The Existential Struggle of Trump’s Racism for Trump’s Voters

As a Black person, recognizing what is and isn’t racism is pretty much like making sure you don’t eat under cooked meat. You could, for example, use a meat thermometer when you cook steak. Thermometers work very well to determine if a piece of meat is under cooked or not. You stick it into the meat, you look at the dial and you’re done. You have information that will help you avoid pooping your pants for two hours at three in the morning.

If we were to create a racism thermometer, I envision that it would be able to detect the hatred of the Other. It’s important to note that racism is based on a power dynamic. Yes, a Black person can be a racist. Yet, Black people have no real power to use that racism to hurt others. A White person and/or White society had and has tremendous power and have always been willing to use it to subjugate minorities. The very concept of race is a social construction that benefits the dominate power group. American racism has to be in the context of slavery and the destruction of Native Americans. Take that context out, and our racism thermometer isn’t calibrated properly.

As far as what our thermometer is looking for, we need to focus on racist rhetoric and racist actions. Racist rhetoric is meant to drive people to action. Racist action is meant to hurt others. Using those metrics, we…