This week's Republican National Convention was one of the most heart-breaking things to watch, for anyone, specifically someone like myself who has now spent several years working in student affairs. Speech after speech, examples of exclusive behaviors and anti-anything but "the white man," kept rearing its ugly head.
Before I get into all the different examples of why the Republican National Convention is horribly un-inclusive, I'm going to check my privilege at the door and I'm going to ask that everyone else does the same. Being a somewhat college educated white male who was raised in a middle class, two parent household, I recognize that my privilege is astronomically higher than most people in America, and its important that before everyone starts getting mad about the examples that I'm about to give, that you realize how privileged you are. Still not sure about privilege? Here's a link to a little quiz to help you out, but be honest!
As stated in my previous articles, I was raised in a Jewish-Christian Household, and so I'm going to start with one of the more offensive things from the Republican National Convention, that I noticed. Laura Ingraham, a political radio talk show host, after criticizing men in skinny jeans and man buns, made a salute to people throughout the crowd that looked very similar to one made by the Nazi's during Hitler's reign. Sound outrageous? Take a look.
While some could argue that she was simply just waiving at people, there are several reasons why I call bullshit.
1. Donald Trump = Hitler
Throughout this election season, on many occasions, different groups and politicians have made connections between statements that Donald Trump has made and those of Hitler. I understand that you want to support the "Hitler of 2016," but isn't the Nazi salute a bit much.
2. Every Inclusive Bone In My Body Aches
Whether the intention was to sympathize with Nazis or not, Laura Ingraham should of been aware of the way that gesture appears to the outside world. It's important to realize that our country is indeed a "salad bowl" with lots of different cultures coming together and working to create something amazing, and how your obscene gestures can affect them.
Laura Ingraham's Nazi salute was not the only part of the Republican National Convention that made me cringe. Ben Carson likened presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to Lucifer himself by using information he found from a paper she wrote over 40 years ago. While this isn't the most blatant attack on people other than Hillary Clinton, calling names and attacking someone, is definitely not the way to go.
Above Average, a comedy website, came out with an article talking about the African-American woman who kept getting panned to during the Republican National Convention. While this was a comedic satirical article it did bring up the good point that the Republican National Convention had very low amount of women in attendance, specifically minority women. Which just shows how uncomfortable so many Americans are with how rude and negative Donald Trump and the Republican Party are becoming.
Talking about the Republican Party's lack of inclusivity, now seems a perfect time to address this particular photo which is floating around social media.
Not only do these photos show the huge range of diversity between the two parties, taking a bigger look into the interns of each party. Republican Congressional Interns are unpaid internships which are then geared towards upper-class, mainly white students (remember when we talked about privilege, it's coming back). This can also show how uncomfortable and threatened many minorities feel by the political leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, which now gives me the perfect opportunity to talk about our confirmed Republican Candidate.
During Donald Trump's speech, of course using scare tactics as always, he also states, "As your president I will do everything in my power to protect LGBTQ citizens!" After showing absolutely no support for the LGBTQ community, and oftentimes being for anti-gay rights, he then makes this statement. Also, it took Trump way too long to say the five letter acronym, as if he had never seen it before. There was also a hint of condescension and sarcasm in his voice when he said it.
These are just a few occurrences of how awful the Republican National Convention was when it came to Diversity and Inclusivity. If I were to list all of them, well, I'd need a convention of my own. Let's just pray the Democratic Convention is better.
