Trump. Racism Is Becoming Mainstream

What extreme right leaning populism imposes on us as its most dangerous ideology is the fear that we are being invaded and attacked by hordes of threatening and terrorist immigrants who challenge our Christianity.

The expression “go back where you came from,” by which racist and xenophobic people cheerfully display their ignorance, has come to the White House. The white man who governs a country such as the United States must be convinced that citizenship does not depend on a person’s birthplace or naturalization, but on skin color or the simple fact that, in the case of four women, they are Hispanic, black, and Muslim.

Donald Trump’s comments about four Democratic congresswomen who are vehemently opposed to him are an act of fundamental racism based on a blatant lie: all of the insulted congresswomen are American citizens, and the small matter of one of them being born in Somalia is nothing but a bump that the tenant in the White House wants to turn into a daunting risk.

Sadiq Khan, the sensible mayor of London, summed up the awkwardness: “I’ve heard it from racists and fascists. Never from a mainstream politician.” This hate speech, in a country that has more guns than residents, will have its consequences, and it will likely spread among Viktor Orban-like politicians who show up everywhere and eventually become mainstream. Trump does not hide his sympathy for the white supremacist cause, as noted in the attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he victimized demonstrators against an organization that displayed Nazi symbols and proclaimed “America is being attacked.”

What extreme right leaning populism imposes on us as the most dangerous ideology is the fear that we are being invaded and attacked by hordes of threatening and terrorist immigrants who challenge our Christianity. This language coming from the White House, which was home to a black president before Trump, is a rejection of an entire code of values and the history of the country which Trump leads as president (a country built by immigrants of all colors). No, we are not being invaded. Take a look at Europe. The percentage of immigrants among the 500 million citizens from the European Union is 7%.

The issue has become so pervasive that we are indifferent to the killing of dozens of immigrants and refugees in another detention camp in Libya or to the way that U.S. immigration policy violates the most basic human rights. We are passive witnesses to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, in which the so-called international community does not have, or want to have, any response.