Trump's insults of black Americans are disgusting and dangerous

By Dilip -
President Trump, who regularly makes a point of personally insulting public figures who challenge or displease him in any way, taps into an especially toxic well of vitriol when aiming his attacks at black Americans. This week alone, Trump berated CNN correspondent Abby Phillip ("What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.") He said of April Ryan, a reporter and CNN contributor who has covered the White House for 21 years: "You talk about somebody that's a loser. She doesn't know what the hell she's doing."

And at a post-election press conference, when Yamiche Alcindor of "PBS NewsHour" began to ask about accusations that his rhetoric may have emboldened violent white nationalist groups, Trump interrupted with, "I don't know why you say that. That is such a racist question." The three women -- all of them gifted, accomplished professionals -- will be covering politics long after Trump has left the White House. They join a long list of athletes, entertainers, journalists and politicians who Trump routinely attacks as "dumb," "not qualified" or some such insult.

None of this is subtle or secret; that would defeat the purpose. For Trump, loudly and publicly denigrating black figures is the whole point. He is a classic example of a backlash politician: a leader who exploits real or perceived white anxieties by exhibiting a flamboyant hostility to the political and economic demands of black Americans. We've had a string of such politicians since the civil rights movement, and that is neither surprising nor coincidental: Like many social revolutions, America's expansion of civil rights in the 1960s and '70s gave rise to a potent counterrevolution.

We saw it in Ronald Reagan's decision to launch his 1980 campaign for president at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where an infamous triple murder of civil rights organizers had occurred in 1964. Reagan didn't mention the martyred civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner or James Chaney in his speech, which was all about state's rights. As columnist Bob Herbert later noted: "Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the fair. Whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans — they all knew. The news media knew. The race haters and the people appalled by racial hatred knew. And Reagan knew. He was tapping out the code.".. read more:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/10/opinions/trumps-insults-of-black-americans-louis/index.html

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