The president of the USA posted a racist video Thursday evening depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. On Friday, the White Home dismissed criticism — however the president deleted the post. Was this episode disappointing? Sure. Stunning? Not anymore.
Final spring, after Pope Francis had died, President Donald Trump posted an AI image of himself as the pope simply days earlier than cardinals convened to elect a successor.
So, no — it isn’t stunning that the president would select to put up virulent anti-Black imagery throughout Black Historical past Month.
However it’s disappointing right here in 2026 that an occupant of the Oval Workplace continues to be pondering like that.
Again in 1971, the president of the USA laughed when the governor of California referred to the African delegates at the United Nations as monkeys. Lower than 10 years later, that governor grew to become the president of the USA. And right here we’re, half a century later, and one more president has amplified that racist trope.
Which means white supremacy continues to be on the poll.
That Nixon-Reagan-Trump throughline isn’t tightly wound round coverage or precept, however merely that shared worldview. In any case, Nixon created the Environmental Safety Company and Reagan supplied amnesty to immigrants — extremely un-Trump-like strikes. No, their commonality is greatest revealed within the delight every man took in an outdated racist assault towards Black individuals.
For People who’re 50 and older — roughly a 3rd of the nation — this worldview has been the architect chargeable for White Home coverage for many of our lives. And but, when Kamala Harris misplaced the 2024 election, the forensic investigation targeted on grocery costs and her absence from Joe Rogan’s podcast. Some — in making an attempt to clarify why Harris misplaced — mischaracterized her function on the border or inflated her affect on the conflict in Gaza.
For some motive, race didn’t appear to obtain the identical stage of scrutiny.
This issue was slighted regardless of a long time of knowledge, such because the wave of white nationalists endorsing Harris’ opponent and the birther motion questioning President Obama’s citizenship. The trio of presidents who’re on the document as having fun with depictions of Black individuals as monkeys — Nixon, Reagan and Trump — all used racist canine whistles of their mixed 10 presidential campaigns. Their administrations have tended to be extra anti Civil Rights Motion than put up Civil Rights Motion.
Our nation’s makes an attempt at understanding ourselves are repeatedly undercut by the denial that for some single-issue voters, race is their single subject. Not the value of bacon or their non secular convictions. Not Gaza. Simply the promise of getting a secure area for prejudice. And when the president of the USA entertains racist jokes as Nixon did within the Seventies or shares racist movies as Trump continues to do, undoubtedly there’s a sense among the many citizens that such prejudice has a house within the White Home.
Earlier than Trump used social media to push yesteryear’s ugliness, earlier within the week Harris relaunched her 2024 social media marketing campaign account, calling it a spot the place Gen Z can “meet and revisit with a few of our nice brave leaders, be they elected leaders, neighborhood leaders, civic leaders, religion leaders, younger leaders.” She exhorted: “Keep engaged. I’ll see you on the market.”
Whether or not she plans to run once more in 2028 is unclear. What we do know is she wouldn’t have posted an AI image of herself as the brand new pope whereas Catholics had been mourning Francis (or some other time). We all know she wouldn’t have advocated for immigration officers to racially profile Black and brown People or disregard the 14th Modification to detain kids. We have no idea what number of of her coverage proposals she would have been capable of get throughout the end line in Congress, however we do know her document of public service to the American individuals, in distinction with the present president who’s suing the American people for $10 billion.
There’s nothing unsuitable with revisiting Harris’ missteps on the marketing campaign path or debating her electability as she reemerges within the public highlight. However now that Trump has resorted to posting monkey jokes about Black individuals, maybe up to date forensics will think about our properly established historical past of racism among the many components within the 2024 election.
It’s not a shock {that a} president of the USA thinks poorly of Black individuals. Not when you recognize that more than 25% of those who have held the office were themselves enslavers. However it’s disappointing that 250 years into our nation’s story, a few of us nonetheless deny the function that racism performs in shaping our politics and thus all of our lives.
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