Tag

#racism

11 incidents

Updated November 3, 2020 Civil Rights
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

MS-13 'Animals' and Dehumanizing Rhetoric: Using Gang Labels to Target Immigrant Communities

Trump's use of 'animals' to describe MS-13 members — and his conflation of the gang label with immigrants broadly — followed the same pattern documented in incitement to ethnic violence: dehumanization of a group, followed by calls for harsh treatment. Scholars of political violence noted the specific language echoed anti-Tutsi propaganda before the Rwandan genocide and Nazi propaganda before the Holocaust. Trump used similar dehumanizing framing for other immigrant groups, describing Central American migrants as an 'infestation' and an 'invasion.'

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dehumanizationMS-13immigrationrhetoricfirst-term
Updated January 12, 2018 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

Shithole Countries: Documented Racist Immigration Comments in White House Meeting

The meeting was called to discuss a bipartisan immigration framework. Present were Senators Durbin (D-IL), Graham (R-SC), Flake (R-AZ), Perdue (R-GA), Cotton (R-AR), and others, along with DHS Secretary Nielsen. Multiple attendees confirmed the substance of the comments. The 'shithole' characterization was directed at Haiti and African nations; Trump contrasted them with Norway, where he had met with the prime minister the previous day. Nielsen testified to Congress that she did not recall the exact words used. Perdue and Cotton initially said they didn't recall the comments then claimed Trump hadn't used those specific words — a position contradicted by Durbin's direct confirmation and Graham's reported in-room response.

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3
racismimmigrationHaitiAfricafirst-term
Updated August 15, 2017 Civil Rights
Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Charlottesville: 'Very Fine People on Both Sides' After Neo-Nazi Violence

The Unite the Right rally was organized by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, included marchers with torches chanting 'Jews will not replace us' on the night of August 11, and included violence against counter-protesters on August 12 before James Alex Fields Jr. drove into the crowd. Fields was later convicted of first-degree murder and federal hate crimes. Trump's August 15 press conference response defended those attending the rally as 'people who were very fine people' who were there because they 'protested the taking down of a statue' of Robert E. Lee, and drew a moral equivalence between the white supremacist rally and counter-protesters. Republican leaders including Paul Ryan, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and both former President Bushes publicly criticized the 'both sides' framing.

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Charlottesvillewhite-supremacycivil-rightsfirst-termviolence
Updated September 16, 2016 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

Birtherism: Five-Year Campaign Claiming Obama Was Not Born in the United States

Trump began promoting birtherism on television in 2011, claiming Obama was 'born in Kenya' and demanding proof of U.S. birth. When Obama released his birth certificate in April 2011, Trump claimed credit. He continued to make or amplify birther claims through 2012, 2013, 2014, and as late as August 2016. The birther movement was not factually novel — it was a conspiracy theory that had circulated in fringe circles — but Trump elevated it to mainstream political discourse. Scholars and civil rights groups documented that the theory's premise was inseparable from the claim that a Black man with the name Barack Hussein Obama could not legitimately be an American president.

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birtherismracismObamapre-presidencyconspiracy-theory
Updated September 16, 2016 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

Birther Campaign: Five-Year Campaign Questioning Obama's U.S. Birth, Racist Delegitimization

The birther conspiracy theory — the claim that Obama was born in Kenya or elsewhere outside the U.S. — had no factual basis. Hawaii state officials repeatedly confirmed the birth certificate's authenticity. Obama released both a short-form and long-form birth certificate. Federal courts dismissed challenges to Obama's eligibility. The theory persisted in certain quarters as a form of racial delegitimization of the first Black president. Trump became its most prominent mainstream advocate, using it to build his political profile before his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump's 2016 acknowledgment that Obama was born in the U.S. came without apology and included the false claim that Clinton had started the birther controversy.

