Trump’s comments about Haiti and ‘shithole countries’ have rekindled the is-Trump-a-racist debate.
Trump denies Haiti slur amid fallout from ‘shithole’ comment
‘There’s no other word but racist’: Trump’s global rebuke for ‘shithole’ remark
As discussed in an earlier post, defining racism is surprisingly difficult, and there is no consensus as to what it means.
Trump’s comments seem reminiscent of something Nixon would say. Or one of the left’s favorite presidents, LBJ. But there are countless examples of politicians, from both sides, making potentially racist remarks. Not surprisingly, when the ‘right’ does it, it gets much more media coverage.
Trump’s personal history affirms he is not racist (assuming that the word is defined to mean holding a deep-seated antipathy against non-whites). The worst career path for a racist would be the entertainment industry, which employs a lot of minorities and promotes left-wing cultural values. But Trump–from his ties with Hollywood, to his long-running TV show The Apprentice–clearly chose the wrong path in life if this is so.
Trump’s actions thus far suggest he is not anti-immigration or racist. What sort of hate-filled racist would want a ‘bill of love‘? Trump has not pursued deportation, but rather has shown willingness to work with House Democrats on a compromise that would allow ‘dreamers’ to stay, in exchange for provisions for a possible wall.
Immigration proponents fear deportations more so than a wall, because even if Trump gets the funding, the wall will likely not be contiguous, assuming it is even built, but deportations hit harder emotionally, are more effective, and immediate. Deporting immigrants, in the process even breaking up families and causing emotional grief, sends a strong message. Building a wall, but doing nothing about existing immigrants, only means that America’s demographic makeup will continue to change at an accelerating rate, much like how bacteria in a petri dish will keep growing despite being confined by the walls of the dish. More so than keeping new immigrants out, the bigger issue is birthright citizenship and family-based immigration.
Second & third generation immigration adds up very quickly. It’s not the immigration that results in demographic change, but rather the descendants of existing immigrants. Even the Huffington Post, a left-wing mainstream website, in 2011 admitted so, “…and the number of illegal immigrants is on the decline. The descendants of those 1890 immigrants multiplied exponentially over the succeeding decades — immigrants, especially in the first and second generations, tend to have large families.”