Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s long and well-documented history of racism garnered fresh attention on Wednesday after the Republican nominee’s comments about Vice President Kamala Harris, his presumptive Democratic opponent, at a convention for Black reporters.

During Trump’s appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) event in Chicago, he was asked about racist claims from some Republicans that Harris is a “DEI hire,” a reference to the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies targeted by the GOP.

“She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn’t know she was Black, until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”

[…]

Sharing a video on social media, Nebraska state Sen. Megan Hunt (D-8) said: “Unreal, racist, worth watching, and I have to say it’s a good thing that he’s out on the record in serious spaces talking about how he really feels. Keep it up, here’s your guy, conservatives.”

Congressman Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) declared: “This unhinged and shameful person should never be near the presidency again. He’s a disgrace.”

Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement that “the hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people.”

[…]

Harris supporters and anti-racism advocates have anticipated such comments from Trump and his allies and expect them to continue. Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, wrote Monday in a Common Dreams opinion piece, “As a society, we cannot simply brush off verbal attacks and racist misogyny as acceptable speech.”

“Working towards real systemic change in a world that recognizes and addresses the real harm caused by anti-Asian and racialized misogyny,” she argued, “will take all of us speaking up against these kinds of attacks that have been allowed to go on for far too long.”

  • @some_guy
    link
    253 months ago

    If you follow a link to video, he’s practically falling apart trying to hit back. It’s surprisingly bad. You can read the words, but the delivery is even more pathetic.

    • @jarfil@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      53 months ago

      Sometimes, giving publicity to people digging themselves in, is all that’s needed to win a popularity contest.

        • @Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          2
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Laughs nervously in Canadian

          It sucked when he was president. It emboldened all of the cockroaches in our society. Some of our politicians are trying to emulate him, and it’s working. Some people love dictators and bullies, I guess.

          They’re currently causing more problems with our public health care as a way to then be able to present private health care as a solution. If they take away or ruin our health care, I don’t know where I would go or where I could go really. But I wouldn’t want to live under that kind of government that actively harms its population.

        • @jarfil@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          13 months ago

          Right now, his own publicity is also conveying that. If they’re going to have a debate in September, all of it is going to be extra arguments for Harris.

    • Lime Buzz
      link
      fedilink
      5
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Image description: A screenshot of two black people playing Disco Elysium reacting to a failed visual calculus check. The text reads:

      Visual Calculus [Medium: Failure] - All you can see is the fact that her skin is a different colour from yours. That’s literally all. You’re gonna have to run with that.

      Then the only option to reply with is given:

        • “You’re black”

      Below that the two black people have their hands on the tops of their heads in manner which denotes frustrated surprise, they are sitting behind microphones as they are playing and commenting on the game together.