August 14, 2019
CAREERS Special Edition
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Page 13
O PINION
The Truth about America’s Racist Presidents
Fighting back
against a hateful
message
l egrand h. C legg ii
“From the beginning
the American presiden-
cy has been stained by
racial prejudice, often
a reflection of broader
sentiment among white citizens.
Such views have persisted well
into modern times,” so wrote Sar-
ah Mervosh and Niraj Chokshi
in the New York Times on Aug.
1. What triggered the article was
a newly released audio recording
which revealed that, in 1971, then
Gov. Ronald Reagan of California
called African people monkeys
in a telephone conversation with
President Richard Nixon.
To laughter from Nixon, Rea-
gan also stated that Africans are
still uncomfortable wearing shoes.
Revelation of this audio recording
comes on the heels of President
Donald Trump demanding that
four Democratic Congresswom-
en of color go back to their home
countries, echoing sentiments that
racist whites have often hurled at
African-Americans. Furthermore,
just over a week ago the president
attacked a predominantly black
Baltimore-based
congressional
district as a “disgusting, rat and
rodent infested mess”, where “no
human being would want to live.”
In the past, the president has also
by
questioned the intelligence of
prominent African Americans.
Many if not most American
presidents appear to have had rac-
ist proclivities. George
Washington and Thom-
as Jefferson owned
slaves. Theodore Roo-
sevelt dismissed “Ne-
groes” as a “perfectly
stupid race”; while
Woodrow Wilson was a
staunch segregationist and Dwight
D. Eisenhower expressed preju-
diced sentiments and told racist
jokes. Even civil rights advocate
Lyndon B. Johnson espoused
racist views and used slurs to de-
ignore white claims of our infe-
riority, and striven as a group to
prove ourselves equal to all other
people. But this noble approach
has not resulted in a cessation of
white supremacist propaganda
emanating from either the white
masses or the White House. At
this juncture, then, we must ad-
dress these insults head-on when-
ever and wherever they appear;
lest we lose another generation of
black youths to the forces of rac-
ism that have instilled in too many
of them a sense of hopelessness
and inferiority.
First, we should insist that black
people do not resemble apes. Apes
ACT, GRE, etc. is virtually equiv-
alent to their white counterparts.
Furthermore, since scientists have
determined that black people are
the genetically dominant parents of
the human family, and whites insist
that one drop of black blood deter-
mines that one is black, how, then,
does genetic dominance equate to
genetic inferiority?
Third, several studies of black
newborns in Africa and the United
States show that, prior to accultur-
ation, black babies are the most
advanced in the world. Comment-
ing on the discoveries of white
specialist Marcelle Geber, author
Joseph C. Pearce has written:
By and large we as African Americans have long
chosen to ignore white claims of our inferiority, and striven
as a group to prove ourselves equal to all other people. But
this noble approach has not resulted in a cessation of white
supremacist propaganda emanating from either the white
masses or the White House.
scribe black people.
While I have addressed white
allegations of black inferiority and
incompetence before, it appears
that during this dangerous time
when our current president ap-
pears determined to promote bla-
tant white supremacy, repetition is
most certainly in order to briefly
set the record straight.
By and large we as African
Americans have long chosen to
have thin lips, straight hair, hairy
bodies and flat behinds. When
shaven, apes have pink skin. black
people generally have thick lips,
wooly, curly or wavy hair, smooth
bodies and protruding behinds. Our
skin color ranges from black to
brown, red and yellow -- not pink.
Second, when African Ameri-
cans experience educational parity
with whites, black performance on
standardized I.Q. tests such as SAT,
“She found [in Uganda] the most
precocious, brilliant and advanced
infants and children ever observed
anywhere ... sensor motor learn-
ing and general development were
phenomenal. Indeed miraculous.
These Ugandan infants were
months ahead of American or Eu-
ropean children. A superior intel-
lectual development held for the
first four years of life.” (emphasis
added). The racial comparisons,
published by Geber and other sci-
entists, are truly staggering.
Fourth, when Donald Trump
orders black people to return
home, what does he mean? In his
book, The First Americans Were
Africans: Documented Evidence,
David Imhotep demonstrates that
American Indians are actually
descended from black Africans
who reached the Americas at least
50,000 years ago -- long before
Columbus, slavery and the Trump
family!
Finally, authors Robert Bauval
and Thomas Brophy have writ-
ten that “scientists in the field of
genetics have been pointing out
that it may actually be correct to
say that the world was created by
black people.” This is borne out by
the fact that blacks appear to have
laid the foundation of civilization.
In other words, Africans pioneered
in the fields of architecture, art, ath-
letics, government, law, mathemat-
ics, medicine, navigation, religion,
science, writing, etc. Furthermore,
these black people invented and
wore shoes long before Reagan’s
ancestors emerged from caves!
The astonishing achievements of
ancient Africans included not only
building of the pyramids of Egypt,
but also constructing neighboring
temples, some of which contain
blocks of stone weighing between
200 and 400 tons each, that were
arranged and set up with remark-
able precision. Black dominance
in antiquity has led white author
Flora Lugard to write that, during
that era,” ... [T]he leading race of
the Western World was a black
race.” Historian Richard Poe has
also observed that, among ancient
people, there was the “presumption
that dark skin connoted higher in-
telligence.”
The racism emanating from the
White House and spreading across
the country today is nothing new.
Many presidents in the past ques-
tioned black intelligence, used ra-
cial slurs, incited racist violence
and scoffed at black demands for
equality. Nevertheless, we have a
long history of resistance to white
supremacy and racism. In honor
of our ancestors, and for the future
of our children, we must continue
our struggle, especially against
Donald Trump whose hateful
message -- embraced by a naive
and gullible base -- threatens to
incite a race war.
Legrand H. Clegg II is the city
attorney emeritus for Compton,
Calif., president of the Western
Region of the Association for the
Study of Classical African Civili-
zations and producer of the docu-
mentary, “When Black Men Ruled
The World”.