Ubiquitous
2016-07-05 09:57:14 UTC
And so the cry went up.
Trump is a racist! was the mocking cry from an off-stage Larry
David when Trump recently hosted Saturday Night Live. The David bit
was designed to make fun not of Trump but Trumps critics. In this
case a left-wing group calling itself deportracism.com which,
without the slightest sense of irony, put together a thoroughly
racist ad having children spewing obscenities as they proclaimed
their allegiance not to America and its ideals but rather to their
race. A chilling reminder of all those fresh-faced young Germans of
long ago pledging allegiance to their Aryan race.
All of this is already old news. But there is a much older old
news story about Trump that has now resurfaced a story that
paints a highly accurate portrait of the real Donald Trump the guy
who has no time for racism and anti-Semitism and stood up in public
to fight both.
The story, linked by a group calling itself Zionists for Trump, was
published in the Wall Street Journal in 1997. It revolves around
Trumps purchase and operation of the famous Mar-a-Largo estate,
built in the 1920s by Post Cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather
Post. Trump had recently purchased the sprawling, seaside estate and
turned it into a club. This being located in upscale Palm Beach,
Florida, there were other prestigious clubs in the area, clubs that
catered to the old order of upper crust Palm Beach society. The
problem? Quietly, these other clubs had long barred Jews and African
Americans which is to say they practiced a quiet but steely
racism.
The Zionists for Trump headline:
How Trump Fought Antisemitism and Racism in Palm Beach Two
Decades Ago
The WSJ story that is linked focuses on the battles Trump faced as a
new arrival to Palm Beach, including his new competition with the
social clubs of the old order. The story, which quotes Abe Foxman,
the longtime head of the Anti-Defamation League, says, in part, the
following:
Mr. Trump also has resorted to the courts to secure his
foothold here, and many residents wince at the attention
his legal battles with the town have drawn to the town
in general, and to the admission practices at some of Palm
Beachs older clubs in particular.
The culture clash began to approach a climax last fall,
when Mr. Trumps lawyer sent members of the town council
a copy of the film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, a film
that deals with upper-class racism. Mr. Trump then
approached the town council about lifting the restrictions
that had been placed on the club. He also asked some council
members not to vote on the request because their membership
in other clubs created a conflict of interest.
Last December, after the council refused to lift the
restrictions, Mr. Trump filed a lawsuit in U.S. District
Court in Palm Beach, alleging that the town was
discriminating against Mar-a-Lago, in part because it is
open to Jews and African-Americans. The suit seeks $100
million in damages.
... Mr. Foxman seems pleased that Mr. Trump has elevated
the issue of discriminatory policies at social clubs. He
put the light on Palm Beach, Mr. Foxman says. Not on the
beauty and the glitter, but on its seamier side of
discrimination. It has an impact.
In recent weeks, Mr. Foxman says, the league has received
calls from Jewish residents telling of how Palm Beach clubs
are changing. Locals concur that in the past year,
organizations such as the Bath and Tennis Club have begun
to admit Jewish patrons. The Palm Beach Civic Association,
which for many years was believed to engage in
discriminatory behavior, this month named a Jewish resident
as its chief officer.
In other words? In other words, long before he was running for
president, there was Donald Trump battling racism and anti-Semitism
in Palm Beach society. Using every tool at his disposal.
The film he chose to send the Palm Beach town council was no
accident. Guess Whos Coming to Dinner was released in 1967 and
starred film legends Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Sidney
Poitier. The Oscar-winning story revolved around a liberal, upper-
class older couple who are stunned and discomfited when their
daughter, played by Katharine Houghton, brings her new fiancé
Poitier home to dinner and an introduction to her white parents.
As liberals, her parents were staunch supporters of racial equality
and had raised their daughter accordingly. Yet suddenly, in comes
the very personal reality of equality when their daughter waltzes in
the door after a vacation with husband-to-be Poitier, a black
widower and doctor. Soul searching about just how devoted to
equality they really are ensues.