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birtherObamaracismpre-presidencycivil-rights
Updated September 16, 2016 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

The Birther Campaign: Trump's Racist Attack on Obama's Legitimacy

Trump spent five years as the most high-profile national birther — making repeated media appearances questioning Obama's birth certificate, demanding documents, and insisting Hawaii was hiding something. Obama released his long-form birth certificate in April 2011 specifically in response to Trump's media campaign. Trump continued the campaign for years afterward. In September 2016, he held a press conference in which he acknowledged Obama was born in the United States — and falsely blamed Hillary Clinton for starting the theory.

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birtherObamaracismpre-presidencycivil-rights
Updated July 25, 2019 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

Central Park Five: Full-Page Death Penalty Ads, Refusal to Acknowledge Exoneration

The 1989 Central Park jogger case involved the assault and rape of Trisha Meili. Police coerced confessions from five teenagers — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — who ranged in age from 14 to 16. All five served sentences after conviction. In 2002, convicted serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the attack alone; DNA evidence confirmed only his DNA. The convictions were vacated. In 2014, New York City settled their lawsuit for $41 million. Trump ran full-page ads in four newspapers in 1989 calling for the death penalty; in 2019, he told reporters 'You have people on both sides of that' and that the settlement 'doesn't mean they were innocent.'

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Central-Park-Fivewrongful-convictiondeath-penaltyracismpre-presidency
Updated June 18, 2019 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

Central Park Five: Full-Page Ads Calling for Death Penalty, Refused to Apologize After Exoneration

The five teenagers — Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — were 14 to 16 years old at the time of their arrest. They gave confessions that were later found to have been coerced during lengthy interrogations without parents present. In 2002, Matias Reyes confessed to the attack; DNA evidence confirmed his account and proved the five had not committed the rape. The city of New York settled with them for $41 million in 2014. Trump called the settlement a disgrace and continued to maintain the five were guilty. His 1989 ads ran in the New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, and New York Newsday.

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Central-Park-Fiveracismpre-presidencycivil-rightswrongful-conviction
Updated December 31, 1989 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

1989 Full-Page Ads: Racial Coded Language and New York Racial Politics

Trump's racial views in the 1980s and early 1990s were documented through multiple sources: a former Trump Organization executive documented Trump expressing that he didn't want Black people managing his money; Trump testified before Congress that Native American casino operators had an unfair advantage and made racially charged statements about their appearance and background; Trump made public comments about crime in Black neighborhoods. These documented patterns preceded and contextualized his political career.

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racismracial-historypre-presidencycivil-rightscasinos
Updated June 10, 1975 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

1973 DOJ Housing Discrimination Settlement: Trump's First Civil Rights Case

Black applicants at Trump apartment buildings were systematically denied housing that was simultaneously offered to white applicants. A Black doorman described being instructed to discourage Black applicants; the government documented instances where the Trumps coded applications with a 'C' (for 'colored') to identify Black applicants for rejection. Trump hired Roy Cohn to fight the lawsuit, countersuing the government for $100 million. He settled without admitting guilt in 1975. Three years later, DOJ filed a second suit alleging violations of the settlement terms.

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housing-discriminationracismpre-presidencyDOJ1973
Updated June 10, 1975 Civil Rights
Major Abuse of Power

DOJ Housing Discrimination Suit: Trump Refused to Rent to Black Applicants

The DOJ complaint documented specific evidence including testers — white and Black individuals sent to inquire about the same apartments — where Black applicants were told there were no vacancies while white applicants were offered leases for the same units. An employee named Elyse Goldweber documented that a Trump employee had marked rental applications with the letter 'C' (for 'colored') to identify minority applicants. Trump's response was to hire Roy Cohn, file a $100 million countersuit against the DOJ (which was dismissed), and ultimately settle via consent decree in 1975. The consent decree required Trump Management to place ads in minority newspapers and to notify the Urban League of vacancies; Trump violated the decree within two years and a second agreement had to be negotiated.

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housing-discriminationracismDOJpre-presidencycivil-rights