By Roy S. Johnson
This is an opinion column.
Yes, it was racist. Period. Hard stop. What the President posted on social media was racist.
Anyone who argues otherwise — see: your MAGA friend (we’ve all got one, sigh) and/or White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt — is really not worth it. Not today. Probably not for a long, hot minute.
Please don’t tell me you’re surprised. You shouldn’t be — no matter which side of the political aisle you claim. Not one iota.
Even before sharing a 62-second video showing former President Barack and Michelle Obama as apes during a late-night flurry of posts, Donald Trump may have already been the most racist president ever. He’s certainly and without doubt among the dusky finalists, and that’s saying a lot because at least 12 U.S. presidents were enslavers.
Almost a year ago, just a couple of months into his second presidency, I wrote that Trump is trying to Make America (Jim) Crow Again. Now, I’ve got receipts. Almost everything he’s done since then supports my prognosis.
I’ll start with his blatant and incessant Blackness whiteout, which seems to be on his daily “to do” list.
An early-term executive order tried to stamp out anything related to diversity, equity or inclusion. Tried to make illegal anything that would alleviate persistent or generational inequities in numerous areas — because, doggonit, all those things offend beleaguered straight white men.
It gutted industries, neutered universities, threatened museums, and turned squeamish corporations — see: Target — into cowering puddles of mush.
Trump’s order whitewashing national parks is another receipt. Last month, federal workers snatched an exhibit from the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, an exhibit that gave life to nine men and women enslaved by George Washington.
The removal was not only more in-your-face racism; it was idiotic. As if removing Ona Judge, Hercules, Moll, Giles, Austin, Richmond, Paris, Joe and Christopher Sheels from those walls deleted their existence. It did not. They lived.
Trump’s anti-DEI purge also gutted research funding aimed at addressing health inequities related to African Americans, Latinos, the LBGTQ community and even white women. It obliterated scholarships pledged to support historically underrepresented groups in numerous fields, including medicine. Funds that could have helped young people become doctors right here in Birmingham, Alabama.
Not under Trump.
A university admissions officer better not even glance at an applicant’s race.
Not under Trump.
Remember the dopey DOGE-ing of the federal government? It disproportionally impacted Black Americans. My parents’ generation once celebrated “good government jobs” as stable and able to provide a family with a reasonable middle-class lifestyle. Now?
Writes The Nation: “Between February and July of last year, Black women lost 319,000 jobs in both the private and public sectors, driven largely by mass layoffs in education, health care, and housing. During that same period, white women gained 142,000 jobs, Hispanic women 176,000 jobs, and white men — wait for it! — picked up 365,000 jobs.”
Yessir, under Trump.
Black federal officials in this administration are unicorns. In Trump’s first 200 days, only two of 98 top-level appointees approved by the Senate were Black, reported the New York Times.
I’ve lost count of the number of accomplished Black women whose names Trump has disparagingly spit out of his mouth. Just three: New York Attorney General Letitia James, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis.
More recently, the White House posted a disgustingly AI-altered photo of civil rights lawyer and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong after she was one of nine people arrested for participating in an anti-ICE protest in a church in Minnesota. In the original photo, she was walking stern-faced through the courthouse in handcuffs. In the digitally abused image, her skin was darkened and tears streamed down her face.
The White House acknowledged the altered image and, without a shred of remorse, vowed it could happen again. “The memes will continue,” said Kaelan Dorr, White House deputy communications director.
Yes, they will — under Trump.
And don’t overlook the president’s choking of the nation’s long-standing refugee resettlement program, which offered a refuge to the world’s truly most vulnerable citizens, typically from Black African nations. Months later, Trump offered first-class transport and an open-arms welcome to white South Africans, claiming without evidence that they were in any danger.
Trump has also issued travel restrictions on immigrants from 39 countries (some include outright bans); the overwhelming majority of those nations are Black or brown.
And of course, he stone-headedly claimed white people have been treated “very badly” since the civil rights movement.
Get that man a hood(ie).
Like many, especially African Americans, I’m weary of the assault, almost numb to it.
When learning of the Trump post Friday morning, I initially sighed. Nothing new. Trump’s disrespected and demeaned the Obamas for years. Same old, same old.
Then a friend shared a text he received from a MAGA friend (told you everybody has one, except this one is Black), refusing to acknowledge the post as racist.
The White House removed the post Friday afternoon, after broad and bipartisan spanking that included even Republican and stalwart Trump-hugger Sen. Tim “I just love you” Scott. He called the video “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of the White House. The President should remove it.”
Not sure how long Scott’s been watching, but okay. For today.
An Alabama Republican, one Alabama Republican, Sen. Katie Britt, dared admonish Trump, who was unrepentant and refused to apologize for it.
No surprise. Not one iota.
More egregious even than Trump’s unrepentant racism is that some have normalized and accepted behavior from the President of the United States that they would not tolerate from their children, from their friends and family, from anyone that they consider a decent human being.
Donald Trump diminishes and demeans the office of the president every single day. That should sadden and anger us all because.
If not, in time, he will destroy it.