The Nazi rally in Charlottesville has woken some people up to the racism this country has endured for hundreds of years. Others, like Trump. either don’t see the fact that there is a problem that needs to be addressed or simply won’t address it at all. In a series of tweets, the president of the far-right expressed his contempt for the country’s ‘beautiful’ Confederate statues being taken down. He even equated these Confederate leaders with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, America’s founding fathers.
Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson – who's next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
…the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
These statues have nothing to do with American heritage and culture, unless Trump wants to claim white supremacy and slavery as American Culture because that’s what these monuments represent. They are years of violence, oppression, and above all, racism. If Lee’s own family members can understand this, then why can’t the supposed leader of the free world? Even Robert E. Lee’s descendants openly supported the removal of the statues.
“They are overt symbols of racism and white supremacy, and the time is long overdue for them to depart from public display,” said William Jackson Christian and Warren Edmund Christian in a letter published by Slate. They were “ashamed of the monument” to their great-grandfather Thomas Jonathan Jackson in Richmond.
If Trumps wants to openly condemn America for taking steps to move past its racist history then he may as well change the name of his title to Führer. He cannot deny the fact that he is a white nationalist, a nazi, a member of the far right, a racist. He has openly ignored the events of Charlottesville and did not denounce the terrorists responsible. Now he is parroting their rhetoric: ‘these statues are a part of our country’s history’ and while that may be true it’s a history we need to move past.
We need to teach our children that this is wrong, to speak out against tyranny, white supremacy and racism. Trump needs to look injustice in the eye and acknowledge it and condemn it. We live in a society where racists are offended when they are called out for their racism. If you want to openly act like a racist you cannot get upset when people start calling you one. If Trump wants to act like a white supremacist then it should not have been surprising when the terrorists at Charlottesville started chanting ‘Heil Trump.’
