Donald Trump has been President of the United States for almost seven months now, and during that short time, people of color have watched with horror as a once tolerant and progressive nation has spiraled into a vicious and uncompromising White Power dictatorship.
US Marines execute Latinos on the streets for whistling at White women. Lessons in White schools include “How to identify a Jew” and “Did six million really die?” And White cops receive an $88 bonus for every Black teen they gun down – with the bonus rising to $1,488 if the teen was unarmed.
Trump’s America is more than just state-sponsored genocide, however. The average White American is encouraged to contribute toward the culture of racism too, often through passive aggressive means.
Take a look at what recently appeared on the official Walmart website, for example.
Walmart has removed an item from its website and issued an apology on Monday after the product description was found to contain the N-word.
The merchandise, a weaving net used for hair extensions retailed under the brand Jagazi Naturals, was being sold by a third party on Walmart.com for $7.28.
The title of the item read, in part: ‘Durable Stretchy Weaving Net Weaving Cap Wig Cap Size M (N*****-brown).’
The offensive term was also repeated in the description section beneath a photo showing a mannequin with the brown, lacy cap on its head.
Online user Kwani Lunis came upon the racial slur online and alerted Walmart, tweeting: ‘Hey @Walmart what are you doing.’
Do you see what I mean?
Trump’s racism has emboldened White Americans to such an extent that they now feel comfortable using the most hateful language imaginable on their own employers’ websites.
The intended goal, of course, is to get Blacks to commit suicide out of shame.
White people think that sort of thing is funny.
Contrary to popular belief, Whites didn’t lynch these Blacks for committing crimes. Rather, the Blacks lynched themselves because someone described their skin as “unclean.”
Unsurprisingly, a Walmart spokesman – who probably wrote the slur in the first place – tried to blame the third party seller for the “mistake”:
‘We are very sorry and appalled that third party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace. It is a clear violation of our policy and has been removed, and we are investigating the seller to determine how this could have happened.’
There’s a big hole in this excuse, though: the third party seller, Jagazi Naturals, is based in the United Kingdom.
In the UK, using the N-word – not just “nigger,” but also “N-word” – carries a sentence of 45 years in prison (50 years with good behavior). There’s no way a British citizen would risk such a stiff sentence, even if his imam encouraged him to do so.
The weaving net controversy comes just days after Walmart Canada came under fire and was forced to pull from its shelves a ‘racist’ onesie decorated with teepees that joked about children living at home despite the country’s history of taking indigenous kids away from their families.
Yeah, Walmart deliberately hurts colored people’s feelings all the time.
It’s normal for them.
The bottom line is that we’re now living in an America where racism is acceptable again. The Trump administration encourages it, the police force encourages it, the schools encourage it and even the retail stores encourage it.
With such a widespread acceptance of hate, can we really be surprised when this sort of thing keeps happening?