Opinion

Opinion: Trump’s Racist Behavior is Infamous and Long Standing

Published

7 years ago

July 20, 2019

There he goes again. On Sunday, just before he headed off to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, Donald Trump once more played the race card. It wasn’t enough that he was terrorizing millions of undocumented fathers, mothers and children with the threat of sweeping raids, mass roundups and deportations. This time, he turned his attention to four popularly elected Democratic first-term legislators of color, suggesting that they “go back” to the “totally broken and crime-infested places from which they come.”

This vile racist trope was aimed at Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who was born in Cincinnati, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was born in Detroit, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio- Cortez, who was born in New York and Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen as a teenager. Trump smeared them as alien or not real Americans. They are, in fact, popularly elected leaders of the country.

Trump assailed them while pretending to come to the defense of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi immediately called him out:

“When @realDonaldTrump tells four American congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to ‘Make America Great Again’ has always been about making America white again,” Pelosi tweeted. “Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power.”

As condemnations poured in for his racist jibes, Trump — as is his pattern — did not apologize. Instead he escalated, accusing the four legislators of “racist hatred” and calling on them to apologize. He criticized Democrats for coming to the defense of the congresswomen, who he claimed are “very unpopular and unrepresentative.” So unpopular and unrepresentative that they were literally popularly elected to represent their districts.

Trump’s racist behavior is infamous and longstanding, from his discriminatory record as a real estate developer, his libels of the Central Park Five, his false “birther” attacks on Barack Obama, his defense of pro-Nazi demonstrators in Charlottesville, his dismissal of so-called “s—hole countries, to his libel of Mexican immigrants as “rapists,” and his call for a ban on Muslims.

Trump uses charged racist rhetoric and posturing to distract us from the chaos and corruption of his administration and his own crimes and misdemeanors. It isn’t surprising that this latest outburst comes on the eve of the public testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller before the House Judiciary Committee.

Trump appears to have a particular animus for strong women of color, whether it is Rep. Maxine Waters, the four first-term legislators, national political reporters like CNN’s April Ryan and Abby Phillip or PBS correspondent Yamiche Alcindor. He smears them as “a loser” or “stupid” or for “having low intelligence.”

Trump’s racial jibes are an insult to his office and to the country. Even if we have come to expect it from him, we cannot become inured to it. America is a diverse country; a politician who uses race to divide us for political gain is spewing a poison that weakens us all. It is simply pathetic that Republicans have, with rare exceptions, once more remained silent in the face of Trump’s provocations. We know what Trump is — and the ugliness and division that he wields as a club. The question now is what are Republicans? Their silence suggests that they either embrace the president’s cynical racism or are too cowed to stand up for basic decency.

Trump has the biggest megaphone in the country, if not the world. But America is a better country than he seems to think. Trump clearly believes he and his party profit politically from fanning racial divisions. In 2020, we can demonstrate that he is wrong.

(You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson in care of this newspaper or by email at jjackson@rainbowpush.org. Follow him on Twitter @ RevJJackson.)

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Posts by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

3 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.