No One Is Beating Around the Bush Anymore: Trump Is Racist

The president's comments on Haiti and Africa saw a new approach from, of all places, cable news.

BY JACK HOLMES
JAN 12, 2018

"Not racial. Not racially charged. Racist." Thursday seems to have marked a turning point in news coverage of Donald J. Trump, American president. The Washington Post reported late in the afternoon that, during an immigration discussion with a group of bipartisan lawmakers in the Oval Office, the Very Stable Genius shared his views on other parts of the world and who ought to be allowed to come to the United States:

Link to tweet

The response from, well, everyone was immediate. After all, the message was clear: For the President of the United States, Norwegians—white people—are welcome in America. Black and brown people from Haiti, El Salvador, and the many nations of Africa are not. But it was the coverage in places like Anderson Cooper's primetime CNN show that stuck out. Cable news anchors have always been among the most reluctant to use terms like "lie" and "racist" when describing political figures and what they've said. But not last night. Cooper delivered a stirring monologue that pulled no punches. He even included an explicit rejection of dodge terms like "racially charged":

Link to tweet

He is exactly right, and that quote from James Baldwin has never been more prescient. The president is profoundly ignorant in any number of ways. He is almost completely incurious about the world. He has no real knowledge or expertise, and often disdains those who do. He does not read books—or newspapers, or much of anything else—and before he became president, he rarely traveled abroad despite his substantial means. He is wary of the world outside of own properties, and possibly afraid of it.

That's how Trump can dismiss all 54 countries of an entire continent—the world's second-largest by area—as "shitholes." And it's how, as Cooper highlights, he can dismiss the contributions of people who come to America from these countries and their children. Just take Haiti: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roxane Gay, Wyclef Jean, and Mia Love (the first black female Republican elected to Congress) are all Haitian-Americans. Do their stories and accomplishments count for nothing because we have elected a president who simply doesn't know anything, and cares less?

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http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a15069596/anderson-cooper-trump-racist