Hiding From Racism In a Glass House

PRESIDENT TRUMP and Vice President Pence paid a very brief visit to the Martin Luther King memorial today - that nice image of King standing tall, looking dignified, carved into a huge slab or rock - without notifying anyone about it in advance, and it was not on their announced schedule. Why the secrecy? Perhaps, and this is just speculation, because they were fearful that if their little charade were announced in advance, a mob of African-Americans and liberals would be waiting for them, and greet them with a howling chorus of hooting, roaring, derisive laughter, possibly accompanied by chants of "lock him up!". Normally, the appropriate response to this visit from Trump detractors would be to give credit where credit is due, and to applaud the president's gesture of racial reconciliation. So, why the cynicism in response here? For good reason. For the very good reason that the visit was quite and very obviously nothing but a show, a stunt intended to allow the president to say: "see, I am not the racist I am reputed to be by the left". Well, sorry, Donnie, but a few minutes of time in a limo, coupled with a few hackneyed remarks just doesn't cut it, doesn't erase a lifetime of often cleverly disguised yet very obvious pattern of racist words and behavior. Fifty years ago, racists were out in the open, proud of their racism. Social pressure, stimulated by legislation making overt racism essentially illegal, and especially the hard work and sacrifice of Martin Luther King and people like him, have served not to end racism, but only to drive it underground. Now, the racists are ashamed of their racism, and afraid to flaunt it. That's the only difference. The racism itself, demonstrably, is still very much alive and well in these United States of America. The president mentioned that although we still have a long way to go towards achieving racial equality (he should know, he's the expert), we have made great progress, and we must never let the dream of Dr. King die. Normally, these rods would be respected even if they are a bit cliched, but in this case, not so. It was easy to overcome racism in 1973, when trump, in his late twenties, found clever ways to exclude people of color from his father's rental properties, was charged with racial discrimination twice, and paid for it with a financial penalty. Oh, yes, the Trumps even then were righteously outraged and filed a counter suit against the Department of Justice, but that little ploy was summarily laughed of of court. Then too, there are the Trump casinos, where the very mention that Donald might drop by was sufficient for casino managers to order black employees off the floor, and into the back room, out of sight. Then, of course, the black workers at various Trump businesses, few in number, largely ignored, relegated to low status in the company. A whole host of former Trump managers will quickly attest to the blatantly racist remarks Trump consistently made in private; that's what racists do, they make racist comments, consistently, over a long period of time. And make no mistake; Trump is no former racist, no reformed racist. His racism is alive and well, thank you. More recently, Trump was fearful that he might not receive justice in one of his many lawsuits in a court with a Mexican judge. He tried to ban Muslims from the country, knowing full well that they are no more terrorists than klansmen, failed to condemn racism at white supremacist rallies inspired by him, and expressed a preference for Norwegian immigrants. And, for the piece de resistance, who among us can ever forget that eight year crusade upon which Trump embarked in utter hatred and futility, proclaiming unto all the world that Barack Hussein, forty fourth president of the United States of America, was not a legitimate president, due to the fact that hew was born, not in Hawaii, but rather, in Africa. Nothing to do with racism, you say> horse manure. it had everything to do with racism, as Trump has everything to do with racism, making his audacious appearance at King's memorial a sham, and a shame. For more strong evidence, there are a number of websites devoted to listing Donald Trump's words and actions, over a period of decades, that no one other than a racist would ever say or do. The pattern is clear, and has been made even more clear since he began running for the presidency - Donald Trump is a racist, and a quick visit to the MOK memorial simply cannot cover up the obvious.