Every presidential campaign in America is founded on some sort of hope. Hope for a better America, hope for a change. Donald Trump is no different. His campaign is founded upon the hope to “Make America Great Again.” However, what Trump is advertising is not truly what he is advocating for. It doesn't take long to see that Trump is offering hope solely to white people. His campaign is founded upon hope for a more divided America, hope to re-establish the racial hierarchy where white people will always be on top, and anything different is disdained. We see it happening in Trump rallies where the majority of the people attending are white.
What is constantly being heard on the news is that minorities -- who are either silently protesting, or attending just to understand Trump’s ideas -- are being assaulted, forcefully evicted, and injured. Trump wants to ban all Muslims. Trump wants to stop Mexicans from immigrating into America. Trumps ambitions go beyond building a wall around America (which will never happen) he seeks to build a wall around white people and place them on a pedestal where they can reign supreme. He seeks to build a racial wall that undermines every other race besides his own. And for the record, this wall won’t cost billions of dollars like the one he is publicly proposing, this wall only requires his rhetoric and a strong backing by white people (which he currently has).
Many Americans are saying we are moving backwards, as a country. However, the fact of the matter is this country has never changed. America has stayed the same since the time of slavery in 1619. Of course we’ve had slavery abolished, segregation declared illegal. Nevertheless, the prejudice against black people and minorities has never faded. Racism is strong in present day America. Police brutality against African Americans, alone, justifies this claim. We have Americans deceiving themselves into believing that racism is non-existent, that all races are accepted, but this self-deception does not erase the problem of racism it only helps the problem grow.
What we have is hidden racism, not as institutionalized and publicly warranted as segregation, but carrying the same amount of weight and hatred. What seemed like a country moving out of this culture of racial discrimination is a country that has purposely overlooked the urgent problem of racism. Donald Trump is using this mistake by America to promote his goal for a “whiter America.” There is a reason why, in the beginning of his presidential bid, he wasn’t receiving much support and, frankly, people didn't expect him to get far in the race. There were those who held his beliefs for a divided America, but were just too afraid to expose themselves as racists. What is currently happening in America is that those who were secretly racist are exposing themselves.
Trump has laid a platform for racist whites to feel comfortable discriminating against minorities and they are able to use his false promise for a greater America to justify their beliefs. Trump wants to bring back the values held by America during the times of slavery and segregation, and foster institutionalized racism in America. So what is there to hope for in a guy like Trump when the color of your skin is not white?
