Chowdhury, A. & Sundaram, J. K. (2020, June 23). Racism, Shitholes and Re-election.

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Service. Retrieved from http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/06/racism-shitholes-re-election/

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Racism, Shitholes and Re-election

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 23 2020 (IPS) - Over the course of his
presidency, US President Donald Trump’s racism <https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-
columnists/the-rhetoric-and-reality-of-donald-trumps-racism> has become more evident with
more leaks of his private remarks, which he has been generally quick to deny,
qualify and explain away.

Despite his thinly disguised contempt for women, ‘non-white’ ethnic minorities, and
most foreigners, unsurprisingly, he is respectful of power and privilege, especially
when they may help him. Trump’s version of ‘kiss up, kick down’.

“Least racist person in the world”

Unsurprisingly, Trump has claimed
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NfwoLfyBY8> he is the
least racist person in the world. Unsurprisingly too, his
record suggests otherwise. Trump has frequently
created controversies <https://www.vox.com/2016/7
/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history> with racially
charged comments and actions, and was even sued for
racial discrimination by the US Justice Department in
the 1970s.
Anis Chowdhury

Trump won the 2016 presidential election with an

ethno-populist agenda featuring racist elements
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXMvY8I42Kc>. He has infamously promised a wall on
the US-Mexico border to stop Mexicans, whom he deemed “criminals
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/570384640281870337>” and “rapists
<https://www.businessinsider.com.au/donald-trump-presidential-campaign-iowa-caucus-polls-2016-1>”,
and imposed bans on Muslims <https://www.axios.com/trump-muslim-travel-ban-immigration-
6ce8554f-05bd-467b-b3c2-ea4876f7773a.html> entering the US.

Since entering the Oval Office, Trump continued to insist

<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/01/17/six-times-president-trump-said-he-is-the-
least-racist-person/> that he is the world’s least racist person, but frequently loses self-
restraint, e.g., repeatedly stereotyping <https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/2/16/14642184
/trump-congressional-black-caucus-racism> non-white reporters and pandering
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/08/10/white-supremacists-neo-nazis-charlottesville-unite-
right-rally-trump-column/935708002/> to white supremacists, even cracking jokes
<https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/trump-cracks-pocahontas-joke-while-hosting-native-
americans/articleshow/61842558.cms> in bad taste. Trump has even tweeted
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1150381396994723841> that several non-white
Members of Congress should go back to the “totally broken and crime infested
places” they came from.

Adding insult to injury

Two years ago, Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador and some other African
countries as ‘shitholes’, sparking unprecedented international outrage
<https://time.com/5100328/shithole-countries-trump-reactions/>. The UN human rights
spokesperson described the comments <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-
42656433> as “shocking and shameful”, and simply “racist”, not that Trump cared.

To be sure, underdevelopment is not the original

condition of Africa before European colonialism, but
rather, the historical outcome of various forces, most
importantly Western imperialism from about half a
millennium ago.

From around 1445 to 1870, Africa was the major

source of slaves, especially for the New World, both in
North and South America. Portugal, Spain, the
Netherlands, Britain, France and others in the New Jomo Kwame Sundaram
World and Europe all benefited, albeit differently over
time.

The processes and their effects were undoubtedly uneven, creating wealth for
exploiters, often from abroad, while many of the exploited were enslaved,
dispossessed and otherwise immiserised.

Neo-colonialism
Thus, contrary to the claims of Niall Ferguson, the most prominent contemporary
apologist <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jun/28/comment.britishidentity> of
British imperialism, that colonialism laid the foundations for post-colonial progress
<https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Empire.html?id=QhEiAQAAIAAJ>, Africa was ruined,
irreversibly maiming its development prospects.

A half-century or so after gaining independence between 1957 and 1975, or 1994, if

apartheid South Africa is also included, ‘neo-colonial’ policy conditionalities and
advice from donors and the Bretton Woods institutions have privileged foreign
investment and export markets.

One major casualty of such policy advice was public investment. African countries
were told not to invest in food agriculture and to dismantle supportive
arrangements. Thus, with trade liberalization, food security suffered as Africa
deindustrialized.

The sagas of Trump’s other shithole countries are not very dissimilar. Former US
President Bill Clinton, who headed the United Nations’ effort to rebuild Haiti after
the devastating earthquake of 2010, expressed regret <https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/01
/11/subsidizing-starvation/> for having forced Haiti to open its economy to food imports,
effectively destroying domestic rice production, while benefiting American farmers.

‘Shitholes’ in Trump’s world view

Trump’s candid ‘shitholes’ comments presumably reflect his world view, in this
case, of poor countries unlikely to provide much benefit and advantage to him or his
view of American interests.

