Hardly a day goes by when our president doesn’t put on display his deeply ingrained racism.
The most recent example is his telling four outspoken new congresswomen to “go back where they came from.” The fact that they are all people of color escaped no one’s attention.
This incident is just the latest in a long history of racist actions and statements by Donald Trump.
As a real estate developer in New York, he notoriously discriminated against minorities when renting apartments. In 1989, he led a public campaign against five young blacks accused of raping a white jogger in Central Park. They served six to 13 years in prison before DNA testing exonerated them.
He initiated his political career with a false “birther” conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama, this country’s first black president.
He promoted a ban of all Muslim visitors, has made demeaning comments about Haitians and Africans, has expressed a preference for “people from places like Norway,” etc.
Trump shows no sign of stopping these racist dog whistles and it’s doing incalculable damage to this country.
If fellow Republicans publicly denounced Trump’s racism, it might alter his behavior. Yet none of our state’s congressional delegation has done so. Such silence can easily be interpreted as endorsement, especially by those elements of our society who share Trump’s bigotry. It’s not only morally shameful, it’s destructive to the well-being of the nation.
Tom Huckin, Salt Lake City