Trump didnt start this racist rhetoric, America was built upon it.
Make no mistake, Trump is riding on a wave that has been in this country since the first Europeans landed in this country 500 years ago. This country had a chance after the Revolutionary War to make things right when they wrote out, "All men are created equally." This country was built on the backs of African Americans, Natives, and other People of Color. The very first settlers here would have died from starvation and disease if not for the Natives.
Then the country went to war over slavery, but it did not address the racism. All that did was bury the hate and contempt that certain white people had for POC. It brought about the KKK, lynching, Jim Crow law, and anything else to keep AA's and other POC down just a bit further than the lowliest living white person. The West would never have been conquered if not for Native guides and the thousands of Chinese that literally put their lives into building the railroads. They were repaid by the Indian War, forced resettlements, and forced to adopt Anglo-Christian lifestyles. Sometimes completely wiping out a persons link to their past.
In the 1940's, the second World War was fought in Europe and the world learned about a terrible crime perpetrated by not just the German Nazis, but it was also condoned by silence by millions. Even the US turned away a cargo liner full of Jews full of other Untermenschen. Yet millions of African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Navajos signed up to defend the country that has treated them like garbage if only to show the rest of white American that they too, were good enough and to try and earn a place beside them. These brave Americans had to fight harder, sometimes against the very people they were fighting alongside, and upon there return, they were lynched, forgotten, and ignored.
During the 1960's, Civil Rights and desegregation laws were enacted, but the underlying racism was still not addressed. The country saw Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and other cities burn because the minorities that lived there were still being lynched, framed, beaten, still kept back by racist cops, banks, city officials, and others that had the power to make things right. In 1991, White America while eating dinner saw an African American beaten worse than a dog by the L.A.P.D. and then a few months later saw those officers get away with it. Within 24 hours Los Angeles burned again.
Finally, an African American gets elected, and many people thought, "This is it, America has finally dealt with her racism." But it wasn't and not by a long shot. The underlying, hidden sometimes racism started to bubble up from underneath. We started to see images of the President being lynched, the comments about his wife and children. White America learned a new phrase, "Driving while black". With the increase of cell phones, white America started to get a true glimpse into everyday life of the very ugly and racist belly of America. Thousands of videos showing African American and other POC being abused by the police, pregnant women being harassed by white men, children being harassed for nothing more than swimming in a pool. The election of our first African American did not cure racism in America because racism has never been truly addressed.
Finally, Donald Trump was elected, and millions of racist Americans got to see the most powerful man in the free world make comments that crossed the line. Just because you don't say the "N" word out in public or on tape, it doesn't NOT make you a racist. He gave comforting words to the Proud Boys in Charlottesville when a peaceful counter-protester was murdered by a racist. He has called thousands of refugees, "dangerous people", called them an invading armada. He has called African countries shitholes, and that those people want to come here and make this a shithole. He is currently trying to make America a whiter place to live.
I am not saying that Donald Trump shouldn't be labeled a racist, he most certainly is. However, if and when Donald Trump is removed from office and he has been relegated to but an ugly memory of American history. If the true crux of the problem has not been addressed as a nation, I fear that in the future we will only see an ugly pattern of racist behavior continue and possibly only get worse.
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