Trump’s Tweets Trigger a Conversation About Racism: raceAhead

While the political debates rage on, there is something we can all do to change the racist channel

So, I lied to you.

I said you could meet me in Aspen for our amazing Brainstorm Tech conference which is kicking off today. But as things would have it, my mother needed emergency surgery, so she’s in the hospital and I’m writing from her bedside in South Florida, instead. She says hello to you all, which is a hopeful sign.

So, a slightly shorter, later, and more frantic newsletter today. 

All that said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least address President Trump’s remarks on his Sunday morning Twitter stream. While we were waiting for the still unexecuted (?) deportation raids to begin, instead, we got this:

“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world,” Trump wrote on Twitter, “now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how…. .it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

There has been a lot of commentary on the subject, not to mention a trending hashtag: #RacistInChief.

Simply put, asking people to “love us or leave us” and  “go back to their ‘shithole countries,’” or some such, is a tried and true racist trope, always. Of the four Congresswomen in question, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna S. Pressley, only one was born outside of the U.S., not that it matters.

I’ll let you sort out the politics because they’re still unfolding. To put it mildly.

But a tweet caught my eye that I thought framed the issue clearly and with rigor.

Ibram X. Kendi is an extraordinary author, a professor at American University and the director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. He won the National Book Award for his outstanding book Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas In America. He knows racism. He knows history. He’s got a clear vision. So, his tweets get my attention.

This time, it was also a preview. His upcoming book is called How to Be An Antiracist, which promises to offer a much needed corrective to the idea that declaring oneself not-a-racist is not enough to solve the mess we’re in.

“As we rightly call the POTUS racist for attacking four Congresswomen of color this morning, we should not be calling ourselves “not-racist” as Trump calls himself,” he tweeted. “If we don’t want to be like the #RacistInChief, then we should be striving to be antiracist.”

It was the start of a good conversation and a productive idea. 

“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist,” tweeted writer Ijeoma Oluo in response. “Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.”