Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:15 pm
Ivanka Trump joined the rarefied heights of her father’s dishonesty at the GOP Convention, claiming of her father that ““He is colorblind and gender neutral. He hires the best person for the job, period.”
The New York Times‘ Nicholas Kristof begs to differ: “Over 45 Years … I Don’t Know What Else To Call What Emerges, Except Racism.”
Hardly a surprise, given what we’ve seen from Trump’s rhetoric since he announced his candidacy.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Appearing Monday on CNN’s New Day, Kristoff said that racism is a loaded word and that while “we should be really careful about tossing it around in a political season,” the record
“[R]epeatedly shows that a white tester would go to a Trump apartment, and be shown several apartments immediately available. A black person, as a tester, would go and be told that nothing was available. Trump employees said that applications for apartments by black people were coded, C for colored, so that the central office would know to deny them.”
That’s some colorblind. Watch, courtesy of Media Matters for America:
CHRIS CUOMO (CO-HOST): What were you going for and where did you come out on it?
NICHOLAS KRISTOF: Well, first of all, I do think that racist is a loaded word. I think we should be really careful about tossing it around in a political season. So I wanted to go back and look at the evidence. And so I looked back over 45 years, and, frankly, it’s pretty devastating. I started in the 1970s, when the Nixon White House, which was not a famous champion of civil rights exactly, sued the Trump Organization, of which Donald was then the president, for systematically denying blacks access to the apartments that the Trump Organization owned. You wade through more than 1,000 pages from this lawsuit, and it repeatedly shows that a white tester would go to a Trump apartment, and be shown several apartments immediately available. A black person, as a tester, would go and be told that nothing was available. Trump employees said that applications for apartments by black people were coded, C for colored, so that the central office would know to deny them. The —
ALISYN CAMEROTA (CO-HOST): So, Nicholas, so that was in the ’70s, and so you went back and looked at these reams and reams of documentation and show that there was discrimination being practiced at the Trump real estate organization then. That was the ‘70s. Then what did you find in the ‘80s and the ‘90s?
KRISTOF: So, essentially this pattern continues. Trump moves into the casino business. A former Trump casino worker who was black says that when Donald Trump visited the casino in Atlantic City, the blacks would all be taken off the floor and herded into a back room. The former president of the casino, the Trump casino in Atlantic City, wrote a 1991 book in which he talked about Donald Trump trying to get him to fire a black accountant, saying he doesn’t want blacks to count his money. Saying that blacks are lazy.
[…]
In any one incident, I think there is ambiguity, but where you have pattern for 45 years in the real estate business and the real estate company that Trump headed, then in the casinos, then more recently, we have Trump this year twice retweeting a tweet from white genocide with a photo of the founder of the American Nazi party. I think it is fair to provide some leeway, but over 45 years, you simply see this consistent pattern, and I don’t know what else to call what emerges, except racism.
Donald Trump is anything but colorblind. As Kristoff points out, his is a long history of blatant racism. He didn’t want to rent to blacks, he didn’t want blacks to count his money. They’d even hide blacks from Donald Trump so he wouldn’t see them.
I guess only seeing white people is one way to remain colorblind.
It’s just not a good way, nor an effective one, in our multicultural, diverse country. Donald Trump is doomed to see black people, Mexican people, Muslim people, Chinese people. He can’t isolate himself among Fox News’ angry “white Christian Americans” or Russians. This is a country of immigrants, and whoever becomes president must represent all Americans, not just the white ones.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
