President Donald Trump and Sen. Tim Scott, during a Fox News Channel town hall on Feb. 20, 2024, in Greenville. File/Chris Carlson/AP
The political theater of condemning Trump's racism serves the function of diverting attention from the more dangerous, policy-based racism that operates with bipartisan support.
“American isn’t the way it is because he’s president, He’s president because America is the way that it is.” - David Cochrane
De Jure Racism Manifest
Last week, following President Trump’s re-tweet of a video meme that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, the U.S. exercised a national conniption that saw even members of the Republican Party, including Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), calling out the president’s racism and demanding the he take the social media post down and apologize. To be clear, the outrage was and is certainly warranted as depicting Black people as monkeys and apes is a centuries-old racist trope with the ultimate aim of dehumanization and placeism as it pertains to the positional status of Black people in the larger hierarchy of racial capitalism.
No one is shocked that Trump, once again, expressed racist rhetoric as this has been his modus operandi long before he became a politician. His family’s real estate company has been mired in racial discrimination lawsuits that go as far back in time as the 1970s. In the 1980s, Trump released a full page advertisement in the New York Times calling for the executions of the so-called Central Park 5, a group of teenagers who were wrongfully accused of, prosecuted for, and convicted of beating and raping a white woman - the charges were dropped and the, now men, are known as the “Exonerated 5,” and includes Yusef Salaam, who is an active lawmaker in the City Council of New York City. And then there is the “Obama Birther Conspiracy” - the false allegation that Obama was not born in the United States and, therefore, should not have been president due to the Constitutional requirement that all presidents be natural born citizens, which Trump engendered and promoted for years.
Democrats have been responding to the racist meme with vigor and profundity, with House Minority Leader Hakeem, “AIPAC Shakur,” Jeffries even posting a video on instagram in which he said, “F**k Trump,” before characterizing the president as an “unhinged bottom feeder,” and referring to the Obamas as, “the best of America.” It’s the second part of Jeffries’ proclamation that requires investigation as it elucidates the selective outrage of Democrats like the House Minority Leader and many other liberals, while they conveniently perambulate the myriad ways they promote the ideology of white “supremacy,” through promulgation and ratification of laws and policies that have consistently and perpetually contributed to the oppression, subjugation, and mass slaughter of non white people in the U.S. and globally. Perhaps even more than Trump, the Democrat Party vindicates a recent proclamation of Canadian journalist, David Cochrane, “American isn’t the way it is because he’s president, He’s president because America is the way that it is.”
De Facto Racism Manifest
When it comes to policies and rhetoric that exposes the U.S. for what it is - a settler colonial project rooted in and fueled by the psychopathology of white “supremacy,” it is not necessary to go too far back in time to see where elements of the Democrat Party upholds and promotes a racial capitalism complex that furnishes domestic and global colonialism, U.S. imperialism, and an ongoing pogrom of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide at the hands of the zionist ethnostate who the Democrats are addicted to like geopolitical junkies.
Less than one month ago, Jeffries and 76 percent of the kneegroes in the Congressional “Black” Caucus, along with 153 other Democrats voted to send even more money to the zionist ethnostate to continue its genocidal pogroms against Palestinians. But where are the “No Kings” rally and marches for this exercise of racism and white “supremacy,” where is the collective outrage of the liberal establishment and its apparatus of think tanks and non profits? These are of course rhetorical questions, yet they expose the abject hypocrisy of Democrats and liberals - as well as the fact that they are about to make the same calculations in 2026 as they did in 2024 when they refused to prioritize morality and people(s)-centered human rights over winning elections, which ironically helped them lose an election. It’s a pattern that was profoundly demonstrated when the Democrats put their faith in an addled nominee, before they removed him, who has a documented affinity for white “supremacy” and racism while his party either defended it or simply looked the other way.
