Rahim Islam is a National Speaker and Writer, Convener of Philadelphia Community of Leaders, and President/ CEO of Universal Companies, a community development and education management company headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. Follow Rahim Islam on FaceBook(Rahim Islam) & Twitter (@RahimIslamUC)
Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States, is total and complete failure. Trump is either an absolute fool, a racist or both – I believe he’s both. Guess what? Trump wasn’t the first racist President of United States and he probably won’t be the last. The difference with Trump, in the modern time, most presidents would never let you see this ugly side of them (politically correct), but their policies were a dead ringer. What more do we need know about Trump? Trump has a long history of actions that tell us exactly who he is. “When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.” Mayo Angelou
New York City’s Black community knows Trump well because he and his father have a long history of housing discrimination against Black people in their developments. Trump was a major agitator and bully against five Black young men that were wrongfully convicted in the rape of a White woman in Central Park. Trump involved himself in the controversy soon after it took place when he took out full-page ads in major newspapers calling, among other things, for the death penalty to be reinstated in New York. The Central Park 5 were exonerated, and in 2014, New York paid them a $41 million settlement. Trump, however, still is not buying their innocence. These and other actions are absolutely racist.
Trump’s political rise was based on his claim that President Baraka Obama wasn’t legitimate because he was not born in United States, and this was formally labeled as “birtherism.” Trump clanged to this for five years and only when under tremendous public outrage, he reluctantly stated that Obama was born in the United States. His acceptance was coincidentally after the damage was already done and the “bird whistle” of calling the racist out was accomplished – the Alt Right was advanced. Trump’s challenge wasn’t about a birth certificate, this was about the defiance that a Black man can’t be President of the United States because he’s a “nigger,” and this represents a stain on our White America. The birther movement was a rallying and organizing effort to mobilize White supremacy and White racism under the slogan of “Make America Great Again.”
Because of Trump, America’s dirty little secret has now been exposed with the recent White nationalist march that turned into a riot in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump wants to equate the Nazi, KKK marchers with the anti-protestors like Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matters and others that were there to defend freedom, justice and equality for all were up against a group of White Nationalist that have one purpose and one purpose only the deployment and advancement of White supremacy. It just no comparison, one group are the Americans and the other is Anti- American because the history of both the Nazi’s and KKK have created millions of human causalities in America and Europe creating permanent emotional and psychological scars (wounds) on both Blacks and Jews – Trump racism and moral decay have reopened the wounds.
Today, there are so many White people that are racing to condemn Trump for his racism, but very few of them understand the impact racism has had on the Black community. Many White people have stated openly that they condemn racism and White supremacy, but don’t they know and understand that they have benefited from White supremacy and the Black community has been equally punished by White Supremacy? I’m sick and tired of White People telling us how much they hate racism, when they won’t come close to rectifying the effects of what they say they hate. This romanticizing about American history and its founders, without knowing Black history and understanding the human stain of slavery and the legacy of the horrible institution, is morally void and hypocritical.
My problem is not so much with Trump because most of us knew that he was a narrow minded bigot before he began to run for president. My real problem is with the so many White people who are condemning Trump as a racist and many of them are racist themselves. I don’t care what affiliation you might belong to; either you’re a “so-called” conservative Republican or even a liberal Democrat, both exhibit racist behavior and tendencies, but in different ways. Just because you don’t own slaves anymore doesn’t mean that you’re not a racist – this is basically the position of White America today. Politically, the Black community is between the proverbial “rock and hard place” when it comes to the two political parties. Both political parties decry racism of any kind, yet neither have embrace the concept of Reparations for the Black community.
I CONTEND THAT ANY WHITE POLITICAL AND BUSINESS LEADER THAT DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THAT HE ENJOYS THE BENEFITS OF WHITE SUPREMACY (PRIVILEGE) WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING SUCH IS A RACIST.
The Democratic Party has absolutely failed the Black community. They have taken the Black vote for granted evidence by the recent presidential election. The Democrats refuse to support Black apparatus in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania (something that we were begging for them to do) and because of that we have a nut in the White House – I blame the Democratic Party. In addition the agenda of the Black community are at odds with many of the “signature” agendas of the Democratic Party (i.e. unions, middle class, expansion of minorities, etc.). The primary agenda for the Black community must be a reconciliation and reparation.
Over the past 100 years, the White men in the Republican Party has made it very clear that Blacks are not even welcomed. Their flirting with racist and racist ideology is a clear signal to the Black community where there interest are. Black people, who have been fighting for freedom, justice, equality for nearly 400 years see the Republican Party as absolutely “tone-death” and representative of the White elite who have one goal and one goal only – maintain total economic and political control of America at any/all cost. Many of the policies of the Republican Party are completely against the social and economic growth of the Black community and further weakened the Black community politically that has already been extremely crippled by racism in America.
IF AMERICAN POLITICAL LEADERS WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT RACISM, THEY MUST ADDRESS THE ECONOMIC DISPARITIES THAT RACISM HAS ALREADY CREATED.
Let’s be very clear that when it comes to Black people in America, there are Republicans, Democrats and then there are White people. White people, as a whole, don’t lose when one party loses against the other and is not in charge anymore. White people own and control all of America and all of its institutions and economic systems and their wealth and power affords them with the flexibility to withstand any political losses. Black people don’t have that luxury. Because the Black community has all of its eggs in the Democratic Party, when they lose, the Black community doesn’t have a chance. The Black agenda isn’t a priority within the Democratic Party, but not being in power kills even the myth that Black’s interest are being served.
The children of White America have inherited the nearly $200 Trillion in wealth, institutions, and systems; a world superpower; a democracy and political machinery that will forever keep them in power and many in the Black community have inherited poverty, inequality, and disparities, gaps that are statically impossible to close and to add insult to injury, the Black community has been told their state is of their doing – this is 2017 racism.
