Many would like to
have think we have come far since the end of civil rights and segregation, but
with recent politics and policies it has shown that we have not come as far as
we thought. Our current president, Donald Trump, has had quite a bit of
controversy over if he is a racist, or not. One of his latest controversial
comments was when he was talking about immigration. Trump called African
countries, and some Central American countries “shithole countries”[1].
Later he would go on to honor Dr. King at another event. Trump said, “Today we
celebrate Dr. King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so
dear that no matter the color of our skin, or the place of our birth we are all
created equal by God.”[2]
All African Americans have some origin from African, which means Trump insulted
a large portion of the United States population. Trump can no go from insulting
countries of people go on and honoring people that are from similar countries. If
this was the first thing that Trump had said that was racist, it may have just
flown over people’s head, especially since he will not admit to it after he
said it. Although, Trump has been known for saying racist comments, even before
he was presidents and most of his inappropriate comments come from his Twitter
account. Which is awful because it shows that people can hide behind a computer
and say whatever they want. It has been fifty years since the end of the
African American Civil Right Movement and the leader of our country still does
not see everyone as equals. If our president, the leader of our country, does
not believe we are all equal. How are all the citizens of the United States,
that look up to the president supposed to be accepting of everyone? We have had
an African American president and presidents that believed that all people, no
matter gender, race, sexuality, or religious belief. With Trump as president we
are back to square one where we were when we first brought Africans over to participate
in arguably the most inhumane practice. Our country was built on immigrants.
The majority of our country has ancestors from outside of the United States,
which makes everyone an immigrant. Immigrants built our country and Trump’s
policies that mess with DACA and deportation contradicts the foundations of our
country. There was no one to tell the people on the Mayflower that they were
not allowed to settle here and could be deported if they did not leave. To many
people these days, segregation feels like it happened so long ago and we have
come far, but that does not always seem the case. There is still a long way the
United States needs to go in order for everyone to feel as equal as anyone else.
The best place to start for change is at the top and at this moment this is
going to be a long journey with Trump as the face of the United States.
BBC News. “President
Trump honours MLK amid ‘racist slur’ controversy.” BBC News
Website, January 12, 2018.
I don't want this to turn into a political debate or to come off too strong in my views, but Trump's response to MLK day definitely resurfaced the doubt I had and continue to have towards the underlying morals of this country, who voted for a president so brutally and openly against all of the progress being made in equality of race, religion, sexuality, and gender. To be a woman that has to claim Trump as my president is not something I am proud of. I think the worst part of the entire MLK day was watching Trump, for three minutes on CNN, read word for word from a paper everything he had to say about Martin Luther King, Jr. There was no sincerity or probably even knowledge of the facts and compliments he was told to say, instead just reading from a script. "We pledge to fight for his dream of equality, freedom, justice, and peach," Trump reads, turning around and then immediately refusing to take in struggling people from "shithole countries."
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