Joe Biden, who was ignominiously jettisoned by his own party ahead of the 2024 elections, has a long history of white supremacist and racial animus that clearly did not disqualify him from being the president in the eyes of many liberals and Democrats who question Trump’s fitness for the office due to his racism. Memes weren’t available to Biden in 1977 when during a speech against the program of bussing for public schools he declared, “Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point." Biden may not have directly called Black people monkeys or apes in that case, yet reference to a “racial jungle” absolutely has the same effect and is rooted in the same white “supremacy” ideology as Trump’s meme of the Obamas. Democrats, like Symone D. Sanders Townsend, came to Biden’s defense and even attempted to downplay his history of racist remarks and friendships with racist segregationists in the U.S. Senate including Dixiecrats, Herman Talmdage, and Strom Thurmond, who Biden eulogized. What Sanders Townsend did for Biden is no different than the tactic Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, used when she downplayed the racist meme and castigated the press for its “fake outrage.”
To their credit, former Vice President Harris and Senator Corey Booker criticized Biden for some of his remarks and previous friendships, but this was when both were competing with him to be the Democrat Party presidential nominee in 2020 - Biden’s history and policies certainly had no impact on Harris’s decision to be his Vice President, nor Booker from being one of his more outspoken advocates during his presidency and since.
Perhaps worse than Biden’s affinity for white supremacists like Talmadge and Thurmond was his role in aiding, abetting, and funding the zionist ethnostate’s genocidal war campaign against Palestinian people. Biden oversaw the transfer of an estimated $18 Billion to the zionist ethnostate following the Al Aqsa Flood event of October 7, 2023 - though some researchers have noted that this number may be even higher due to “efforts to hide the full amounts of aid and types of systems through bureaucratic maneuvering.” Biden also fancies himself a zionist and once declared, “you don’t have to be a Jew to be a zionist and I am a zionist,” while also professing his love for yet another white supremacist, Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s bad enough to embrace an ideology that has nothing to do with Judaism because it is rooted in bigotry and white “supremacy,” but Biden’s zionism had real consequences for residents of the U.S. who dared to stand up to zionism and the zionist ethnostate’s genocide on college campuses across the country. Over 3,000 students were subjected to arrest, police brutality -including use of chemical agents and tasers, physical attacks by zionist mobs, and lasting emotional stress due to how they were treated on their own campuses. Biden oversaw all of this in the name of defending zionist white “supremacy”and genocide, yet the response from Democrats and liberals alike was minimal and certainly not at the same level as we are seeing from them under Trump.
Biden’s former Vice President is also a curious case of selective outrage by liberals and the Democrats. She raised over $1 billion for a failed presidential campaign following the ouster of Biden despite her own past of racist policies that disproportionately harmed Black folk, other people of color, and the poor. As the Attorney General of California, Harris was an agent of mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex. Her exploits include her office arguing against early parole for non-violent offenders, citing concerns over the loss of cheap prison labor—including prisoners fighting wildfires for $2 a day. Harris also pushed for legislation in California to criminalize truancy and punish parents with fines and incarceration, while also working with then governor Jerry Brown to reduce the rights of prisoners even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that elements of California’s prison system were unconstitutional, a move that the Brennan Center of Justice characterized as “nothing short of contemptuous.” The vast majority of those impacted by Harris’s “New Jim Crow” policies as California’s top prosecutor were Black people and other people of color, something that was lifted up during the 2020 presidential primaries by none other than Tulsi Gabbard, whose scathing critique of Harris’s prosecutorial record - ironically while she was attempting to paint Joe Biden as a racist -is credited with derailing her run for president. There is no outrage for Harris’s role in racialized mass incarceration, nor her embrace of zionism and steadfast loyalty to the zionist ethnostate - quite the opposite as Harris is leading in many recent polls to win the Democrat Party nomination for president in 2028
It’s almost too easy to showcase the racist policies of Bill Clinton, who, despite his record, even enjoyed the sobriquet of “America’s first Black president” bestowed upon him by the writer Toni Morrison before the presidency of Barack Obama. Clinton’s de facto racism came with a smile, smooth talk, and a saxophone all the while he made material conditions for Black and other people of color the worst they had been in a generation. Clinton famously promised to, “end welfare as we know it,” during the 1993 State of the Union to raucous applause and he absolutely delivered. By replacing welfare with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, Clinton unleashed a program of white “supremacy” that neglects poor Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from securing vital resources to survive and have access to healthy food and water. As Eduardo Porter notes in his book, American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed Our Promise, “Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the program that replaced the New Deal-era entitlement for the poor, is decidedly less generous in states with larger Black populations.” He continues, “In twenty-five states that are home to 56 percent of the African American population but only 46 percent of America’s non-Hispanic whites, TANF payments reach less than one in five families in poverty.” The trend of the racism and white “supremacy” baked into TANF continues to this day as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted in a 2021 report, “Many of TANF’s rules mirror those dating back to cash programs of the early 20th century, and many of its assumptions reflect anti-Black racism dating back to enslavement. Slavery and Jim Crow laid the foundation for the economic, reproductive, and behavioral control policies that have permeated later cash assistance programs, including TANF.”
