Is Donald Trump A Racist? (Hint: If it Walks Like a Duck…)

by dominique DiPrima

Businessman Donald Trump is leading the field to become the Republican nominee for President of the United States. The reality TV star, once seen as an unlikely frontrunner, is drawing huge crowds and using his star power to bring new voters to the polls. He has admitted to being angry and many of his supporters are angry too. Black Lives Matter activists have been attacked and ejected from several of his rallies. He was slow to disavow the endorsement of notorious KKK leader David Duke, and the Southern Poverty Law Center which tracks white supremacist organizations has expressed concern for months that hate groups are rallying around Trump. There are newspaper articles from the 1920’s that report that Donald Trumps father, Fred Trump was arrested for refusing to leave a Ku Klux Klan rally in New York. (Stories the Donald has denied…But he also said he does not know anything about white supremacy…A claim that doesn’t pass the laugh test.) But is Donald Trump a racist? Or is he simply an equal opportunity offender who speaks his mind without regard for political correctness? Is he a bigot who has disparaged Latinos, African Americans and women? Or a breath of fresh air with an honest perspective outside the mainstream of politics as usual? Here is where it might serve us to consider the old adage “birds of a feather flock together,” or even another winged metaphor…If it walks like a duck…And quacks like a duck…Well, you know the rest! When Donald Trump says he’ll make American great again…is he talking about the economy or does he actually mean Make America Bianco di nuovo?