My liberal friends waste a lot of time trying to pin down Donald Trump as a fascist and racist. As I have admitted previously, Trump is old enough to carry the passive cultural racism of the previous century, but I don’t think he is a white supremacist, anti minority racist. But that doesn’t prevent the left to spin every unsavory or uncareful comment in that direction, confirming their worst fears that, like Democratic icon Robert Byrd, he is a white supremacist (Byrd is never attacked for having been a KKK Grand Wizard, amazingly).

Recently, Dinesh D’Souza has been on tour promoting his new and excellent book The Big Lie, where he explains that the Democrat Party has not only historically been the party of racism and fascism, it continues to be today, while trying to paint the right with those monikers.

The NYT Lists Trump’s Racist Quotes

Thankfully, the New York Times put together a list of Trump’s supposed racist comments. By examining the direct quotes (not third party “he said” evidence), we can see the clear liberal spin on what he meant.

Disclaimer: For those of you with your pants synched up too tight, I am not defending Trump’s poor choice of words, passive racist slights, or offensive personality in general. But I am saying that accusations of overt, mean-spirited racism are an exaggeration that gets tiring because it is counter productive, especially when you do it to “prove” that those who support his other policies, or even immigration policies, are racist too. That’s ignorant and part of the problem of polarization in our country today. You may be part of the problem, not the solution.

1. Blacks Have Advantages

“I think sometimes a black may think they don’t have an advantage or this and that. I’ve said on one occasion, even about myself, if I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I really believe they do have an actual advantage.”

It is a reality that, due primarily to affirmative action, an intelligent black man would have an advantage over an equally qualified white person.

CONCLUSION: True statement, not racist. 

2. Mexicans Are Mostly Rapists and Drug Dealers

Interestingly, the NYT article doesn’t provide the quote, how convenient for them.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best — they’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

As it turns out, it is hard to get stats on how many illegal immigrants commit crimes, but in the US, this is probably NOT true. A minority are, but here Trump gives voice to fears about the type of people sent here. It’s not overt racism as much as it is fear based on lack of data. Notice he says that those coming here are selected because of their criminality by the Mexican government, not inherently ethnically challenged. ^{1 2}

An additional reason this is not an overtly racist comment is because MS13 gangs have been getting more press, adding to fears. MS13 crimes and prison problems have escalated in recent years. ³

Additionally, illegal immigrants into Europe from predominantly Muslim nations ARE driving soaring crime increases across Europe. It is not unthinkable that Trump is parroting not only fears about Mexican immigrants, but immigrants in general. ⁴

CONCLUSION: False statement, but based on fear, not overt racism. Bottom line, he is wrong on this issue, but is more likely giving in to stereotypes and fear than overt racism.

3. Complete Ban on Muslims

“a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”⁵

Notice the condition he put on this global ban – “until we figure out what is going on.” As it turns out, this is a common sense move when Islamic terrorists are a threat around the world. And once the problem countries were identified? His administration put a ban only on certain countries, not all Muslim majority countries.

CONCLUSION: Common sense move, followed up by non-ethnic ban based on countries of concern, not all Muslim countries. NOT racism.

4. Mexican Judge is Biased

In an interview, Mr. Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict” in presiding over the litigation given that he was “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers’ association. Mr. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border. “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Mr. Trump said. ⁶

“But just so you understand, this judge has treated me very unfairly, he’s treated me in a hostile manner. And there’s something going on.” ⁷

Is this a slight against Mexicans, or that the judge is part of a group that is generally biased against Trump? While Trump is wishy washy on whether Mexicans support him or not, this is really just a case of a group identification which could have been based on gender (e.g. “she’s a young woman, and young women hate me”) or profession (which this seems to be in part, since Trump also cited that the man was a lawyer and a judge appointed by Obama), or any other attribute.

It is unfortunate that Trump chose his ethnicity, but this is clearly understood in reference to the political reality that his support for a wall (based on the need for national security, not the undesirable nature of Mexicans themselves) made him generally unpopular among Mexicans.

CONCLUSION: Trump’s political assumption that he is unpopular with Mexicans due to his insistence on a wall is TRUE, but his assumption that this made the judge biases is questionable, and it is easy to see why some might construe this as racism. But that’s not a given.

CONCLUSION

I have looked for openly racist remarks, as opposed to remarks that can be construed as national, security, or politically based. While many of Trump’s remarks are racially insensitive and sometimes offensive, it seems clear that his generalizations are often based on real fears (some founded in stats, others not) as well as some generalizations that can be true (most of the nations in Africa are filled with war and poverty, i.e. “sh*tholes” by any measure).

This racism baloney will ensure Trump another term in office if he runs. Not my fault.