DONALD TRUMP, OMAROSA AND WHITE VENGEANCE: WHAT DOES HISTORY TELL US?
By Legrand H. Clegg II
“That dog,” “Crazed, crying lowlife,” “The dumbest man on television,” “Low I.Q.” This is just a small sample of the negative comments that President Donald J. Trump has made about prominent African Americans. During the week of August 12, 2018, the President used the first two statements to describe his former White House aide, Omarosa Manigault-Newman, whose new tell-all book about Trump’s administration has triggered a national firestorm. Weeks earlier he called CNN anchor, Don Lemon, “[T]he dumbest man on television,” questioned the intelligence of basketball star LeBron James and repeatedly stated that Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California has a “low I.Q.”
While the President has also singled out a number of White people for malicious criticism, his attacks on Black people have contributed to longstanding stereotypes of African Americans and reinforce the racism of his base. Why would the most powerful man in the world use his bully pulpit to target Black people the way he has? By now it should be clear to everyone that the President, just as most other White people, harbors a deeply ingrained sense of racism toward Black people and, unlike most other White leaders, has chosen not to mask it.
We are entering an age of resurgent racism, especially as manifested by widespread police abuse of African Americans and the blatant bigotry of the alt-right, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacist organizations. In our response to this growing peril we, as Black people, should pause, gather our wits about us and calmly evaluate the true nature of White racism toward us.
From such analysis, we will find that today, as in the past, we are not just facing racial prejudice and intolerance but, rather, a deep-seated, visceral, robotic loathing of Black people by Whites on a global scale that appears to defy all logic, has persisted over the centuries and is gaining renewed momentum during the Age of Trump.
In modern, symbolic parlance, racism appears to be “in the White man’s DNA”. In our historical bewilderment over this behavior, we have appealed to the White collective with demonstrations, protests, petitions, prayer vigils, etc.; none of which has led to a genuine cessation of racism on the part of the White establishment or masses.
I believe that a pivotal cause of racism is a sense of vengeance against Black people. This behavior has deep historical roots that were clear to Europeans and their descendants five hundred years ago. However, today this sentiment has morphed into a subconscious reflex that has been refined, reinforced and perpetuated by every social institution in the Western World (especially the American media in its manipulation of the minds of the White masses) over the past half of a millennium; to the point where the collective White opinion of Blacks is on “auto pilot” – with few people currently concerned about or aware of the true origin and meaning of this mass hypnosis.
To understand White racism, which I call vengeance, toward Black people we must step outside of our modern context into the broad sweep of history and study an ancient and medieval world that was largely dominated by Black Africans – the parents of the human family.
For at least three thousand years Black Pharaohs and generals raided, invaded, conquered, dominated, colonized, oppressed, civilized and enslaved various European populations.
The story of the Moors i.e. , Black Africans and Negroid Arabs of the Islamic faith, who conquered and ruled most of the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) between 711 A.D. and 1492 A.D., is the most recent, longstanding and notable of the recorded periods of African domination of White populations.
In the words of historian Edward Scobie, the Moors provided for “not only Portugal and Spain, but the rest of emerging Europe a powerful economic, scientific, artistic, [and] political impulse; an impulse which led to European domination of the world.” Nevertheless, during Black rule the indigenous Spanish launched several wars of liberation against the Moors that finally resulted in King Ferdinand’s and Queen Isabella’s ascension to the throne in 1492. (Some Black scholars contend that the Spanish bull fight and bull run are symbolic reenactments of the medieval Spanish / Moorish wars and the ultimate expulsion of the Black conquerors from the Iberian peninsula.)
The Spanish were so resentful of Moorish occupation, domination and influence that, after they regained power, they wiped out much of Moorish culture. “At the beginning of the Colombian Era, [ 1492]” wrote historian Jan Carew, “thousands of books that the Moors had collected over centuries – priceless masterpieces that their geographers, scientists, poets, historians and philosophers had written, and tomes their scholars had translated- were committed to bonfires by Priests of the Holy Inquisition.”
The Spanish and Portuguese also expelled over three million Moors (killing fifty thousand in one day in 1570), and sought to expunge their memory. The latter continues today as White historians write volumes about the Middle Ages with only scant reference to Europe’s indebtedness to its Moorish benefactors.
