Scrolling Facebook this weekend, I noticed that many residents of my hometown—Muskegon, MI—dismiss the notion that the candidacy and election of President Donald Trump has led to increased incidents (and the normalization) of racism and hate throughout both America and Muskegon County. To these individuals, I would plead: “Wake up, please.”
A noose hung from a swing set at the Glenside Early Childhood Center in Muskegon, MI.
As I will attempt to indicate below, circumstances have now become such that continuing to deny a correlation between Donald Trump and the new rise of white supremacy in America is akin to Germans explaining away anti-Semitic propaganda during the ascent of Hitler. Today we refer to those Germans as “Nazi sympathizers”.
So to a Muskegon resident, and the 7 individuals adding a ‘like”, who responded to the above photo on Facebook with: “To tie this to our President shows a special kind of stupid.”, I present the following linked and annotated facts. I hope he/she reads them objectively and to completion.
*This weekend a noose was found hanging from a swing set at the Glenside Early Childhood Elementary Center in Muskegon, Michigan. The pre-kindergarten student body at Glenside Elementary is largely African American. A mother taking her child to play first discovered the noose, photographed it, and posted it on Facebook.
*This Saturday (8/12/17) in Charlottesville, Virginia a group of white males gathered with torches, Nazi and Confederate flags to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the campus of the University of Virginia. This group of white males identified themselves as White Nationalists and were seen throughout the course of the rally giving Nazi salutes while shouting “Heil Trump” in the same manner and inflection that Nazi soldiers reserved for the recognition of Adolf Hitler.
*This Saturday (8/12/17), at approximately 1:45pm, 20 year-old Ohio resident James Alex Fields—seen in a photograph taken earlier in the day alongside members of the White Nationalist organization Vanguard of America—ran his car into a group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, killing 32-year old Heather Heyer.
* A 1990 article in the magazine Vanity Fair explains that President Donald Trump’s then wife, Ivana, divulged to her lawyer, Michael Kennedy, “that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he (President Trump) keeps in a cabinet by his bed.”
* Here is video of a February 2016 interview with President Donald Trump. President Trump is asked if he renounces the support of the Ku Klux Klan. He claims to not know who the organization is.
* The UK publication “The Independent” reported yesterday that President Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was arrested at a 1927 Ku Klux Klan rally in Jamaica, Queens. The rally featured 1,000 white-robed Klansmen marching through neighborhoods until a brawl broke out. Though the nature of President Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump’s, involvement is not known, it should be noted that he was represented by the same attorney that the only six other individuals arrested at the riot were.
* Here is a video detailing the extent of support President Donald Trump has from the Ku Klux Klan and other White Supremacist Groups in the United States.
On Saturday, August 12th, 15 minutes after Heather Heyer was killed by James Alex Fields, the former president of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke Tweeted to President Donald Trump: “I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror & remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists.”
This is a video of an African American protester at a March 10th rally for President Donald Trump being sucker-punched by a white man in the crowd.
This is a video of an African American protester being beaten and dragged from a 2016 Las Vegas, NV rally for President Donald Trump. In the background of the video you can hear a white man yell “Sieg Heil” while another yells “Burn the motherfucker”.
Below is a picture of a noose found hanging from a swing set in Muskegon, MI this weekend. Such nooses were used to lynch African Americans throughout American history and are often used now to symbolize this act. This noose was found hanging from a swing set in Muskegon, MI this weekend (8/12/17-8/13/17); on the playground of a pre-kindergarten school where black children are taught about fairness and sharing, and where, each morning, they set their hands to their hearts and pledge allegiance to a flag that daily lets them down.
***Author’s note: The original version of this piece included a photograph of Montague High School’s Varsity football team (located in Muskegon County) posing with a “Donald Trump: Make America Great Again” flag. The image was included to indicate the current degree of political division in Muskegon, not to imply that anyone depicted in the photograph, the Montague Varsity football team, or those parents affiliated with the program were, or are, in any way connected to the hate crime(s) recently perpetrated in the city of Muskegon. Community members familiar with the Montague football program indicate the photograph was taken so that the sign could be photo-shopped to read Montague: “Make Football Great Again”. The author has removed this photo and apologizes for any misunderstanding that may have occurred as a result of this photographs inclusion. The author does, however, maintain it worth noting that in his 25-plus years spent playing and following high school football in Muskegon County he had, up to this point, never once witnessed a football team at any level—Freshmen, Junior Varsity, or Varsity—affiliating itself with any sitting U.S. President or presidential candidate. The author, furthermore, reserves the right to conclude that the stated inclination to augment and appropriate the campaign idiom of the current U.S. President as a team slogan remains sufficient evidence to suggest the Montague varsity football team’s admiration of, and enthusiasm for, President Donald Trump.