The media, political pundits, and many American citizens of color are convinced that Donald Trump is chasing racism to capture the American white nationalist vote, they are wrong, there is a secret frightening reason that President Trump is chasing racism.
On June 16, 2015, Donald Trump kicked off his campaign to become President of the United States by chasing racism, during his announcement speech he declared that some Mexican immigrants were rapists who were bringing drugs and crime to America. 6 months later in December, he continued to chase racism by “calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
As President, Donald Trump placed a travel ban on Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, 7 countries populated by non-European people of color, and he referred to African countries and Haiti as “shithole” countries. The question as to whether or not President Trump was chasing racism or fighting terrorism with his travel bans, was answered when he said, “that there were very fine people on both sides”, at the Charlottesville white nationalist rally to protest the renaming of a park and removal of a statue in honor of confederate general Robert E Lee, and where a non-violent counter-protestor was deliberately struck and killed with a car driven by a white nationalist protestor.
Just when America thought President Trump had hit his chasing racism peak, last month he took chasing racism to new heights by justifying the actions of a 17-year old white nationalist inspired vigilante who murdered 2 people, and then dog whistled support for the far-right neo-fascist male-only white supremacist proud boys group in the 1st presidential debate with Joe Biden. When debate moderator Chris Wallace asked President Trump if he would condemn white supremacy and the proud boys, he replied “proud boys stand back and standby” words that the proud boys heard and received as words of support and approval.
Although President Trump claimed 2 days later he didn’t realize who the proud boys were and what they stood for, with all the past chasing racism he has done, one would rightfully conclude that all he cares about is maintaining white nationalist support, a logical conclusion but in President Trump’s case the wrong one. Because President Trump has co-opted a principle that Vince Lombardi professed to the winning teams that made him an NFL coaching legend, President Trump applied Lombardi’s principle to capture a secret frightening reality, which in 2016, elected him President of the United States.
Coach Lombardi expressed his signature winning principle in the following words: “Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”
The foundation of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was built on chasing racism, relentlessly chasing racism, knowing the whole time he could never become President by only capturing the 20% of hardcore to entry-level American racist, but knowing along the way he would capture the majority of the remaining 80% of NON-RACIST American Whites, American Whites who voted for American Black Barack Obama for President in 2008 and 2012, but by 2016 were confronting their frightening reality of fear of demographic change in America!!!
A frightening fear that caused the majority of non-racist American White women to vote for Donald Trump as their President, even after hearing him admit in his own voice that he was a sexual predator. A frightening fear that caused the majority of American Whites in every category except those with a college degree or above to vote and elect Donald Trump President. A frightening fear caused by the reality that in 15 to 20 years American Whites will no longer be the majority in a majority-rule country.
The 80% of non-racist American Whites don’t care racially what color the new majority in America will be, which is why they voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, but they do care about the following 2 questions that they don’t feel comfortable expressing publically :
1) How will the new colored majority treat the American white race and their history of discrimination against non-white Americans?
2) What impact will the new majority have on existing American culture?
All people either fear, resist, or experience apprehension about change. Because all people believe they could lose something of value or fear they will not be able to adapt to the new change. Yale psychologist Jennifer Richeson and Maureen Craig, a graduate student working under her (now a psychology professor at NYU), conducted an experiment that confirms this.
First, they had a group of American White participants read a summary from the U.S. Census Bureau projecting that American Whites would soon become a minority population. After reading this the group showed a greater preference for their racial group, responding positively to statements like “I would rather work alongside people of my same ethnic origin”, and they felt less warm feelings toward other races. According to Craig, the results suggest that “a sense of a zero-sum competition between groups is activated,” when people hear about the rise of one group, they automatically fear it will mean a decline in their own.
The same results were found in a study led by psychologist H. Robert Outten who reported nearly identical findings in both Americans and Canadians. And apparently, it’s not just racial attitudes that shift when American Whites are exposed to the demographic data, political attitudes shift too. Richeson and Craig found that exposure to the census report caused American Whites to be more politically conservative on a variety of policies like affirmative action, immigration, defense spending, and health care reform. These negative shifts were not just limited to American Whites who believe in white supremacy and Trump chasing racism, Richeson says “The point is that people who think of themselves as not prejudiced and liberal demonstrate these threat effects.”
Richeson and Craig also ran a version of the experiment where American Whites were told that even though the minority-majority switch was coming, the social order would continue to be the same and American Whites would still come out on top in American society. In that version, the vast majority of the negative results disappeared. “And that’s how you know its status threat” fueling the negative results, Richeson says. It could also be an indication of how unjust it is to accuse the silent majority of non-racist American Whites of being racist like those American Whites that publically applaud President Trump chasing racism.
Its human nature for one to feel at a minimum discomfort to a maximum of desperation when one loses control of something one has always had control of. For the entire existence of America American Whites have been the majority population, it’s human and acceptable for American Whites to experience non-racial apprehension about losing their majority control. Non-racial apprehension that unfortunately a self-serving politician like Donald Trump will abuse and manipulate to achieve their political goals. Abuse and manipulation like President Trump’s inappropriate and offensive insistence on relentlessly chasing racism, because the fact of the matter is, President Trump is not chasing racism to attract the American white nationalist vote.
President Trump is chasing racism for the same reason he did so in 2016, to attract the frightening fear vote of the non-racist American Whites who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, the American Whites who got mad, got offended and cried foul with their American Black, their American Latino, their American Muslim, and their American Asian friends in 2016 over Donald Trump campaigning by chasing racism, but on the 2016 election day, the same American Whites marched into the voting booth and secretly voted to elect Donald Trump President, because of their non-racial frightening fear of the coming racial demographic change in America.
Since its 15-20 years before American Whites lose their majority control, it’s up to American Whites to decide if they will be led by their fears and make America for the next 15-20 years a virus-plagued city located down in the gutter of racism, sexism, violence, hate, and economic inequality or will they be led by their hopes and make America a shining city on the hill of equality for all its people regardless of race, gender, income, religion, age, or sexual orientation. A goal that beginning founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and completion founding fathers and mothers Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dedicated their lives of service too.
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