After their banishment from Spain and Portugal, the Moors spread over Europe incurring the wrath of many of their White host countries. For example, writing in old English in 1596, Queen Elizabeth called for the “diverse blackamoors to be sent forth from the land [England].” The Moors were also stereotyped and demeaned as black devils in medieval European literature. Furthermore, Black pirates, who had dominated the Mediterranean for centuries and sold millions of Whites into slavery in North Africa, were driven from power.
After the defeat of the Moors by the Spanish and Portuguese, these Europeans gradually began trading with West Africans – first in commodities and then in slaves and prisoners of war. This eventually devolved into the now notorious, centuries-long slave-trade involving the transport of Africans across the Atlantic to the New World and their enslavement in the Americas.
When the tables were turned and the Portuguese and Spanish began enslaving Africans, whom they called Moors, the longstanding European hatred and resentment toward their Black adversaries – dating back at least three thousand years and culminating with the European exploits of General Hannibal of Carthage and later the Moors – transformed into a form of racism that Carew states “was adopted by all of the European colonies who came in the wake of the Spanish, and would endure throughout the Columbus era,” and still persists today.
I theorize that the deep-seated, visceral racism that White people in the United States (including President Trump in his attacks against Omarosa and other African Americans) and elsewhere (e.g., Europe, Latin America, Australia, etc.) manifest toward Black people today is rooted in a subconscious drive toward vengeance against their former Black conquerors and slave-masters. This deeply internalized White antipathy has proven itself to be virtually impervious to change in the face of Black appeals and agitation. Therefore, I humbly suggest that we, African Americans, cease appealing to the collective White conscience for change and, instead, utilize our vast consumer power to withhold our financial patronage (boycott) in wise and strategic ways; just as our revered leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., did with the Montgomery Bus Boycott of the 1950’s that led to the end of segregation in public transportation and the ultimate success of the Civil Rights Movement.
Legrand H. Clegg II is the city attorney emeritus for Compton, California, president of the Western Region of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, and producer of the documentary “When Black Men Ruled the World.” He may be contacted at legrandclegg44@gmail.com or at his Long Beach, CA, law office at 562-624-2857 or at his new website at www.thesiriuspeople.com
It’s not enough to be in the King’s presence, you must understand your assignment in the King’s presence. Some of us are in such a rush to be in the presence of the King without fully processing the responsibility that we fall short and concede the assignment for a seat. As we see with Esther, Daniel and the three Hebrew boys, God sets His people in high places to bring His agenda with them. -Fred Willis, “The Weight of the Wait” 2017
Credit: Screenshot of Washington Post video on YouTube
I’ve spent the better part of the day trying to wrap my mind around the paradoxical gathering in the cabinet room of the white house on yesterday. President Donald Trump gathered with Black and Hispanic Pastors to discuss prison reform. What actually happened was nothing short of another notch in President Trump’s belt of untruth. As is customary with this administration, the attendees fell victim to Trump’s trademark bait and switch. In short, these Pastors got played-they walked right into a bear trap only paralleled in hilarity by a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Perhaps the meeting ran longer than the published 31 minute video and text transcript, but that seems to be the entirety of the meeting. Instead of broaching the topic of prison reform in depth, its need and how these Pastors would better serve the initiative, the men kowtowed to the President, lauding his “action” on the issue, economics and employment.
The black Pastors were in the white house to talk about prison reform but this contrast was too stark for me to ignore. When the white Pastors were in the white house. they prayed for…prayed over the President and crowded him but this meeting on yesterday evoked a different attitude. One that put each of those powerful preachers seated, under the influence of Donald J. Trump. Per usual, Pastor Darrell Scott found a way to dominate the news cycle with an ostentatiously vulgar love of untruth in favor of President Trump.
You must understand, this meeting was limited to the rolodex of Pastor Paula White. This explains both, the scope and intent of the meeting. Can you imagine if Bishop T.D. Jakes were in the room? He should have been in the room and I’m pretty sure I know why he couldn’t or didn’t
make the meeting. Last year at the Pastors and Leaders Conference in Dallas, Texas, Bishop Jakes took issue with Pastor White and Bishop Harry Jackson during the “Polemics of Politics and the Pulpit” panel. Joined by Joshua Dubois, Father Michael Pfleger and moderated by April Ryan, the exchanges simmered to a boiling point and all but severed previously held personal ties. The panel remained cordial afterward and even posed for pictures together, but something changed that day in Dallas.
