By: William Ashanti Hobbs, Ph.D.
Reel Urban News Now
Every social media outlet should have expected that the bloated relic of white supremacy that is Donald Trump would respond to the racial unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd with quotes from a bigoted sheriff of the 1960s. After all, Trump’s campaign slogan was Make America Great Again, which clearly translates to Make America White Again, a level of white that is statistically impossible to recapture. So yes, Trump is playing from the same antiquated, hopeless, and desperate playbook that got him elected.
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What makes Trump even more toxic is the extra dose of petty and thin-skinned bravado that he puts into it. Yes, white supremacists back in the day lacked character, obviously, but Trump takes the cake with recent tweets that forced Twitter to step in like a parent over a reckless child to exercise the judgment that he sorely lacks:
“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
That tweet by Trump on early Friday, May, 29th left Twitter no choice but to flag Trump’s comment for “glorifying violence” and take the unprecedented step of limiting the public’s ability to view and share his tweet.
Trump’s comment that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” originated with Walter E. Headley, a Miami police chief in the 1960s known for his racist tactics when patrolling black neighborhoods. Trump is by no means a historian. Someone that convinced that he is the greatest at everything would feel no need to look to anyone for context. This means that this reference was added to his collection of awful comments for deliberate effect.
Meanwhile, as he sits in the White House bunker as Hitler did before killing himself at the end of World War II, Trump’s Nixonian tough talk leads well-meaning police and protestors into harm’s way due to an element he cares nothing about. Many are stunned by the large numbers of non-black protestors in the streets. That contingent comes from his cavalier leadership concerning Covid-19. We could go into how his petty and bigoted heart induced him to dismantle the Obama unit to deal with possible pandemics but at this point, the rabbit hole of Trump’s incompetence is too deep to fathom.
