Day 909: Trump whips rally crowd into racist frenzy, as they chant ‘send her back’ about Omar
The prevalent racism that encompasses both Donald Trump and a significant amount of his supporters has reached a critical mass. Following Trump’s brazenly racist attacks against four Democratic congresswomen of color — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — the vast majority of Trump’s enablers have refused to even condemn the comments.
Fast forward to Wednesday evening at a Trump rally in Greenville, North Carolina, where it became clearer that Trump’s followers have gotten the message that racism is okay. During Trump’s speech, the crowd began chanting a horrifyingly racist message about Omar, who was born in Somalia and became a naturalized citizen in 2000 before being elected to Congress in 2018: “Send her back!”
The almost exclusively white crowd’s ire is being stoked by Trump, who continues to engage in white nationalist messaging on a near-everyday basis. Trump didn’t try and stop the chant, of course. Rather, he looked on approvingly and nodded at the racist message. Perhaps he fully realized at that moment that he had opened the floodgates to allow thousands of his minions to openly and comfortably express their equally racist beliefs.
This isn’t a situation where there are few bad apples, either. The chants echo and bounce off the arena’s walls. There aren’t people flocking to the exits in disgust. Those that aren’t chanting are laughing. Racism is embraced and never stood up to at a Trump rally.
Omar, as a naturalized citizen, had to undergo a rigorous process to get into the U.S., including meeting certain requirements to even apply for citizenship, then had to take a civics test and take an oath swearing allegiance to the U.S. To have American citizens — the vast majority of whom were born in the U.S., and had to meet no additional requirements for citizenship— imploring a president to “send back” a congresswoman for engaging in political dialogue is as vile as it is scary.
This, however, is Trump’s ideal America.
909 days in, 553 to go
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