Even his ambiguous and ambivalent remarks about police and ‘vigilante’ brutality
and killings of African-American and other ‘coloured’ minorities, or his dismissive
treatment of ‘minority’ and inquisitive journalists <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world
/americas/us-politics/trump-black-female-reporter-yamiche-alcindor-press-conference-today-george-
floyd-a9551546.html> should surprise no one.

Trump’s approval hit an all time high <https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trumps-

economic-approval-rating-jumps-all-time-high-record-2020-1-1028847885> early in the year after
securing the US-China trade deal. But having badly managed the Covid-19
pandemic, his poll ratings have declined precipitously since.

Despite lavishly praising China’s <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx77Aobghg8>

constructive cooperative attitude and handling of the virus outbreak in January,
within months, he was encouraging to politically driven allegations of a Chinese
conspiracy behind the outbreak <http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/05/passing-buck-becomes-
reckless-conspiracy-blame-game/>. To add insult to injury, some African countries (e.g.,
Ghana, Senegal <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/21/africa-coronavirus-
successes-innovation-europe-us> and Ethiopia <https://www.ft.com/content/7c6327ca-a00b-11ea-
b65d-489c67b0d85d>) seem to have managed the pandemic better than he has.

Using anti-racist protests for re-election

Meanwhile, worldwide anti-racist demonstrations have revived earlier transnational
protests against statues of persons identified with imperialism, slavery and the US
Confederacy. The latest round of outrage following Floyd’s videoed murder by
policemen is already being used by the Trump camp.

White supremacist and other extremist groups have joined <https://www.inquirer.com

/news/white-supremacist-extremists-reopen-rallies-black-lives-matter-protests-20200613.html> some
planned peaceful protests, initiating violence and inciting others to loot. The
Lancaster, Pennsylvania police chief has confirmed <https://www.ellwoodcityledger.com
/news/20200602/george-floyd-protests-in-pa-being-hijacked-by-white-supremacists-state-official-
says/3>, with “definite evidence”, suspicions <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-
floyd-protests-white-supremacists-antifa.html> that non-violent anti-racism protests have
been infiltrated by such agent provocateurs.

US political observers note how the ‘long, hot summer’ of 1968, including the riots
at the Democratic Party convention in Chicago hosted by then Mayor Richard
Daley, helped Richard Nixon win the 1968 election. Invoking more racial themes
<https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/trump-builds-on-darker-racial-themes-for-a-campaign-
reset-20200622-p55518.html>, Trump is already recasting himself as the ‘law and order’
President.

The emperor has no clothes

More recently, the Trump administration has sought to suppress his former National
Security Adviser John Bolton’s embarrassing new book, The Room Where It
Happened, providing considerable evidence of Trump’s ignorance, incompetence,
impulsiveness and pursuit of self-interest; even Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
reportedly observed “He is full of shit”.

Bolton reports that POTUS asked China to help his re-election prospects
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-bolton-trump-asked-china-xi-help-winning-reelection-2020/> by
buying more US agricultural exports, which they did. The book’s pre-publication
release, widespread dissemination and publicity may nudge Trump to enhance his
re-election chances by depicting himself more credibly as a China hawk by
becoming even more belligerent in his rhetoric and policy actions.

Trump is likely to paint presidential challenger Joe Biden as too weak and
accommodative of China. Democrats may then try to outdo him, or at least not be
left too far behind in terms of anti-China rhetoric, by promising to further militarize
President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s ‘pivot to Asia’ to ‘contain’ China.

Bolton may help Trump, again

But Trump may also turn Bolton on his head, depicting him as a ‘trigger-happy’,
belligerent bully who wanted POTUS to be more aggressive, tying up the US in
‘wars without end’ on many fronts on flimsy pretexts. Most people who know Bolton
would testify to this effect, ironically allowing Trump to present himself as a peaceful
president carrying a big stick, but refusing to go to war unnecessarily.

The alternative is worse. Just over four months from the early November polls, and
anxious about his re-election chances, an increasingly desperate Trump is likely to
become more reckless to secure a second mandate.

Trump may even provoke what he intends as a ‘limited’ conflict with China
<http://ipsnews.net/2020/06/year-living-dangerously>, probably in the South China Sea.
Regardless of the original motive, once begun, such conflicts can easily spin out of
control, threatening the world and world peace.

George W Bush used fictional ‘weapons of mass destruction’ to start a war with
Iraq, famously supported by Tony Blair, at tremendous human and economic cost.
Margaret Thatcher also secured re-election by going to war over the Falkland
Islands or Malvinas. Trump will be in good company if he resorts to this option.

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