“Trump’s America and Ours.”
The shockwaves from Charlottesville, VA are resonating around the world. The boiling river of hatred that rolled through the city, featured a panorama of paranoia, stars and bars, swastikas, Nazi regalia, Klan crosses, and Trump hats. They are America’s hidden face, now open for all to see. They are America.
They are the razor’s edge of the millions who heard Donald J. Trump’s inane claims that Obama was born in Africa. This was Trumpese for “He’s not one of us. He’s not a real American like us.” Get it, wink wink? This, the aging population of a dying generation, is the unseen undertow that floated Trump to the Oval Office, and to ask Trump to disavow or condemn them or their beliefs is like asking grapes to condemn jelly. It can’t honestly be done, for they are a part of him, and he is a part of them.
Thus we see Trumpism unmasked: make America great again indeed. Charlottesville is the illegitimate son of Charleston, SC. Two cities, one example. White rage on full boil, open, visible, present. The grievances of people who have been betrayed by capitalism, by corporate flight, by NAFTA, and by the turning clicking clock of change, has become fuel for attacks on the eternal other: blacks, Jews, Latinos, students, anyone deemed not truly white.
Make America great again. Make America hate again. Make America white again. That’s Trumpism. How can Trump to denounce himself?
From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.