Racism in the 2020 Presidential Election and its Debates
Transcript : E. = Ellie Masters M. = Mia Massimo
E. Hi, welcome back to another episode of Yo Is This Racist? Today we will talk about potentially racist comments in the 2020 Presidential Election and its debates.
M.Trump declared this statement at a debate, “I’m the least racist person in the room” so here we are to find out if that is really true.
E. First, Trump made the comment “Proud boys: Stand back and stand by” during the first 2020 presidential debate in Cleveland. This was a response to the moderator asking Trump to denounce white supremacists.
M. So who are the Proud Boys in this statement?
E. The Proud Boys are a Neo-fascist and male-only organization that is involved in political violence. They are associated with white supremacy and anti-semitism. At first glance this statement seems extremely racist but we have to look further into the Proud Boys.
M. Well what do the Proud Boys say about this?
E. Well they have publicly denied supporting any form of white supremacy or racism. This is interesting because most anti-Trump supporters would jump to the fact that this statement is racist. In fact the leader of the Proud Boys is actually an African Cuban man which adds to this debate.
M. Ok the Proud Boys appear to be a racist organization but how can that be when they are led by an African man? You know maybe they are just sexist or maybe they are trying to cover up their true intentions?
E. Even if we don’t know the intentions of the Proud Boys, we can still look at what Trump meant when he said it. It appears Trump doesn’t know much about the Proud Boys so I’m not really sure why he would say such a statement. It seems this is one of Trump’s random statements that he doesn’t think about before he says.
M. Yeah there’s definitely a lot of those out there. Trump did denounce white supremacists and the Proud Boys a few days later so it would appear this statement was retracted.
E. I don’t think we can call this particular statement inherently racist maybe just a bad choice of words on a topic that Trump did not know enough about.
M. Yes I agree and I think this definitely could have gone better at the debate in the first place. At any mention of white supremacist groups, Trump should make sure to shut that down immediately so there isn’t any room for discrepancies.
E. Ok so we are going to rule that this statement was not purposefully racist but it definitely did not come across well from Trump.
M. I agree he could have been more clear on his intentions regarding this statement.
E. Moving on to our next quote, in response to Black Lives Matter protests Trump tweeted the statement “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
M. I remember the debate on Trump calling Black Lives protestors thugs and neo-nazi supporters as very fine gentlemen.
E. Indeed that was a very heated discussion that actually turned out to be taken out of context. The entire quote about the neo-nazis was as follows: “There were very fine people on both sides, & I’m not talking about the Neo-nazis and white supremacists because they should be condemned totally”. When reading the entire quote it becomes apparent that Trump was not being racist in this particular statement.
M. Oh wow that really does change the meaning of the quote. Anyway back to the original quote, was it racist of Trump to threaten protestors with military violence?
E. Well first we should look at the background of the “When the looting starts the shooting starts” quote because those are not Trump’s original words. They were in fact said by Miami’s Chief of Police, Walter Headley, in 1967. The statement was originally in response to the riots and crimes in black neighborhoods in Miami during the Civil Rights Movement. This signifies a history of racist police and brutality against black neighborhoods and people. Trump using this statement brings up issues of civil rights and the tense relationship between white people and black people.
M. I see. I wouldn’t say that that was an appropriate phrase to reuse, but we can move onto some more clear cut examples of racist remarks made by Trump.
M. Keeping with the flow of some of the statements Trump has made- particularly in his debates I think it’s imperative to focus on some of Trump’s statements regarding immigration. Let’s listen to the following statement. “Catch and Release is a disaster. A murderer would come in, a rapist would come in, a very bad person would come in, we would take their name-we have to release them into our country.” (Trump)
E. What’s the context behind this? Who is he referring to?
M. So Trump is referring to the process known as Catch and Release- where immigrants ― mostly children and asylum seekers are released into the U.S. pending their immigration hearings. And I may add that seeking asylum is completely legal. And as you heard he refers to these individuals as being murderers, rapists, and very bad people. Now this statement is entirely xenophobic. Not only is Trump denouncing these immigrants and giving them a single story- a very problematic agenda that we have discussed in great depth in this class in the Adichie discussions, but he’s also prompting fear in Americans by saying these racist things. Going back to our class discussions on single stories, when you skip to the “secondly” in the story, you completely change it. Many of these immigrants are fleeing horrible situations and desire to seek asylum here- legally, but trump’s depiction of them promotes an entirely false and unnecessary hatred.
E. I definitely see the relation to single stories. Would you say there’s enough evidence here to say that this statement was racist?
M. Yes, I would say that it was a racist comment. He’s making predisposed accusations about non-white immigrants.
E. I agree the statement was definitely intended to promote some negative feelings towards immigrants. Let’s look at another example.
So for my second example I wanted to talk about all the times Trump has referred to Covid as the China or Chinese virus.
E. Yeah that is certainly a heated topic right now. What’s your take?
M. So UC Berkley actually conducted a research study on this exact topic and found that Asian Americans have actually experienced heightened discrimination since Trump began coining the phrase the Chinese virus. And personally I struggle to see how Trump’s intentions in calling Covid the Chinese virus wasn’t intended to be racist.
E. Yeah I can totally see why this has negatively impacted Asian Americans. I know you mentioned xenophobism earlier- do you think that portraying Covid as the Chinese virus creates xenophobia?
M. Absolutely unfortunately. These remarks are incredibly racist as well. They target the Asian American population and have quite literally threatened their well being. To reference the UC Berkeley study again, they noted that Asian Americans are experiencing far more cases of racism because Trump has sparked this fear in people that Asian Americans are responsible for a virus. No marginalized group should be named after a virus that’s completely illogical.
E. I agree. Phrasing the Covid-19 virus as the Chinese virus only puts an already stigmatized group at greater risk.
M. Definitely. I think we can also relate this to the concept of the “One” and “Other” we’ve discussed in class. In this particular case, I believe Trump was attempting to establish Asian Americans as the other and all other races as the one so that he takes the responsibility for the spread of the virus off of him.
E. Yeah I see that perspective. Establishing a power dynamic like the “One” and the “Other” would create a situation where it’s easier to pick a scapegoat.
M. For sure. Well I think we’ve covered a lot of examples today and gotten to really understand what makes a comment inherently racist.
E. I agree and I’m glad we could use this assignment to deepen our understanding of some of the previous course concepts.
M. Me too. Well that concludes all of our examples. Thank you for listening!