The American dream has had two enemies from the beginning, loyalists and racists. We\u2019ve fought a literal war with each enemy before, and we\u2019ve won both times. Now we\u2019re at a virtual war with both at the same time, and both are headed by the same person: Donald J. Trump.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s begin with racism. Trump is the most racist president this nation has ever had, by far. I looked it up. The three most racist presidents, according to Huff Post, were Andrew Johnson (1865-69), Andrew Jackson (1829-37), and Ronald Reagan (1981-89). But even if you put all their sins together, they don\u2019t hold a candle to Trump.<\/p>\n
Look at him. He\u2019s allowing white Afrikaners into the United States because they \u201care being persecuted by Black people,\u201d but he refuses to admit refugees from Haiti or \u201cshithole countries\u201d in Africa who are experiencing mind-boggling horrors every day. He wants people of tomorrow to forget that there was anything about slavery or Jim Crow that was important enough to remember. He even canceled free admission to national parks on Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth, our only Black-oriented holidays, and replaced them with free entrance on June 14, which is Flag Day and also his birthday . He has faced federal charges that he discriminated against Black people at his businesses. He was among the loudest voices behind a baseless attack on the legitimacy of the nation\u2019s first Black president. His cabinet is among the least diverse in modern history. He is doing everything possible to keep America\u2019s white people in the majority, as huge a majority as he can. He considers people of color \u201cgarbage.\u201d Donald Trump is worthy of a place of honor on the Ku Klux Klan Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
His treatment of Brown people is even worse. Trump somehow persuaded the Supreme Court to let him arrest Brown people just because they\u2019re Brown, and ICE agents are doing just that. They don\u2019t care whether you are an American citizen, a citizen of another country with permission to be here, or an undocumented resident \u2013 which, incidentally, is not a crime; it is a civil breach. They won\u2019t care if you have a passport or papers proving you are an American citizen. If you are Brown, you are guilty of being Brown, and that\u2019s all they need to arrest you, deny you any contact with the outer world, including your family or a lawyer, and often deport you to a prison in another country \u2013 not your own \u2013 where you will be denied decent food, decent health conditions, decent anything. You will be tortured, including being sexually assaulted. Some of you will die. Just a few days ago, a 48-year-old man detained at Fort Bliss died in ICE custody after being denied the medical care he needed, for no other reason than his skin was brown.<\/p>\n
This is having an effect. Brown people are not going to church as much as they used to, although you know they want to. They\u2019re not shopping as much, not going to restaurants as much. Businesses are hurting because of it. Brown people are, understandably, afraid, and are staying inside as much as possible. Again, just because their skin is brown.<\/p>\n
Trump and people who think like him, people who think dirty pink is somehow better than black or brown \u2013 or red, or yellow, or green with purple polka dots \u2013 base are the sons of those who once believed slavery was a good thing and forced the Civil War over it.<\/p>\n
But Trump also heads the loyalists, spiritual sons of those Americans in the 1770s who opposed what became the American Revolution. Their loyalty was to the king. There is no royalty today, of course, but there is loyalty to the idea of letting one person run the government, and in this case that would be Donald Trump. And here, Trump can cause even more damage than he did as a racist.<\/p>\n