The 1994 Clinton Crime Bill, which passed with considerable assistance by then Senator Joe Biden, has been described as one of the most racist policies in a generation by numerous legal and social justice experts. For instance, Hernandez Stroud, Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, when speaking on the Crime Bill’s provisions stated, “The way that these policies defined crime, the punishments that they attach to those definitions of crime, fell hardest on communities of color.” He went on to say, “I think that is reflected in the glaring racial disparities of our prisons when it comes to those who are behind bars. So there’s no doubt that communities of color and low-income communities were suffering disproportionately as a result of many of these policies.” The impacts of the 1994 Crime Bill continue to demonstrate how it upholds and advances racism and white “supremacy” ideology. Even the liberal think tank, Center for American Progress, admitted, “Many of these harmful provisions remain in effect today and continue to target and destabilize communities of color,” and further proclaims, “It is past time for lawmakers to dismantle these harmful policies and enact comprehensive public safety solutions that reduce reliance on incarceration, prevent unnecessary criminalization, and eliminate the draconian laws keeping millions of Americans in prison.”
Despite Clinton’s contributions to the New Jim Crow and the de facto racism of his political party, he still enjoys a relatively high approval rating. For instance, a recent poll taken by Gallup shows that Clinton enjoys a nearly 50% favorability rating, which is lower than George W. Bush, higher than Joe Biden’s, and at the same level as Trump’s. The only former living president other than Bush with a significantly higher favorability rating than Clinton is that of Barack Obama.
Obama, the subject of the selective outrage of Democrats and liberals, is perhaps the most profound example of the abject hypocrisy of both. Once described as a “Rockefeller Republican in Black face,” Obama oversaw and approved numerous instances of racist, white supremacist policies that exercised the idea of a global manifest destiny methodology through U.S, imperialism and neocolonialism both domestically and internationally. Many are still celebrating the success and significance of Bad Bunny’s epochal halftime show, which is warranted and deserved. However, the scores of Democrats and liberals who are praising Bad Bunny for showcasing the myriad injustices and colonial inclinations of his homeland, Puerto Rico, are silent on the role Obama played in further suppressing and subjugating the island that serves as modern day colony of the U.S.
In 2016, Obama signed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) into law. PROMESA created an unelected Board of Directors who have more say over the economic activities of Puerto Rico than local, elected officials including the island’s governor. Further, according to some reports, “None of these folks are from Puerto Rico or have significant professional links to the island,” with the exception of one board member. While sold to Puerto Ricans as a means to stabilize its economy and draw down its debt, Puerto Rican journalist Paula Santana-Steininger tells as different story, “Although it was sold to Puerto Rico as a means to restructure their crippling debt, in practice, Promesa has handed budgetary powers to an unelected board whose primary obligation is to ensure debt repayment.” She further explains, “The board has thus become a weapon that creditors can wield in this endless war over power, rather than a shield for the citizens who face the brunt of the mandate. While bondholders have a seat at the table, Puerto Ricans are lucky if they get to watch through the window.” PROMESA, whose board is known locally by many Puerto Ricans as “La Junta” is not much different than Trump’s so-called Board of Peace for Gaza.
