that they want to Make America White Again. And there is no doubt that their biggest supporter occupies the highest office in the land: Donald Trump.

Trump has used his position as President of the United States to further whiterize the federal government. A look at his cabinet, department heads, and his federal judicial nominees confirms a segregationist agenda at work. He chose Jefferson Beauregard Sessions

In a HuffPost article, entitled “More than a year into his presidency, Donald Trump is making the nation’s courts look a lot more like him: white, male and straight, “ Jennifer Bendery writes “To date, Trump has nominated 87 people to be judges with lifetime tenure on U.S. district courts, circuit courts or the Supreme Court. Eighty of them are white, or nearly 92 percent. One is black, one is Latino and five are Asian or Pacific American. He hasn’t nominated any Native American judges.”

This week, Donald Trump’s nomination of Wendy Vitter to the bench of the U.S. Eastern District Court of Louisiana, it is clear that the neo-Confederates’ strongest supporter is in the White House and his choices for judgeships and his policies reflect his anti-diversity views.

Vitter, a Republican and stanch pro-life advocate, is a lawyer and the wife of former Louisiana U.S. Senator David Vitter,  alarmed many in the African-American community during her Senate Judiciary Committee Confirmation Hearing, when she refused to give her personal views about the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Decision, which ended legal segregation.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)  asked her if she believed that the landmark 1954 decision of Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided. Vitter answered, “I don’t mean to be coy, but I think I get into a difficult area when I start commenting on Supreme Court decisions ― which are correctly decided, which I disagree with. Again, my personal, political or religious views, I would set aside,” she said, adding that she would uphold legal precedent.

When Blumenthal repeated the question, Vitter skirted the question and said, “Respectfully, I would not comment on what could be my boss’ ruling, the Supreme Court. I would be bound by it. And if I start commenting on, ‘I agree with this case, or don’t agree with this case,’ I think we get into a slippery slope.”

Vitter’s comments prompted Sherrilyn Ifill, executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to tweet: “I would not feel better if Trump found Black nominees as inexperienced, deceptive & hostile to civil rights as many of the the nominees he has advanced. But we cannot forget that Trump is also undoing decades of important work to bring racial diversity to the bench.”

New Orleans Attorney Kenneth Jones, Jr. commented, “If you’re a racist, that’s a problem. You’re going to bring that to work and that will color your decisions.”

Wendy and David Vitter reside in the Metairie, Louiisana, a white-flight suburb of Jefferson Parish; named for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The area’s population is 69.5 percent white. When Vitter left the Senate in 2016 to run for governor of Louisiana, a field of candidates, including David Duke, ran to replace the scandal-plagued senator. In 2007, Senator Vitter admitted to and apologized for prior involvement with a Washington, D.C. escort service.

Trump kicked off his presidential bid by calling Mexicans rapists, murderers, and drug dealers. He has attacked African-Americans, Muslims, and a broad range of people of color; and denounced Africa and other countries with people of color, shithole countries.  Trump made the comment regarding his policy on immigration, asking, “Why can’t more immigrants come from countries such as Poland.” White House aides later denied that Trump made those comments.

When David Duke, a former leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, launched his candidacy for Vitter’s seat, during the 2016 election, he said ‘…White people are threatened in America,” and that he hears echoes of his views in Donald Trump’s speeches.

Trump was later roundly criticized for not denouncing David Duke’s support for his presidential bid and for saying there were good people on “both sides,” referring to the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, VA, to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and those who sought the removal of the divisive symbol of white supremacy. Anti-Confederate protester Heather D. Heyer was mowed down by a car driven by white supremacist James Alex Fields, Jr. at the event.

Trump has called NFL Player Colin Kaepernick a son-of-a-bitch and turned the athlete’s protest about police brutality and the genocide of black people by cops into an attack on the America, because Kaepernick refused to stand for the National Anthem.

Trump grew up during legal segregation. His father, Frederick C. Trump was arrested and discharged for failing to disperse at a 1927 KKK Rally. However it is unclear as to whether he was a KKK participant or bystander. . Later, he and his father were charged with housing discrimination for refusing to rent to African-Americans. Reports say that they would mark a ‘C” for colored on rental applications.

People still remember the $85,000 worth of full page ads Trump took out in New York newspapers calling for the death penalty for “roving wild criminals,” which some say was a reference to the Central Park Five. The black and Latino youth were accused of raping and assaulting a young woman jogger in Central Park. They were later exonerated after the real rapist was captured.

Trump still attacks his favorite black boogie man, President Barack Obama nearly every day. He owes a debt of gratitude for his election to President Obama, who he spent five years of accusing of not being an American citizen because Obama’s father was a Kenyan.

To say Trump is a racist is an understatement. He is a racist on steroids. However, if the predictions of a blue wave in November 2018 come true, the U.S. may be spared of the further deterioration of the diverse society that has come to be known as America.

One thought on “Trump’s Penchant for White Supremacy”
  1. […] Last week during the Presidential debate, the proof emerged that Donald J. Trump is a white supremac… Later, Trump pretended dumb about knowing the white supremacist group, Proud Boys. But he clearly sent them a message to “Stand back and stand by.” And he refused to both denounce the group, specifically, and white supremacy in general. […]

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