President Trump traffics in misinformation and misdirection, and used the silence of the Pastors to his advantage. Not once was there a rebuttal or request for the fact (mis)represented during the conversation. The assertion that Trump and his administration are the cause for prisoner hires and increase in their quality of life is easily refutable. It is reported that the Pastors were told that the President wouldn’t take questions, yet none of them offered up a retort in the face of outright untruth. Pastoring is just that, beyond the exposing of malice, but the resolution of malice and these men did the members and communities they serve a severe disservice in the presence of President Trump on yesterday.
In the number were Trump team members Bishop Harry Jackson, Pastor Darrell Scott, Dr. Alveda King and Pastor Paula White. Earlier this summer, President Trump hosted Kim Kardashian-West for a meeting on the matter which resulted in the release of Alice Johnson. You could surmise that this meeting with clergy is the follow-up to the meeting with West. What is problematic about the meeting is the stench of inaction. When Kardashian-West went home, there was already something in the works pursuant to Ms. Johnson’s impending clemency. The news day has come to a close and all we have about yesterday’s meeting is…well, nothing! I’ll opine here and say that this yet another reason why people are dismissive of the spiritual and natural power the church claims to possess. How could a room full of Pastors not eek out a release, call for air conditioning in prisons, or a decrease in private for-profit prisons?
The severity of this level of inaction has grieved me to a point I have not been grieved before. In fact, the only occurrence that comes to mind is the night George Zimmerman was acquitted. I cried from a deep place in my soul I never want to re-visit again. If Pastors like these have their way, I may need more Kleenex. Pastor Jamal Bryant used his absence from the meeting to challenge those in attendance and seek out answers for himself and those us also perplexed by their silence at the table.
I like these Pastors. Many of them are dynamic in the pulpit and magnanimous in their communities. Why they were silent yesterday puzzles me. As stated earlier in the article, one glaring omission from the meeting was Bishop T. D. Jakes. Why he wasn’t at the meeting is unknown to me and not worthy of conjecture. What I will speak on is T.O.R.I. (Texas Offender Re-Entry Initiative) at The Potter’s House in Dallas. This program is one of the largest anti-recidivism programs I know of and successfully re-integrates its program graduates into society as successful contributors and rehabilitated persons.
I attended a T.O.R.I. graduation a few years ago at the church and Judge Greg Mathis was on hand to speak to the graduates. In the few minutes I was able to speak with graduates, Bishop Jakes and Judge Mathis, my mind was blown at the level on which this program operates. Also in the room were politicians, local business owners and government officials who all work together on the multi-tiered effort to ultimately eradicate recidivism. The graduation is held each year and this year, the speaker was political commentator Angela Rye. It’s worth noting that 2014 Valedictorian LaHeather Wilson spent this past Tuesday evening addressing graduates of the Dallas County DIVERT program. Graduates of this program are able to have their records expunged.
Another glaring omission from the table was the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. In effect, Dr. Barber has picked up where Dr. King left off at his untimely death. Dr. Barber’s reiteration of the poor people’s campaign is impacting Americans much like the original iteration. No doubt, prison reform is an extension of civil and human rights, so to have this generation’s drum major absent from the meeting is a severe character flaw. Dr. Freddy Haynes of the Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas would have also been a great addition to the conversation, had there been one. Just this week, Dr. Haynes address Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in an open letter from his pulpit.
Bishop Darrell Hines was a part of the meeting, but why not Bishop Charles E. Blake? Bishop Blake is currently the Presiding Prelate and Chief Apostle of the Church of God In Christ, International and has been a staunch advocate for ending the incessant subjugation of underrepresented people and offering a hand of fellowship and aid. Through their COGIC Urban Initiatives Department, the RITES Program works to make re-entry possible through entrepreneurship. Certainly Bishop Blake or Bishop Bass (President, CUI) would have been more suitable for the meeting.
