Is Donald Trump a Racist?

Is Donald Trump a Racist? It's a deceptively simple question, with a deceptively simple answer. Look at the man, look at his policies, his stance on immigration, on Islam, his response to 'Black Lives Matter' and to support from the KKK and other far-right groups and it is impossible to believe he might not be racist.

But Mr Trump believes that there isn't a racist bone in his body (although that doesn't account for all the fat, muscle, body tissue and other fibers of his being). In a wider sense too, whilst what he says is unpleasant, does it cross the line of racism?

Black Lives Matter and Trump

Let's start with Trump's assertion that the 1700-1800s were golden years economically for the US (yes, those were also the years of institutionalized slavery); slide through his inability to denounce David Duke and skate over his having been sued in the 1970s for refusing to rent to black tenants. This brings us to a time where he describes black people as lazy and ignores Black Lives Matter. Trump is clearly not a man who believes all people are equal to him, sadly especially not black people.

Islam and Trump

To Trump there are no moderate or liberal Muslims, there are only non-Muslims and ISIS Muslims. Because all Muslims are, to him, potential jihadis they are all also dangerous. They need to be monitored and their entry onto our soil needs to be restricted. They are us though, we are all American and we all care about American values.

Mexicans and Trump

So there's going to be a wall, and those rapists, killers and drug dealers are going to pay for it - it's hard to imagine a part of the globe where this particular policy hasn't shocked people. This is incendiary, typifying a people and reducing them to the basest parts of any nation.

Describing a nation in such damaging terms is only half of what makes this provocative. Here Trump is removing the humanity from individual Mexicans (or African-Americans or Muslims); he sees a collective rather than a society and stereotypes them as all the same. In doing this he takes away their dignity in order to strengthen himself. And this is racism: Trump sees his people - his race if you will - as superior to others. Thus it is okay to throw out broad and harmful generalizations because others, regardless of their individual merits, are always inferior to Trump.

The main problem with Donald Trump is that he only sees the world in relation to Donald Trump. If you are Donald Trump then you are America's last defence against mediocrity, our last chance to remind the world how great we are. The further away from being Donald Trump you are- think female, non-white, non-US citizen, non-Christian for starters- the less he relates to you and values who you are. He doesn't see this as sexist or racist because for him it's not about your race or your sex, it's all about him.

His view of racism is the same as his view of sexism: people who aren't Donald Trump are okay so long as they agree with him and show it by doing what he says. If you dare disagree then you are evil, his enemy and he will take you down because you are less than him.

To collude with Trump and say that this is not racism is to deny the vitriol behind his attitude towards people from other nations or backgrounds or faiths. Until he starts seeing people as individuals with strengths that he is lacking he will remain racist, end of.

Ultimately how we answer the question of 'Is Trump a racist?' feeds into much wider and deeper questions about our worldview and our society: How do we define racism? Is equality a superficial thing? These are ongoing debates we need to challenge ourselves with in order to move forwards and to show that we respect and honor the struggles that people in our nation face daily.