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Inquiring Minds Ask: Is Donald Trump Racist?

Ben Yakas

Published Apr 28, 2011

Modified Apr 29, 2011

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Ben Yakas

Published Apr 28, 2011

Modified Apr 29, 2011

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Yesterday, after weeks of aggravating grandstanding from the anti-Geico commercial candidate Donald Trump, President Obama finally agreed to feed the trolls regarding the non-issue around his birth certificate. With that discussion thankfully put to rest, we can now move the national conversation forward: is Trump racist?

The co-hosts on The View certainly think so; they were particularly aggrieved over Trump's recent remarks suggesting President Obama wasn't qualified to attend Columbia and Harvard universities. Joy Behar called it "very racist," and noted that Obama "wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth [like Trump]. He can't fathom that a black man could be that smart. That's what's behind this." Whoopi Goldberg added that birtherism is just racism tied up in a pretty bow: "I'm getting tired of trying to find reasons not to think of stuff as being racist. Being black, when you say, 'You know, this is racist,' 9,000 people say, 'Oh, no, you're just playing the race card.' Well, you know what? I'm playing the damn card now."

And it's not just daytime talkshow hosts who think so: respected CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer agreed with them! "That's just code for saying he got into law school because he's black. This is an ugly strain of racism that's running through this whole thing," the host of "Face the Nation" said yesterday.

The Associated Press reported that many people felt both sad and disgusted by Trump's line of questioning on Obama, and that it reflected a deeper mistrust in the country: "The stress of feeling constantly called into question, constantly under surveillance, has emotional and physical consequences for us. It also puts us in the position of not being able to be constituents, with respect to our politicians, because we feel we have to constantly protect the president...You see people attacking him, and he's the president, what happens to those of us who are not the president?" said Imani Perry, a professor at Princeton University's Center for African American Studies.

Trump gave his response to totally classy news organization TMZ, saying he never suggested anything racist at all. He also chided Schieffer for criticizing him: "That is a terrible statement for a newscaster to make. I am the last person that such a thing should be said about." Let us not forget, earlier this month Trump noted that he has "always had a great relationship with the blacks." So he does have that.

Pat Buchanan came to his defense after the remarks as well, with his particular brand of tone-deafness: "I don't find any malice in what he said in that statement about the black folks. I'm a Catholic, and if he said 'I have a great relationship with the Catholics,' I don't think I'd take great offense." Washed out actor Joey Lawrence also gave him his very important endorsement.

Though Conservative radio pudgemaster Rush Limbaugh didn't comment on the racist debate, he did take a major swipe at Trump for not being conservative (enough), and gave some advice to fellow Republicans: "And the fastest way to get rid of Donald Trump is for some Republican to stand up with some gonads and act like a conservative and not be afraid," he said on his show.

Otherwise, Trump was busy getting his campaign off the ground in New Hampshire, kissing babies and such. Andrea Peyser was on hand, but don't expect a tough cookie like her to be won over so easily: "He reached out his hand. When he saw that it didn't fall off after the first couple of shakes, he shook some more. But he wasn't fooling me. I knew if I wasn't perched at his hip, he'd grab for the sanitizer. At least he managed not to wipe his hand on his custom-tailored suit."

And he made sure to take some time out from his busy schedule for his latest vlog, to commend himself on a job-well-done annoying Obama into acknowledging that some people really are stupid enough to listen to what Trump says. Watch him give himself an oral handjob below— after all, "it really makes [him] feel good":

Tagged

bob Schieffer

donald trump

election 2012

racism

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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