Depicting Black people as apes is one of the oldest and most dehumanizing racist tropes there is. There is no way that President Donald Trump and the White House did not know this when Trump reposted a video depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as primates on his social media platform Thursday night. The president's post is more of the same vile racism we have come to expect from Trump and the far right. But when Trump was called out on it Friday morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's immediate response was to argue that it wasn't a big deal and claim, outrageously, that Trump was making a reference to "The Lion King."
Around noon Friday, after it had been up for about 12 hours and after Leavitt had dismissed what she called "fake outrage," the administration took the post down and insulted our intelligence with its statement to MS NOW: "A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down."
To be clear, it matters very little that the White House decided to delete the post from the president's social feed. Because it should have never been posted. Deleting the post was far more about the condemnations that were pouring in from members of both political parties than any sense of remorse from the president. At no point during her attempts to spin, to dismiss and offer half-baked explanation did Leavitt acknowledge the offensiveness of the post or apologize.
In fact, Trump told reporters Friday night he has no plans to apologize. And if you've followed Trump's career, you haven't even expected a mea culpa. You know that being defiant and classless is entirely on-brand for Trump. This is a preview of Charles Coleman Jr.'s latest column. Read the full column here. |
