Trump's statement is an attack on people of color around the world (LAT)

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-shithole-countries-20180111-story.html
Editorial: Trump is a liar, but his 'shithole' remark shows he's often scariest when he says what he truly believes
By The Times Editorial Board

In an off-the-cuff comment with legislators gathered in the Oval Office on Thursday to discuss immigration, President Trump laid bare his world vision. There are wealthy white countries such as Norway, which are welcome to send immigrants to the United States. Then there are what the president called “shithole countries” — Haiti and all the nations of Africa — whose people (overwhelmingly black and brown) the president doesn’t think belong here.

Trump’s comment was outrageous, immature, inhumane and vulgar — and it shames the nation. It’s shocking that an American president would think so reductively and heartlessly about so much of the world. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that the president himself will feel shame. Instead, he’ll bluster and bray about “fake news” and try to drag in the 2016 election results and the stock market, and in the end, he is unlikely to be punished by his base for what he said. ...

The Washington Post first reported the president’s comments, based on information from people briefed on the meeting. The White House quickly issued a statement that didn’t deny the comments, but defended Trump’s efforts to “fight for the American people.” None of whom, apparently in the eyes of the White House, are people who trace their ancestry to Africa, Haiti or El Salvador, which was also part of the immigration policy discussion. ...

It’s hard to interpret Trump’s statement — comparing Haiti and Africa with Norway, in effect — as anything other than an attack on people of color around the world. But even those who don’t interpret it that way should be appalled that the president would express such disdain and disgust for countries where poverty is rampant, where people struggle because they lack the economic advantages of Americans, where wars are not infrequent.

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http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trump-racism-remarks-20180111-story.html
Trump's 'shithole' remark is the latest in long string of racial provocations
By Michael Finnegan and Mark Z. Barabak

From the moment he launched his candidacy by attacking Mexican immigrants as criminals, President Trump has returned time and again to language that is racially charged and, to many, insensitive and highly offensive.

Whether it is a calculated strategy to appeal to less tolerant and broad-minded supporters or simply a filter-free chief executive saying what’s on his mind, the cycle is by now familiar: The president speaks, critics respond with outrage, and Trump’s defenders accuse his critics of hysterically overreacting.

The latest instance came Thursday, during a White House meeting with congressional lawmakers on immigration. Trump asked why the United States would accept immigrants from “shithole countries” in Africa and the Caribbean, rather than people from places like Norway, according to two people briefed on the meeting.

A glimpse at some of the president’s earlier provocations:

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