Dear Media, You Are Allowed to Call Trump a Racist

Donald Trump's offensive lies about Kamala Harris and her identity at the NABJ Conference reveal what we've always known, which is that he's a racist. It's time for the media to recognize it too.

Dear readers, I am not a doctor. I’m just a simple writer. I share this because I don’t know if there are indeed “racist bones” in the human body. I also don’t know what’s in “people’s hearts.” Thankfully, I’m married to a doctor who has assured me such a bone doesn’t exist. My brother-in-law, a cardiologist, has also assured me there’s no specific valve or aorta that is devoted to racism.

All we have to go by is people’s repeated actions and behavior that the world can observe with its own eyes and hear with its own ears. To quote the late Maya Angelou, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Well, Donald Trump has shown his racist ass his entire life. This is the feature, not the bug. I’ve been covering him for nearly a decade ever since he descended the fake golden escalators to announce his presidency. During that press conference, he referred to Mexicans as “rapists” and “criminals.” That was the amuse-bouche of an endless buffet of xenophobia, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, anti-Asian bigotry, anti-semitism, and misogyny that has defined his political career.

I’m going to do a test, purely for myself, to see if I can list off at least 10 obscenely racist things Trump has said or done during the past 9 years off the top of my dome - no research and no googling. Here it goes:

1. Trump refused to condemn white supremacy at the 2020 Presidential debate and instead told the Proud Boys to “Stand back, and stand by!” (They did when they were involved in the failed Jan 6 violent insurrection.)

2. Trump praised the white supremacists in Charlottesville who chanted Nazi slogans as “very fine people,” to the point where they saw him as an ally.

3. Trump lamented that Black and brown people came to America from “shithole countries” instead of from Norway, which is a great country that has so many white people that it made my teeth whiter during my visit.

4. Trump promoted the racist and Islamophobic “Birther conspiracy” against Barack Obama that forced him to show his birth certificate

5. Trump continues to refer to undocumented immigrants as “invaders,” the same language used by domestic terrorists who have attacked Jews, Black people and Latinos.

6. Trump referred to COVID as the “China Virus” and “Kung Flu,” which coincided with the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans

7. Trump told The Squad to go back to their country, even though all those Congresswomen of color are American citizens.

8. Trump refers to Kamala Harris as a “DEI hire” even though she is infinitely more qualified than him, and furthermore he alleges she “turned Black” for sake of political opportunity. (Well, he turned Republican, but I digress.)

9. Trump uses “Palestinian” as a pejorative to mock Senator Schumer and President Biden. (He did it again last night at his rally.)

10. Trump quotes Hitler! He uses his language of “vermin” and “poisoning the blood” to attack immigrants, and he praised him according to his former DHS Secretary General Kelly.

11. ***Bonus*** Trump took out ads asking for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, who have since been exonerated. He has refused to acknowledge their innocence.

Trust me, there’s more! I passed my own challenge of listing the first ten examples off the top of my head, which is in itself quite disturbing. Despite all of this, in the year of 2024, this is how the Washington Post described his racist outburst at the NABJ.

This is the NYT’s initial headline.

Enough bullshit. Enough. The rest of us who have been victims of Trump and MAGA’s hate don’t have to carry the burden of defending our lives and our humanity. The onus is on the racist to explain why they are so bigoted and ignorant. To echo Toni Morrison, racism’s ultimate goal is distraction. It’ll never be enough. There will always be one more hurdle and litmus test for us to prove that we should be allowed grace, decency, kindness and equality.

It’s exhausting. I’m done with it, and so is VP Kamala Harris judging by her excellent response in which she said the American people deserve better. We also deserve better from a corporate media that has so far failed to hold Trump accountable for his numerous sins. They have engaged in a destructive “both sides” framework that not only obfuscates the truth but also whitewashes Trump’s racism. 

He does not have “flare ups” or “trip ups” or “racially charged moments.” No. Trump is a racist. He has always been a racist. He acts and behaves like a racist. He can’t help but be a racist. He has not changed or evolved or mellowed or moderated or become more serene after his assassination attempt. If you doubt me, just look at his 35 minute interview with Black journalists at the annual NABJ conference. He is supported by racists who love him for his racism. He will triple-down on racism because he’s a 1 trick pony and because he is melting down at the thought of a Black Indian woman defeating him in 2024.

Republican plant Scott Jennings at CNN said Trump “crapped the bed” at the NABJ conference and he needs to change the sheets. I assure you those sheets will still be lilly white and worn as hoods. 

Friends and colleagues in the media, it’s time to step up. Become agile and evolve. Meet the moment. Seek truth. Stop with the “both sides” neutrality which doesn’t exist. The water is warm here. Jump in and join the majority. We’ll catch you.