The skanner., May 11, 2011, Page 17, Image 17

opinion
who will Counter Donald trump’s remarks?
There is one area in which
Donald Trump is no celebrity
apprentice – racism.
After being exposed as a public-
ity-loving idiot after he questioned
the authenticity of President
Obama’s birth records, Trump
quickly shifted away from the dis-
credited birther attack and began
raising wild and unsubstantiated
charges about Obama’s academic
achievement, a record that
includes the future president fin-
ishing in the top 10 percent of his
class at Harvard Law School and
being elected president of the
prestigious Harvard Law Review.
Although journalistic lapdogs
are willing to parrot Trump’s
ridiculous and increasingly out-
landish charges about President
Obama, few have chronicled his
racist behavior and comments.
Trump may have escaped scruti-
ny partly because he donated free
office space to Jesse Jackson once
upon a time and frequently makes
the rounds with Snoop Dogg and
P. Diddy. In one of the few times
he has been confronted about his
racism, Trump told TMZ.com, “I
am the last person that such a
thing should be said about.”
No, Donald, you should be one
of the first. And, I will tell you
why.
One would never know that
Trump ever hung out with
African-Americans, judging by
his language.
In a radio interview with Fred
Dicker on Talk 1300 in New York,
Trump complained about the diffi-
culty Hillary Clinton had winning
t he c uRRY
R epoRt
George E.
Curry
over Black voters.
“You’ll hear a political reporter
go on and say it had nothing to do
with race. But how come she had
such a tiny piece of the vote? And
you know, it’s a very sad thing,”
Trump said. “I have a great rela-
tionship with the Blacks. I’ve
always had a great relationship
with the Blacks. But unfortunate-
ly, it seems that, you know, the
numbers you cite are very, very
frightening numbers.”
The Blacks? Who uses that kind
of language? And Trump didn’t
just say it once – he said it twice.
Well, let’s see how Trump treat-
ed the Blacks that he claims to
have such a great relationship
with.
In 1973, the United States
Justice Department sued Trump
Management Corp. for violating
the Fair Housing Act by refusing
to rent to some potential tenants
because of their “race or color.”
Trump, who had taken over as
president of the family business by
then, reacted in typical Donald
Trump fashion – he sued the gov-
ernment for $100 million, claim-
ing the family business had been
defamed. The judge dismissed the
suit, saying Trump and his lawyer,
Roy Cohn, former chief counsel to
Senator Joseph McCarthy, were
“wasting time and paper.”
Trump signed a settlement
requiring that vacancies in the
15,000 apartment complex, which
was approximately 95 percent
White, must first be offered to
people of color. He agreed not to
engage in further racial discrimi-
nation. In a precursor of what
was to come after Obama released
his long-form birth certificate,
Trump described his defeat as a
victory and bragged that he was
not required to “accept persons on
welfare as tenants unless they
qualified as any other tenant.”
Three years later, the Justice
Department hauled Trump back
into court for violating the settle-
ment by telling the Blacks they
had no vacancies when, in fact,
there were openings.
After a group of four African-
Americans and one Latino, aged
14 to 16 years old, were arrested in
1989 for allegedly raping a White
female jogger in Central Park,
Trump took out a full-page ad in
the New York Times calling for
the death penalty. That would
have been a terrible mistake – all
five teenagers were later exonerat-
ed.
John R. O’Donnell, former pres-
ident of Trump Plaza Hotel &
Casino, cited racist and anti-
Semitic remarks made by his for-
mer boss. In his book, Trumped,
the former company official said
Trump disparaged a Black
accountant at Trump Plaza by
asserting “laziness is a trait in
blacks.” According to O’Don -
nell’s book, Trump also said,
“Black guys counting my money!
I hate it. The only kind of people I
want counting my money are short
guys that wear yarmulkes every
day.”
In an interview with Playboy
magazine in 1999, Trump tried to
dismiss O’Donnell as a loser, but
acknowledged,
“The
stuff
O’Donnell wrote about me is
probably true.”
