By Alexis TaylorAFRO Managing Editor
On the fifth day of Black Historical past Month the forty seventh president of the USA promoted racist content material to hundreds of thousands utilizing social media.
Showing late on the evening of Feb. 5, the video shared by the president included debunked details about the 2020 election, earlier than concluding with pictures of the previous President Barack Obama and First Woman Michelle Obama. Within the video, the 2 are briefly seen as monkeys dancing to the track, “The Lions Sleep Tonight,” the track popularized within the Nineteen Sixties by The Tokens, however initially sang in 1939 as “Mbube” by Solomon Linda, a South African artist.
Inside hours, the video made its method across the globe. Garnering likes, shares, feedback and a whirlwind of criticism.
“Trump posting this video — particularly throughout Black Historical past Month— is a stark reminder of how Trump and his followers really view individuals. And we’ll keep in mind that in November,” mentioned The Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Individuals (NAACP), in a quick assertion posted to their very own social media accounts.
The video from the president’s account clearly repeats and publicly broadcasts racist imagery of two of the world’s most distinguished, influential and beloved African American leaders, officers within the White Home need the lots to imagine the monkeys within the video had one other which means.
“That is from an web meme video depicting President Trump because the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please cease the pretend outrage and report on one thing at the moment that really issues,” mentioned White Home Press Secretary Kaaroline Leavitt, in a press release on the matter to The Related Press (AP). Leavitt famous that the clip was a part of an extended video that confirmed a number of Democrats–even White leaders– as animals.
Whereas it was initially defended, in response to AP, the White Home has modified course and now blames the posting of the video on a staffer. The video has since been deleted. Nonetheless, even Republicans in Congress famous the racist nature of the content material shared.
“It’s probably the most racist factor I’ve seen out of this White Home,” mentioned a response posted to social media by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). Scott’s use of the time period “most racist” stands out, because it implies there have been different incidents from the chief he helped rise to energy.
Baltimore County NAACP President Roland Patterson mentioned Trump and other people like him are “silly individuals in grownup garments” who search to “put down Black individuals for their very own elevation.”
“It’s past disappointing and past embarrassing that the president of this nation and the reported ‘chief of the free world’ would stoop to a nineteenth–or earlier than–century tactic,” Patterson mentioned, of Trump. “We acknowledge that he’s a White nationalist and thereby a White Supremacist.”
Finally, Patterson mentioned the choice to put up the racist content material was way more of an indictment of “Donald John Trump and his unfitness for the workplace” than it was an insult to the Obama household.
