Donald Trump is a monster. He brings shame to this country.
This isn’t a new or surprising revelation. This is who he’s always proudly been. But it’s breathtaking to see the American president in 2017 be so brazenly careless, irresponsible, and bigoted.
Unfortunately, President Donald Trump is ultimately a symbol. A prominent centerpiece that sits at the nucleus of our government. And while I call him a monster, the true shame is that I stand complicit in the crimes of which I accuse him.
While the almost cartoon-like white supremacist segment of Trump’s followers are easy to point to with revulsion—there’s a far more significant, underlying issue that impacts most of modern American society. Well, most modern white American society.
So many of us want to pretend that race doesn’t matter. Not because race should matter, but because so many of us are unwilling and terribly uncomfortable with any notion that our country take any responsibility for it’s past, let alone ongoing, sins.
I didn’t personally annihilate entire tribes of Native Americans.
I didn’t personally partake in slavery.
I didn’t personally prevent entire races, genders, skin colors, and accents from participating in the power structures of society.
No. I didn’t have it easy! I grew up poor! I didn’t get any handouts! I worked hard to get where I am today!
Everyone should just move on from the past.
The disgusting and tragic events of this weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia centered around the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee of the Confederate army… even the slavery-protecting, treasonous, losers of the civil war can’t be besmirched. Instead, they are treated like heroes worthy of honor.
The fact that our cities are divided by racial lines, our prisons are disproportionately filled with minorities, our schools are essentially either “white” or terrible, and that the seats of power are overwhelmingly white and male… these things didn’t just happen by chance. Quite the opposite. But so little thought is ever publicly given to asking, “Why is it like this?!”
When minorities succeed — at best it is treated like a feel-good story. But few of us actually believe that our lives, our families, and our society would actually benefit from diversity…and now, we have this monster. The monster that’s always been there, but now it doesn’t hide in the shadows…
I’d say it’s unbelievable, but it all adds up.