Mainstream Media is a Fucking Disgrace for Asking if Donald Trump is Racist

Go ahead and type “is Trump racist” on whatever search engine you use and hit search. What do you see?

Most of us who aren’t white are continuously being pummeled, silenced, gaslighted, hidden, misinterpreted… used as props and tokens by mainstream media. To add insult to injury, most of the people chosen to represent us are conservative or neoliberal. They have no qualms about batting for the establishment that uses, abuses, and discards us just for access to people with power and a few coins.

There’s a running joke on Twitter that Blue Checks (usually reserved for Black, Brown, and some others) lead people astray by being mediocre, for writing bad takes, for having a large following and a huge platform to spread bougie, anti-Black, anti-Brown, anti-poor propaganda wrapped in an in-your-face identity politics that is akin to the unattributed phrase "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." Indeed. Most of us who work (or have) for mainstream media, Hollywood, and other establishment entities that depend on corporate support to launch and stay afloat, are given a break for a reason. We are “safe.” We don’t make big money and white people that uncomfortable. [Some of us are unceremoniously deplatformed for having the audacity to speak up after infiltrating and denouncing biases, racism, corrosive behavior committed even by our own people]. The running joke really applies to a lot of folks because they are quick to defend corrosive liberal politicians and media entities that refuse to call Donald Trump an outright racist because they fear they might offend racist white people.

If we can’t call Donald Trump a racist, imagine all the nefarious things and ways in which racism afflicts us that we can’t, don’t, won’t speak of? Racism is everywhere. Racism is a monstrous, omnipresent hydra that exists inside of us all. Many Black and Brown writers write about it. Many advocates are constantly sounding the alarm about the need to unpack, to surgically remove it from our psyches.

There’s racism in housing.

There’s racism in the health care industry.

There’s racism in science.

There’s racism in Hollywood—in front and behind the camera.

There’s racism in the board of ed.

There’s racism in orgs.

There’s racism in the media.

There’s racism in the criminal justice system.

There’s racism in sports.

There’s racism in corporate America.

There’s racism in the US foreign policy.  

There’s racism in the US immigration policy.

There’s racism in the armed forces.

There’s racism in the music industry.  

There’s racism in the publishing industry.

There’s racism within marginalized ethnicities.

There’s racism in progressive circles.

There’s racism in politics.

So best believe Donald Trump is a fucking racist. But just because he’s an outright racist, it doesn’t mean that Democrats aren’t, that liberals aren’t, that progressives aren’t, that non-Black oppressed people aren’t, that the corporate media isn’t, that indie platforms aren’t. It’s a main reason why they’re asking if Donald Trump is today. Even progressive Christ, Bernie Sanders, says “I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American.” Super yikes. If our progressive leaders are afraid, or worse, truly believe that people who are uncomfortable voting for an African-American aren’t necessarily racist then believe us when we tell you that racism is EVERYWHERE. Even that statement is racist because it can and will be used against Black and Brown people by progressives, by liberals, by conservatives, by the media… as a shield… even by Black and Brown progressives in defense of Bernie Sanders.

Nancy Pelosi should be held accountable for opening the door for Trump to attack Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib—Black and Brown women who have the audacity to stand up to special interests, racism, and xenophobia.

White Americans abhor being called racist and many of our folks bend themselves into elaborate pretzels in defense of racist celebrities, politicians, business leaders, public figures who do and say racist things that wouldn’t normally be associated with racism because they’re not calling Mexican rapists or carrying tiki torches while chanting “Jews will not replace us.”

Donald Trump is a fucking racist. No questions about it. The media is racist. No question about it. Our entire society is fucking racist. No question about it.

And it is a fucking disgrace the media is now asking politicians if Donald Trump is racist. He is. And so are many of you. Even people who are reading this are.

Get it together. Racism is everywhere. Have some nuance. Read a study. Synthesize the information you read about racism in all industries and apply it to your rhetoric, to your advocacy, to your journalism, to your life—racism is beyond systemic. It lives and exists beyond Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is a cause and a symptom, but certainly not the only one.

Thanks for reading and sharing with your family and friends.

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