Evidently not content stereotyp-
ing of Blacks and Jews who
worked for him, Trump was
inclined to reduce the president to
being a Black athlete.
“If you look at what he’s doing
in Libya, which is a total disaster,
nobody even knows what’s going
on in Libya,” Trump asserted. “If
you look at what’s happening with
gasoline prices where he said he
has no control over prices, which
he does. If he gets on the phone or
gets off his basketball court or
whatever he is doing at the time.”
It turns out that while Trump
was attacking Obama on Libya,
for playing basketball, and raising
false charges about Obama’s birth
certificate, the president was thor-
oughly engaged in planning a top-
secret operation that would lead to
the killing of Osama bin Laden. It
was Trump who didn’t know what
was going on.
In view of Trump’s record, it is
difficult to believe him when he
says if he could do it all over, he
would come back as an African-
American.
He told Bryant Gumble as part
of a two-hour television special on
race: “If I was starting off today, I
would love to be a well-educated
Black because I really do believe
they have the actual advantage
today.”
Not as much of the advantage
enjoyed by a run-of-the-mill
White male who inherited his
wealth from his father. By the
way, Donald, there is a well-edu-
cated African-American in the
White House. And, look how you
and those of your ilk are treating
him.
george e. Curry, former editor-
in-chief of emerge magazine and
the nnPa news Service, is a
keynote speaker, moderator, and
media coach. he can be reached
through his web site, www.george-
curry.com You can also follow him
atwww.twitter.com/currygeorge.
Self-inflicted Damage
S
attacks
have
ince the announced
been, they were
killing of Emanuel S tateleSS S ocietY c enteR
conducted
in
Goldstein -- er,
accordance with
Osama Bin Laden -- I've Kevin Carson
a brilliant strate-
seen much speculation
on what kind of big terror attack we can gic vision of maximizing bang for the
expect in retaliation. But if Al Qaeda was buck in terms of the U.S. government
capable of a large-scale, spectacular stupidity they provoke. An attempt to
reprisal attack, I think they'd already have smuggle explosives on a plane doesn't
done it between 9-11 and now. Their actu- have to be anything more than crude
al pattern since then has been one of poor- and ineffectual, because TSA's knee-
ly organized, penny ante attacks, carried jerk overreaction -- not blowing up
out by poorly trained people -- suggesting the plane -- is the real goal. The goal
that they picked the low-hanging fruit on is to make the passenger screening
process, the x-raying of all cargo, etc.,
9-11.
It's quite plausible that, given enough so onerous, humiliating, expensive
and time-consuming that
air traffic shrinks radi-
cally and the U.S. econo-
my takes a hit. The goal
is for the American peo-
ple to see their govern-
ment as intrusive, arbi-
trary, and callous.
The goal is also for the
incompetent attempts, somebody will U.S. government, in response, to stay
eventually succeed in detonating a bomb bogged down in endless wars in the
and blowing up a plane in the air. Enough Islamic world, radicalizing people
monkeys with enough typewriters and there and causing them to see the U.S.
enough time, and all that. But even if it as a crusader army -- in the meantime
happens, the damage will be limited to the wearying and demoralizing the U.S.
passengers on one plane out of millions of population and bankrupting the gov-
flights in any one year. With hardened ernment. To paraphrase the late Mr.
cockpits and passengers who understand Bin Laden, it's only necessary for a
that the goal of hijacking has changed, it couple of brothers with "Al Qaeda"
will never be possible to fly a plane into a written on a piece of cloth to show
high-value target again. And it's unlikely themselves in Antarctica, and the
all the TSA security theater in the airports, President will send Marines to fight
aimed at preventing the previous attack, is the penguins there "so we won't have
good for anything except satisfying the to fight them here."
"Well, we have to do SOMETHING!"
idjuts.
Read the rest online at
The interesting thing, though, is that
www.theskanner.com
however poorly planned and executed the
the U.S. experienced a moral
defeat by abandoning
everything it stood for and
becoming what it hated
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