The racism is the point.

The following essay was written by Robert Newby for The Morning Sun.

"The Donald Trump presidency is a perfect example of the costs of racism when comes to America’s current and future health as a nation. Donald Trump is president because a majority of white voters wanted him to be president. They wanted him to be president knowing that he demeans people of color. The jury is still out as to how many whites voted for him in spite of his racism, or how many voted for him because he was a racist? Either way, make no mistake white voters in white spaces voted for Trump in large numbers even though there was considerable evidence that he was a racist.

Following his grand entrance down the escalator to announce his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, Donald J. Trump exposed his racism by asserting disparaging stereotypes of a whole population. Central to the announcement of his candidacy was his vulgar labeling of “Mexicans” as “rapists and criminals.” That lack of civility was proof positive that the decorum and decency that would be normally expected of an American president was absent.

Beyond the racist name calling, the nation’s most prominent “birther” was none other than Donald J. Trump. “Birtherism” became a right-wing conspiracy theory to delegitimize Barack Obama’s right to be president. To disqualify Barack Obama, the theory is that he was really born in Nigeria, the home of his birth father. Even though Hawaii’s daily newspapers contemporaneously posted his August 4, 1961 birth in Honolulu, the conspiracy theory is that he was really born in his father’s homeland and that there was no birth certificate to prove his Hawaii birth.

The only reason Obama’s birth was questioned was because he is black. In spelling out the qualifications, the appropriate section of Article II of the Constitution reads: “No Person except a natural born Citizen of the United States …shall be eligible to the Office of the President….” So, to eliminate or make Barack Obama’s candidacy illegitimate, the conspiracy theorists among America’s right wing, spread the word that Barack Obama had no birth certificate to “prove” he was born in America.

The opposition to the Obama presidency gave rise to the anti-Obama Tea Party political movement. Simply, for much of White America, the thought of having an African American president was too much to take. The formation began following a rant by Rick Santelli on the Chicago Board of Trade in which he cast blame on President Obama for bailing out the nation’s economy, thereby avoiding a total economic collapse. Instead of getting credit for having saved the economy, the racist right-wing blamed Obama, America’s first Black President, for having increased America’s debt. (These same Tea Party Republicans and Donald Trump just cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations by $1.5 trillion, an alarming increasing of our debt!)

So, here we are with Trumpism in power and Tea Party rule. The white majority either has either ignored or endorsed the racism in this rule. By endorsing racism in America, this president after the Charlottesville white supremacist rallies, in which Heather Hire was killed, had the audacity to say “there were good people on both sides,” meaning that there were “some good people” who were white

Not only has this president proven himself to be racist, or the white nationalism he claims to embrace, he has proven himself to be unfit. He has shown strength in attacking our Western democracy friends but weakness in protecting us from our authoritarian enemies. He is owned by every two-bit dictator and a couple who represent real threats our nation and our friends. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it for Trump: “All roads lead to Putin.”

And then there is the corruption. With the Russians, according to the Mueller Report that the interference by the Russians to aid in the 2016 election of the Donald Trump and accepted by him. Now, Trump’s campaign corruption continues with him chasing conspiracy theories in the Ukraine. Even with this obvious violation of campaign finance law, he continues to have his considerable support from Republicans his supporters.

Today our nation and our politics are in crisis. White supremacy and racism got us here. While a majority of whites voted for Trump, 90% of African Americans voted against him. Also, other people of color voted against Trump to the tune of about 70%. People of color in America knew that because of Trump’s racism, his leadership and character were flawed.

In an earlier column, I pointed out that African Americans (and other people of color) are like “The Miner’s Canary” as warned by Lani Guinier in her book by that title some years ago. She used the analogy that coal miners used canaries to test gas levels. Guinier argues that the hostile treatment of blacks in America provides the warning of what is happening to all of America." {Source}

We can overlook the incompetence, the lies, and the lunacy of what is the trump presidency, but let us not overlook the racism and the hatred that his leadership has rekindled in America.

*Image from The Root.