By E. Faye Williams
The Philadelphia Tribune
https://www.phillytrib.com/
Ordinarily, when we elected people, there was a time we believed their intention was to make life better for all citizens. Even when we Black people could only hope for the lesser of two evils, we never imagined things would be the way they are now. We’re not even talking about one man who is so broken that he doesn’t know how to be truthful or fair to all citizens. He doesn’t care if we Black people are left in disbelief about how far a president would go to try to belittle us.
Fortunately, sane people can see that everyone in charge of our government these days doesn’t deserve our time or energy as we try to figure out how low they will go. We now know there are no limits. Trump even wants to nationalize voting and explore how many ways he can stop us from voting. Steve Bannon told us one of those ways is to frighten people away from the polls by surrounding them with ICE agents.
We remember “The list is on my desk,” said by Pam Bondi when she was speaking of the Epstein case. Then it wasn’t. Recently, as we tried to understand why Tulsi Gabbard was in Georgia, we were first told Bondi sent her. Then we were told she just happened to be in Georgia. Then that President Trump sent her there. We still don’t know who sent her, but we now know she was there to forcibly take voting ballots. Truth is a casualty with this group. Bondi didn’t answer the question of who sent Gabbard. She laughed it off and said, “She and I are essentially tied at the hip! We’re inseparable.” It seemed she was implying that whatever the president or Gabbard said was fine with her. Their stories are mixed up. I don’t think either of them knows exactly what their job is.
You remember a time when, no matter how bad things got, we could sing, “I’m so glad trouble don’t last always.” Some would say, “Every dog has his day.” Even during slavery and the most racist days of our lives, we had hope — and we had brave ancestors who stood against racism.
Well, there is still hope, because this week someone we thought was hopeless came out against another racist act, after Trump expressed his true feelings about us by sending out a message depicting President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
When Sen. Tim Scott was the first to say what Trump posted was “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” it had to be serious. He widely condemned Trump’s action as racist and urged him to remove the post, but the damage had already been done.
Some days we are outraged, but Eddie Glaude has warned us to beware of rage — not to succumb to it or allow it to harm us. Even though we have reached the point where Trump is known as “America’s Hitler” around the world, he is still followed by his supporting cast: Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and others. While we are concerned that the American people elected such a person as Trump, he has brought along with him some frightening people. Don’t let that traumatize you.
If the broken people are not fired or impeached by then, remember when you go to the polls in November that Trump caused food prices to skyrocket, personally took huge amounts of money from sources that violate laws for presidents while they are in the White House, was convicted of 34 crimes, associated with the child molester Jeffrey Epstein, worked to destroy DEI and Black history, embarrassed us many times before the world, and disrespected the first lady as she was having his child — and so much more.
E. Faye Williams is a civil and human rights activist, attorney, entrepreneur, former president and CEO of the National Congress of Black Women and founder/president of the Dick Gregory Society. She is also host of WPFW-FM’s “Wake Up and Stay Woke!”
