By Ben Olson
Reader Staff
It’s pretty disheartening when you notice how racist some people are. It’s even worse when you realize one of the worst is currently our president.
President Donald Trump posted a blatantly racist video clip to his social media platform on Feb. 5 that depicted former-President Barack Obama and former-first lady Michelle Obama as apes. The clip was part of a longer video that spread more bullshit conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
If Trump’s racism was a dog whistle before, this video clip was a bullhorn plugged into an amp turned to 11. It even drew the attention of Sen. Tim Scott, a Trump ally and the only Black senator, who said it was “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
At first, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, slammed reporters for asking about the video, telling them, “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Since almost 50 million U.S. citizens identify as Black, I’d say this story matters to a large swath of the American public.
Shortly after, the video was taken down and Leavitt then claimed it was a mistake that was posted by a “White House staffer.”
When asked about the video, Trump refused to apologize, saying, “I didn’t make a mistake. I mean, I look at a lot of, thousands of things, and I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine.”
Ah, you know the old saying, “The buck stops… somewhere over there. I did nothing wrong!”
I get that Trump is a busy guy with all of his golfing, ranting about windmills and devolving the country into fascism, but let’s just agree that the president of the United States should use more care when communicating to the American people. Also, and this is a big also, racist statements don’t just spawn from innocent mouths. If you “get caught” using a racial slur or posting racist garbage, you’re a racist. I long for the days when our president — Democrat or Republican — encouraged the best from Americans instead of inspiring the worst.
In other news, it seems like the entire right wing of America was in peak outrage mode on Super Bowl Sunday when Bad Bunny performed his halftime show in, gasp!, Spanish.
All the usual talking heads were churning out the outrage, claiming simultaneously that they were refusing to watch the show and that they did watch it and it offended them.
Former Fox News anchor and soulless MAGA cheerleader Megyn Kelly launched into a racist tirade during an interview with Piers Morgan on Feb. 9, in which she labeled Bad Bunny’s halftime show a “middle finger to the rest of America.”
During her on-air breakdown, Kelly was incensed that Morgan defended the rapper’s Spanish-language performance, turning it back on his native Great Britain.
“This is why you lost your culture! … Who gives a damn that we have 40 million Spanish speakers? We have 310 million who don’t speak a lick of Spanish! This is supposed to be a unifying event for the country, not for Latinos,” she concluded, affecting a mocking Hispanic accent.
“We don’t need a Black National Anthem. We don’t need a Spanish-speaking, non-English performing performer, and we don’t need an ICE- or America-hater featured as our halftime entertainment! … Football, that kind of football, is ours!” Kelly concluded.
Far-right activist and close ally of Trump Laura Loomer didn’t mince any words at all: “Illegal aliens and Latin hookers twerking at the Super Bowl. Not a single white person or English translation at the Super Bowl. This isn’t White enough for me,” she wrote on X.
In one particularly hilarious self-own, the YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul urged people to “Turn off this halftime. A fake American citizen performing who publicly hates America. I cannot support that.”
Point 1: Puerto Ricans are, in fact, American citizens, you sentient can of Axe body spray found in a dumpster.
Point 2: Jake Paul actually moved to Puerto Rico in 2021 to avoid paying taxes.
Turning Point USA offered an alternative to the show, the biggest safe space in the world, with Kid Rock headlining a who-the-hell-is-this group of country artists followed by one of his prerecorded songs, which he lip-synced so badly wearing denim and fur that the entire internet roasted him the next morning. Rock claims he was really singing, it was just the audio and video not in sync. OK, Hillbilly Vanilli.
I wonder which of Kid Rock’s songs conservatives like more. Maybe it’s his song, “Cool, Daddy Cool” in which he sings: “Young ladies, I like ‘em underage / See, some say that’s statutory / But I say it’s mandatory.” Or maybe they enjoy his song, “Balls in Your Mouth,” or perhaps “Kyle’s Mom’s a Big Fat Bitch.”
Ah, the moral virtues of the right wing in America. What a clown show.
¡Ay, Dios mío!
