(Todd A. Smith)
For some strange reason, many people still swear that President Donald Trump is not a racist.
But it must be difficult to justify his hypocrisy regarding American history and the role that racism has played for centuries.
At the end of President Trump’s first term, he criticized the removal of statues of Confederate heroes during Black Lives Matter protests.
Many African-Americans feel that celebrating the Confederacy is the same as celebrating the enslavement of their ancestors.
During global protests of police brutality in 2020, many monuments honoring Confederate icons were replaced.
Now, the Trump administration has directed that two Confederate statues be returned.
Simultaneously, Trump has attempted to remove African-American heroes from the history books.
Some of those African-American heroes came from the same time in history as the Confederacy.
However, when historical figures represent the liberation of African-Americans, Trump wants those people removed from the history books.
But if a White person fought to oppress African-Americans and keep them in shackles, Trump wants them immortalized as if they were on the right side of history.
Shania Shelton and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn of CNN reported, “The Trump administration is planning to reinstall two Confederate monuments, following through on a push by President Donald Trump to bring back statues that were removed in the wake of the George Floyd protests.
“Hours after the US National Park Service said Monday that it will restore and reinstall a statue of Confederate military officer Albert Pike in Washington, DC, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that another Confederate memorial will return to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.”
On social media, Hegseth said, “I’m proud to announce that Moses Ezekiel’s beautiful and historic sculpture—often referred to as ‘The Reconciliation Monument’—will be rightfully…returned to Arlington National Cemetery near his burial site. It never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the Left, we don’t believe in erasing American history—we honor it.”
Correction, Mr. Hegseth.
The right believes in honoring history if it promotes White supremacy, pretends racism never existed and denies the contributions made by historical African-American figures.
School boards across this country are constantly bombarded with Republican board members and conservative White parents who want every mention of racism removed from the history books because it makes White people uncomfortable.
However, they seem not to care that honoring Confederate heroes makes many African-Americans uncomfortable.
The MAGA right removes true American heroes from the history books, while honoring those who committed treason against America by seceding from the Union and going to war with their former country.
The Trump administration likes to say that they are removing diversity, equity and inclusion from America.
But what they are truly doing is removing Black and Brown heroes from the history books, while celebrating and glorifying White traitors, murderers, rapists and enslavers.
And when the administration faces criticism for removing information about heroes of color, they make up some lame excuse like it was a simple technical error.
In March, Seb Starcevic of Politico reported, “The Pentagon is conceding it made mistakes as it rushed to remove articles and images celebrating diversity from its social media and websites, a campaign that resulted in moves such as deleting tributes to Jackie Robinson…
“As part of the effort, the department removed articles and images of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, the Navajo Code Talkers and the Tuskegee Airmen. It also pulled the historic photos of six Marines hoisting a U.S. flag on Iwo Jima n 1945 because it was on a page celebrating Army Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian.”
Although Trump had called slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers “a great American hero” in 2017, his military profile was also deleted from the Arlington National Cemetery’s website in its effort to remove “woke” information.
Therefore, how can Hegseth honestly say that the right does not remove history when they openly said that they want to eliminate “wokeness?”
Every true historical hero from around the globe could have been considered “woke” because the term simply means to be aware of discrimination, prejudice and oppression and to try to eliminate bigotry and hatred.
Who would not want to be woke?
Martin Luther King, Jr. was woke because he fought for integration and racial equality.
However, he should be removed from the history books due to his wokeness.
Former Senator Robert F. Kennedy was woke because, despite his affluence, he cared for marginalized communities.
Former civil rights activist Cesar Chavez should probably be removed from the history books because advocating on behalf of Hispanic farmworkers would probably receive the woke label from the MAGA movement.
Around the world, people like former South African President Nelson Mandela were woke enough to spend 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid.
However, the Trump administration wants to glorify those who fought to keep African-Americans enslaved as opposed to those who fought for the equal rights of all of God’s children, Black and White.
Trump removed a bust of King from the Oval Office while returning statues for those who fought for evil.
That should show everyone how he feels about equality, racial harmony and justice.
Anyone can say they are not a racist.
Additionally, their fans and followers can lend their support to that belief.
However, when conveying a message, studies show that words account for only seven percent of that message.
Facial expressions account for 55 percent of a communicator’s message, while vocal tone accounts for 38 percent.
Therefore, one’s actions and tone speak louder than words.
From housing racial discrimination cases in the 1970s to calling for the death penalty for five innocent Black and Brown teenagers, accused of brutally attacking a White female jogger in New York’s Central Park in the 1980s, Trump has constantly shown us who he truly is.
And who he is to the core is a heartless racist, and that is something a blind man can see.
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