Misunderstanding The Enemy: Donald Trump And The Culture of Constituency
What are microaggressions?
The term has been a part of discussion about rhetoric for a number of years in intellectual and scholarship circles. However, it is a relatively new buzzword in daily discussion. The power of microaggressions in leadership, however, remains relatively unexplored.
Meriam Webster defines a microaggression as a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority)
Donald Trump campaigned on both microaggressions and transparent discrimination. His cult of followers either dismissed the reality of his rhetoric entirely or hold the same beliefs. Either way, his rise to leadership has given license to this sort of abject and dangerous discrimination. Regardless of your attachment to your first amendment rights, using your voice and agency to have a negative impact on someone else is not included in the protections of the First Amendment.
Long History of Racism
Several Americans cited that they wanted to elect someone who could run a business, somehow simultaneously acknowledging that the United States is a business and they really didn’t care about other aspects of leadership — like compassion, diplomacy and intellect. Court records and financial documents hint at how Donald Trump runs a business. I’ll skip the loses for the sake of brevity but let’s take a look at a case that ranges back to the 1970’s.
Trump’s family, yes that includes him, managed a housing development in New York. To be clear, several employees noted that the housing was available near low-income areas for a price far higher than most people of color could afford at the time. Several court documents and witness statements during this time indicate that the housing operation excluded people of color from their ranks and treated white families with more favorable outcomes. After 2 years of litigation, the Trumps finally settled and agreed to post Fair Housing posters and information, as required by law at the time but not previously satisfied at their locations, and had to report their vacancies weekly in order to maintain accountability with the city housing office. Trump, of course, regarded this is as trivial, a small dent and was flippant about the ordeal.
In the end the government couldn’t prove its case, and we ended up making a minor settlement without admitting any guilt — Donal Trump on United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, Inc
The Central Park 5 and Back the Blue Attitude
Trump made it clear in a 1989 interview with Larry King that he is “strongly in favor of the death penalty” and wants to “bring police forces back that can do something”, after relaying that the first thing “they do” do is start shouting about “police brutality” when they are arrested.
What do you mean by “they” Donnie? The interview holds that he is referring to people who are in trouble legally. He goes on to say, in response to a reporter asking if he has compassion for the perpetrators of the crime (perpetrators that had not been found guilty and who were exonerated later) “Of course I hate these people, and let’s all hate these people because maybe hate is what we need if we are going to get something done”
Just let that sink in a minute. Reflect on the fact that he leads the United States on prejudice, campaigned on building a wall to deter immigrants, created difficulties specifically for Arab refugees, referred to Mexicans as criminals and rapists and continues to posture support for the Back the Blue counter movement as a reasonable answer to Black Lives Matter.
The Cherry on Top
During the first presidential debate held September 29, 2020 Trump refused to distance himself from known racist organizations such as the Proud Boys. He was asked “Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence that we see in a number of these cities…”. After dancing around the question for a moment Trump responded with “Proud boys, stand back and stand by…but I’ll tell ya what…somebody’s gotta do something about ANTIFA and the left…”
A call to action Mr. President? The Proud Boys certainly took it as such. Moments after the debate they elected to change their photo to Stand Back and Standby, asserting they were awaiting orders. The President has yet to address his outright support of white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys. The Proud Boys, by the way, claim to be a “Western chauvanist” group founded by Gavin McInnes who reject the “white-guilt” agenda, among other things.
By all means, let’s keep supporting the guy who placed a call to action on a international stage to a group of misogynists and racists whose founding member has hundreds of sound bytes about women being dumb and failing to do simple tasks, while simultaneously spewing antisemitism and suggesting that Arabs are inbred.
Rhetoric is Action
This is not a matter of words hurt. Reading between the lines to notice microaggressions and internalized racism is an important step in navigating both the political shit show in the US but also in navigating your own presumptions. Several historical examples exist to prove just how dangerous words can be when leadership wields them to an eager audience.
We used to call this propaganda during our altercations and engagements in World War I and World War II, citing how Germany, Italy and Japan would indoctrinate their citizens with hate for America while simultaneously pumping out our own propaganda to inspire military service and fighting for freedom. The propaganda machine has not changed.
The key difference in 2020 is that the statements are more subtle, likely as a result of recent attempts to thresh out discrimination and move toward safer coexistence. Trump is just another advertisement for trying to maintain the shadows that prejudice has lived in for centuries. The most dangerous thing we can do is to continue providing a stage to racism, misogyny, oppression and violence.
