Former president Donald Trump’s comments saying there were “very fine people, on both sides” after the 2017 Charlottesville protest didn’t surprise me at all. Nor was I shocked when he doubled down on that comment and placed blame on the “Alt-Left” two years later. He was giving the green light to the ideology poised to elect him into office in the first place.
My only fear still resonates within the world five years later – where racist rhetoric has been engrained in everyday politics. See, prejudice becomes a more significant threat when you don’t call it out by its name. Not that I felt Trump would rise to the occasion at that time. This is the same man who told Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during a Presidential debate. It’s the danger when leaders who embody the most extreme positions of society acquire a massive amount of power.
One press conference in 2017 made white supremacists who believe in the “great replacement theory” feel like they were on par with those fighting for equal rights. The men who assembled at Charlottesville to protest a confederate statue being removed have manifested into Black neighborhoods like experiencing domestic terrorism, slavery teachings diluted in schools, and “patriots” storming a Capitol building because the guy they like lost. It’s all because a president wanted to be the mouthpiece of unfounded biases.
Even though Trump is out of office, the damage is still done. We can disagree on food, music, and movie choices. However, the ramifications of unchecked racism are something that can’t be debated. When the wrong type of leaders are elected, they will knowingly blur the lines between good, bad, truth, and lie. I didn’t see fine people driving into a crowd of protestors, nor do I see that today when the FBI gets flooded with threats.
Words mean things, and Trump knew so during that press conference. The blind entitlement to feeling oppressed is why we are dealing with the fallout in 2022.