Like many, I read about the response the UFC fighter made about Michelle Obama, all I can say is, I am not at all surprised he would make such a statement. But, as the former first lady would say, ‘when they go low, we go high,’ and that is what you expect from someone as classy as Michelle. Yet, for a moment, let’s take a moment to consider why someone would feel, 1) the need to make such a statement, 2) what about the former first lady he felt the need to make such an untrue and degrading comment, and 3) that he really believes the Obamas will care?
I do not profess to know or understand if he truly believes the lie he spoke, or that he is that steeped in racism and self-hate that he believes the lie he spoke, or has taken far too many blows to the head, whatever the reason, it may have gotten a laugh from Trump and others. Still, it just continues to enhance the racism the current President perpetuates and is just fine with. Donald Trump is extremely jealous of the Obamas for a myriad of reasons. Perhaps the most obvious is all the lies his father told him about Black people, and what he has told and ingrained in himself has been proven false time and time again. Not to mention that once again history is repeating itself when it comes to what Obama accomplished compared to the screwups Trump is making.
In the sense of history repeating itself, it centers around ripping up an agreement Obama had obtained regarding Iran and its nuclear program. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was comprehensively worked out and agreed to by the Iranians after painstaking negotiations, including provisions not included in the current agreement negotiated by the Trump administration. In fact, it is unclear if there really is any comprehensive plan to contain Iran’s nuclear program by which there are any measurable metrics. But, it does seem to be the constant diatribe about how bad the JCOPA was, along with the regurgitation of the Obama administration sending the Iranian government pallets of money, suggesting the Obama administration was bribing them to take the deal. In reality, the administration was returning money it had been holding in escrow from the previous regime under the deposed Shaw. But facts such as that get in the way of how a envious individual like Trump wanted to portray his predecessor and nullify the reality that what the Obama administration accomplished was indeed working.
Those with racist beliefs and hate will raise their veil and spread half-truths and outright lies to diminish and attempt to make themselves look better, smarter, and more competent. They will do this not in an overt way, but through subtle deceit, disingenuousness, and overt actions, all while smiling in one’s face. The never-ending fallacy that pigmentation is determinative of intelligence is the roach that doesn’t really die, for the simple reason that when you step on it, you may kill that roach. Still, not the thousands hiding behind the wall, and this is emblematic of the problem.
The racism Trump brought to the Presidency has been emblematic of how the founders unfortunately view their position on governance. When they coined the phrase ‘of the people by the people,’ they left out a large segment of the people, whom they only saw as being 3/5th of a human. To say man, woman, and child were only 60% human was not only degrading but an insult to the creator so many of them claimed to believe in.
Only deliberate and abject racism can account for such degradation of those who were created in the image of the creator they worshiped. But, as despicable as that may have been, when their sacred book speaks of individuals who indeed were enslaved, justification becomes rather easy, and prejudice and jealousy become a mainstay.
For Trump, his racism was ingrained in him by his father, and it didn’t subside regardless of the progress and advancement made by those whom he had already condemned as unworthy. There is little indication that Trump ever saw anyone who was not of his racial concept as being intelligent enough to lead major projects. This was very evident when he tried to get Randall Pinkett to share the title with the individual who came in second; he responded accordingly:
“There is one and only one apprentice, and if you’re going to hire someone tonight, it should be one,” Pinkett said. “It’s not The Apprenti [sic], it’s The Apprentice.”
Dr. Pinkett’s response was akin to Othello standing his ground on whom he selected to be his second in command. As I have read and digested the scenario from Pinkett’s book, Trump’s racism was in play; he had the following to say:
“I thought, is he serious? Apparently, he was, and I was insulted and angered. No previous winner had ever been asked that question before.”
I recalled watching that episode when Trump announced he would seek the nomination for President and defeated Hillary, and it felt like we were about to go backward instead of forward. From my perspective, we did indeed regress, and that regression showed in how Trump handled the COVID outbreak. Trump’s willingness to support medical quackery was perhaps one of the most unconscionable things any President could do when one considers he received state-of-the-art treatment when he became infected with the virus and not some bleach concoction injected into his veins, as he is purported to have recommended.
So, is it any surprise that the agreement worked out is not even close to what the Obama administration extracted from Iran? Or the fact that a three-hundred-billion-dollar agreement has emerged from Trump’s current negotiations with Iran, which is far larger than what occurred under the JCPOA developed by the Obama administration? Not to mention that, at the moment, there do not seem to be any conditions for mandatory inspections under the agreement he tore up?
The following words should be considered:
“Therefore, to see beyond boundaries to the subtle heart of things, dispense with names, concepts, expectations, ambitions, and differences.”- The Tao Ching.
Why, you might ask. For the simple reason, one doesn’t always have to flex one’s muscles to demonstrate one’s strength. Nor does one have to talk the loudest with menacing overtones to get one to listen, showing an ability to move past things that hold one back, such as name-calling, threatening, and subordinating prideful coture for posture of listening astutely allows for a deeper understanding and the ability to use flexiblity to achieve the goal one desires perhaps has much more impact and willingness to listen than saying you will bomb them back into the stone age.
But for that to happen, it requires a leader who can think beyond his next McDonald’s Happy Meal.
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