Father Michael Pfleger would have also been better suited for the meeting, given his 50 years of work in the greater Chicagoland area and working directly with and for the people of his parish. Undoubtedly, he knows the strain violence, crime and even the threat of recidivism put on his community. Pastor, Rudolph McKissic, Dr. E. Dewey Smith, Bishop Joseph Walker or Bishop Paul Morton would have also been worthy additions to the conversation. I can almost assure you that the roundtable was filled with these men not because of their voices, but their complicit silence! These are only a few suggestions and don’t cover all the possible seats at this proverbial ‘table’. Surely there are countless others who are worthy of note and it is my hope that in the wake of this fallout, we become better acclimated to the good work they do in regard to activism and prison reform.
‘Optics’…Pastor John Gray Addresses His Presence At the Table
The Conclusion of the Matter
My issue with this meeting is simple, it yielded no results, or even a plan for the future. Will there be a future meeting? Ask the HBCU heads who now feel jilted after their meeting with the President. While many of the Pastors are thankful for the invitation to the table, this meeting is nothing like Daniel in Babylon working under Nebuchadnezzar. In that instance, the nation was under his wicked rule and God used Daniel’s gift to not only make room for him, but for his friends as they were made heads over provinces in the Kingdom. Like Daniel and his friends, it would have been advantageous for at least one to decline the “meal” of furthering the Trump agenda in the form of the dubious photo opp. President Trump has done some good for the country, but majority of what he does is to the detriment of the greater good of all citizens.
For trusted Pastors to use their opportunity to compliment a man that sows discord, deceive his base and discredit this democracy is stomach churning. These men didn’t show grace, they showed cowardice! I’m reminded of Mordecai’s words to Esther when he reported Haman’s plot:
Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:13-14
What happens when you have the opportunity to speak truth to power and affect change and instead choose to praise oppression? Haman laid it out for his cousin: “they’re will kill you, too!” Such is the case, for these Pastors as they return home to their congregations and their incarcerated family members who are no better today than they were yesterday! Pastor Edwrin Sutton of Smith Metropolitan AME Zion Church in Poughkeepsi, New York eloquently voiced the frustration most of us feel, today (read Pastor Sutton’s statement in full, here):
l also firmly believe that when you are not invited to the TABLE it’s because you are on the MENU. However, how humiliating it is when you are at the TABLE but still ON THE MENU! If you are going to sit at the table, AT LEAST place your order! Moses met with the Pharaoh, but he placed his order! He said LET GOD’S PEOPLE GO! When did one preacher at least one time PLACE THEIR ORDER while they were at the table?!? Furthermore, when I read the official minutes of the meeting l was deeply disturbed! If you are going to be a TRUE PROPHETIC WITNESS, there must be at least two components; You must HEAR FROM GOD and you must SPEAK FOR GOD! No one spoke for God FULLY!!!Whenever we become “starstruck” with those who are influenced by the powers of darkness, we stop being PROPHETS and start being PUPPETS, controlled by our mesmerization of PEOPLE, PLATFORMS and POWER! To those who might have went to the meeting out of pure motives, my question for you is where was the wisdom? Surely, if you didn’t go for a Photo Op, wisdom would tell you that the President invited you for a Photo Op! If you don’t support the President, surely wisdom would tell you He was going to have his team market it as such!!!! If you were conflicted about going, surely wisdom would have told you to seek council from credible black Pastors who fight for the liberation of minorities. You’ve been TRUMPed!
If it broke the internet, we weren’t keeping watch! The news that Bill Cosby was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault made all the rounds and was met with different waves of elation, shock and anger. For people like me, I had to quickly come to grips with what the verdict means for “America’s Dad“. For many others, they asked why Bill Cosby and not the countless other offenders in the #MeToo movement.
This meme is circulating today on social media. To date, only Bill Cosby has been convicted, let’s make sure he’s not the only one!
Bill Cosby is guilty, as hard as it is for me to say that, it’s true! What is also true is that he should not be the only celebrity to face jail time for his transgressions! Harvey Weinstein‘s name is almost always brought up in the conversation, and rightfully so. His company fell swiftly from grace when he was named as one of the most vile perverts in Hollywood. Countless others have been named and rightfully shamed in the wake of not just accusations, but confessions. Women are breaking their silence and as Oprah Winfrey punctuated during her acceptance speech of this year’s Cecil B. Demille award at the Golden Globe Awards: “Time’s Up”!
