Don't ignore Trump's racism

By Bob Gaydos

The racist-in-chief hit a new low, at least for me, last week when he posted a video clip on his social media site portraying President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

I say "at least for me" because, even though using this imagery has long been considered to be crude, racist behavior for any average citizen and until now has been beyond belief that any American president would wade this deep into the sewer of the history of racism, no one is talking about it. Even though it was only last week.

How low he has taken us.

To be fair, in the crisis-a-day atmosphere of the Trump era, it can be difficult to maintain outrage. And the daily release of new names in the Epstein files with the continuing coverup by the White House is legitimate news and worthy of its own outrage.

And, The New York Times, rediscovering its role under the First Amendment, did give the racist post the appropriate position as lead story on page one the morning after.

Still, the initial administration attempts to disavow and the even worse efforts to pass it off as a joke only served to make Trump's racism more difficult to ignore. From his long ago attacks on the Central Park Five to his history of demeaning comments about women of color and insulting remarks about non-white nations and American cities with large black populations, Donald Trump has displayed his racism, even eagerly it seems, at every opportunity. Sometimes, perhaps, just for the sake of it.

I am just angry and disgusted that he gets to do it while representing the United States of America to the rest of the world, demeaning the position and embarrassing the nation, and that so many Americans think it's OK because (1) they agree with him, or (2) they think, well, he's always been that way.

I'm sorry. It's not OK. I just hope that, in the future, history lessons will include full, honest detail of this dark chapter in American history and that teachers will be allowed to teach it.

But if we ignore it now, I fear that's exactly what will happen. So, please, don't pass it off. Don't let Trump's racism get lost in the chaos. He eventually admitted he posted the slur of the Obamas. Fine. Then fight fire with fire. Call a racist a racist, habit or not, president or not. Let him know that it's not in any way OK.