Obama is also responsible for the eventual execution of former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi when he used military force against the nation, with assistance from NATO countries, without congressional approval. The results of this imperial action is described by Alan J. Kuperman, an Associate Professor at the University of Texas-Austin as, “...an abject failure, judged even by its own standards. Libya has not only failed to evolve into a democracy; it has devolved into a failed state. Violent deaths and other human rights abuses have increased severalfold.” Obama continued his international gangsterism on the African continent by increasing the number of U.S. bases there from three to 84 during his 8-year presidency. He treated Haiti not much differently, using the disaster of an earthquake in 2010 to increase U.S. control of the island, while denying the people(s)-centered human rights of Haitian people. Journalist Bill Van Auken notes, “The Obama administration responded to the Haitian disaster with a military intervention and occupation. Its first priorities were not providing food, water and medical assistance to the quake’s survivors, but getting thousands of combat-equipped soldiers and Marines into the country and setting up a naval blockade around it to deter any Haitians from attempting to flee the catastrophe for refuge in the US.”
This is to say nothing of the scores of Arab and other peoples in the Middle East due to Obama’s bellicose campaign in the region. Given the moniker, “Dronebama” due to his use of drones to carry out numerous executions, including that of a U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Awalki. In fact, Obama utilized drone strikes at a rate that was 10 times higher than his predecessor, George W. Bush, to continue U.S. imperialism and colonization. It could be argued that Obama, even more than Trump, demonstrated that imperialism and colonization are not the father of white “supremacy,” white “supremacy” is the father of colonization and imperialism, as well as the brutal, draconian, wanton, and tactics of dehumanization utilized by both. Obama also presided over the U.S. when numerous unarmed Black people were executed by law enforcement officials who, in the vast majority of cases, were not prosecuted and allowed to keep their jobs or find new ones. In 2016, Journalist Christopher Ingraham stated, “Police [are] safer under Obama than they have been in decades,” despite a string of high profile murders of Black folk from Trayvon Martin, to Sandra Bland, and Mike Brown.
Black folk and all people of conscience must wake up to the fact that while the GOP stabs us in the heart, the Democrats are more sinister as they consistently stab us and other oppressed and colonized peoples in the back. At the next “No King” demonstrations and marches we will hear everything about Trump’s racism and nothing about the racism and white “supremacy” ideology of the Democrats, nor that of the liberal institutions and non profits who serve them, including the groups sponsoring and funding these perfunctory and innocuous events. We need a proper anti racist, anti imperialist, and anti war opposition party, and the Democrats ain’t it. They know this better than anyone, which is why they, along with their liberal apparatus and liberal minions, including their collection of kneegroes like Jeffries and others in the Congressional “Black Caucus,” will do anything and everything to showcase the Du Jure racism of Trump as part of a larger machination to mask the De Facto racism ensconced in their party.
To confront this trend, we must ask ourselves what harms our people more and what acts as a larger impediment to people(s)-centered human rights - an ephemeral meme that does nothing more than tell us what we already know about Trump, or a collection of policies and regulations at the hands of the Democrats that continue to harm our people and other poor, oppressed, and colonized people around the world that tell us everything we already know about that party, yet far too many refuse to admit?
No Compromise
No Retreat
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright is an international climate and environmental liberation advocate, a racial justice practitioner, and a writer and policy expert residing in the United States with his family and their mischievous cat, “Evil” Ernie. He is a proud and active member of the Black Alliance for Peace and the Movement for Black Lives. His radio program, “Full Spectrum with Anthony Rogers-Wright,” airs on the Mighty WPFW network every Tuesday at 6:00 PM EST.
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