So while our formerly beloved comedian and actor now faces his demons, we need to make sure that he is only the first! We need to make sure that the justice system pursues the much more recent transgressions of Hollywood elite and legendary and bring them to the same end as Bill Cosby. I grew up in the hood and one thing I never truly understood was the mantra: “snitches get stitches”. Sure, nobody appreciates the threat of bodily harm but what was more confusing was how far that went. A black man convicted of selling drugs would never flip on his much richer supplier. He certainly wouldn’t “snitch” on a white guy across town brought up on the same charges. For this reason, many in the criminal justice system have seen disproportionate sentences and time served. But, time’s up on that as well!
Who can forget now President Donald Trump’s off the record comments to Billy Bush about his rampant sexual assaults on women, most infamously gloating about being able to “grab them by the *****“. Not to be outdone by a hot mic on a tour bus, Trump remains embroiled in litigation with his former paramour, one Stormy Daniels. As with Daniels, the issue in some cases isn’t consent, but the aftermath of the interaction. For instance, actresses complied with Harvey Weinstein’s vile advances on the premise of future acclaim which he almost always delivered. Want that Oscar…? It was found somewhere between a sordid affair with Harvey Weinstein. Props to the actresses that rebuffed Weinstein like Lupita Nyong’o and Salma Hayek. Last week, the curtain finally fell as another allegation was levied against R-Kelly, this time from Dallas, Texas. Living up to his moniker of “Pied Piper of R&B”, he has found a way to keep the hits coming on pace to drown out earlier accusations, but it seems that his time too has run out!
If a jury can convict Bill Cosby, they can convict everyone else…and we need to make it our business that they do- plain and simple! If you’re torn over the Cosby verdict, that’s fine. Do yourself a favor and look at the trial and evidence presented, then ask yourself if he was given a fair trial. Now, look at these other offenders and ask yourself if you think there’s a chance they are indicted? You’re probably saying to yourself, “probably not”, but why?
I’m not naive. I’m not out of touch with reality, I just want us to get in touch with it! Only sharing memes won’t get the job done! Sharing articles full of conjecture won’t get the job done, either! What can we do? Put pressure on the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement to get justice, you know the kind in the Bill Cosby case!
Can we do that?!? It remains to be seen, but Bill Cosby shouldn’t shoulder the weight of this movement alone! Time is not only up, it’s time for the women who have been victimized to see their offenders brought to justice!
Hip-hop icon and entrepreneur Jay-Z addressed different topics, including his opinion on President Trump, in the latest episode of David Letterman’s Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. What surprised the viewers is when he said that Trump’s presidency is “actually a good thing.”
“I think that what he’s forcing people to do is have conversations and [forcing] people to band together and work together, you can’t really address something that’s not revealed,” Jay-Z explained. “He’s bringing out an ugly side of America that we wanted to believe was gone, and it’s still here. We still gotta deal with it.
“We have to have tough conversations – talk about the N-word, talk about why white men are so privileged in this country.”
Jay-Z and Letterman went on with tackling the idea of white privilege and how it affects the American society in the present times. Many people claim that what Jay-Z is saying is hypocritical since he is worth over $3 billion.
A known critic of Trump, Jay-Z previously called the current president a “superbug” and a “joke.” In an interview with BBC Radio 1, he talked about the negative effects of Trump’s presidency saying, “We are all linked some kind of way. So if you oppress a certain people, everyone is in danger, karmically and in real life.”
Jay-Z also once caught Trump’s attention when he powerfully expressed his reaction to Trump’s comments about “sh*thole” countries in his appearance in CNN‘s Van Jones Show. Trump brought to Twitter his response to Jay-Z.
That’s why Jay-Z’s recent statement referring to the presidency as “a great thing” surprised many. Many people think that Jay-Z’s claim that Trump’s style of forcing the people to confront its racial undertones should not be defined as anything positive for the whole country.
Letterman feels the same way. He commented that “we don’t need more evidence” to know if Trump is a racist and says, “You’re having a debate over whether a guy is a racist, chances are that guy’s a racist.”