Thus it was no accident that Trump selected this movie to tweak the
members of both the Palm Beach town council and the larger white
society it represented. Trump understood exactly what the game was
and he would have none of it. In addition to sending a copy of the
movie, he launched his lawyers, who filed that $100 million lawsuit
alleging that the town was discriminating against Mar-a-Lago, in
part because it is open to Jews and African-Americans.
This is the same Donald Trump who employs hundreds of Hispanics in
the Trump Organization at its various properties across America and
around the globe.
Yet here comes the utterly predictable charge of racism from
deportracism.com
One has to ask the obvious. Who are the real racists here? The
Democratic Party, as we have noted in this space repeatedly, has a
long and disgraceful history of out and out racism. Right from the
beginning of its history, what became the American Left was on-
record supporting slavery, segregation, lynching and, as noted by
historians, used the Ku Klux Klan as the military arm of the party
to enforce its racism. It was Franklin Roosevelt who issued the
infamous Executive Order 9066 that rounded up Japanese-Americans
which is to say legal American citizens and sent them to
internment camps merely because of their race. When a Japanese-
American fought the internment in the Supreme Court in Korematsu v.
United States, six of FDRs liberal court appointees upheld the
racist executive order. The opinion, in fact, was written by Justice
Hugo Black who held a golden passport, a lifetime membership, in
the Ku Klux Klan.
In todays world the Left demands racial quotas and supports illegal
immigration. What all of these things have in common is that they
are designed to divide Americans by race, to divide by skin color.
Which is precisely what Donald Trump stood up and fought against
when no one other than Palm Beach society was paying attention.
The harsh reality of the racism charge against Trump is not only
that it is bogus, utterly false from start to finish. The reality is
the charges of racism against Trump are coming from the one
political force in the country that has a long, deep, and immutable
history of racism. A racism that is no relic of a long ago past but
both current and visceral, used now as it has always been used to
divide and judge by skin color for political profit.
The good news here that in Donald Trump someone finally is
standing up to fight back. Just as he fought back all those years
ago in Palm Beach when no one was looking.
--
If black Democrats--and white Democrats, for that matter--cannot
disagree respectfully with a conservative who happens to be black,
they have no moral authority when it comes to combating racism in
other manifestations.
Trump is a racist! was the mocking cry from an off-stage Larry
David when Trump recently hosted Saturday Night Live. The David bit
was designed to make fun not of Trump but Trumps critics. In this
case a left-wing group calling itself deportracism.com which,
without the slightest sense of irony, put together a thoroughly
racist ad having children spewing obscenities as they proclaimed
their allegiance not to America and its ideals but rather to their
race. A chilling reminder of all those fresh-faced young Germans of
long ago pledging allegiance to their Aryan race.
All of this is already old news. But there is a much older old
news story about Trump that has now resurfaced a story that
paints a highly accurate portrait of the real Donald Trump the guy
who has no time for racism and anti-Semitism and stood up in public
to fight both.
The story, linked by a group calling itself Zionists for Trump, was
published in the Wall Street Journal in 1997. It revolves around
Trumps purchase and operation of the famous Mar-a-Largo estate,
built in the 1920s by Post Cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather
Post. Trump had recently purchased the sprawling, seaside estate and
turned it into a club. This being located in upscale Palm Beach,
Florida, there were other prestigious clubs in the area, clubs that
catered to the old order of upper crust Palm Beach society. The
problem? Quietly, these other clubs had long barred Jews and African
Americans which is to say they practiced a quiet but steely
racism.
The Zionists for Trump headline:
How Trump Fought Antisemitism and Racism in Palm Beach Two
Decades Ago
The WSJ story that is linked focuses on the battles Trump faced as a
new arrival to Palm Beach, including his new competition with the
social clubs of the old order. The story, which quotes Abe Foxman,
the longtime head of the Anti-Defamation League, says, in part, the
following:
Mr. Trump also has resorted to the courts to secure his
foothold here, and many residents wince at the attention
his legal battles with the town have drawn to the town
in general, and to the admission practices at some of Palm
Beachs older clubs in particular.
The culture clash began to approach a climax last fall,
when Mr. Trumps lawyer sent members of the town council
a copy of the film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, a film
that deals with upper-class racism. Mr. Trump then
approached the town council about lifting the restrictions
that had been placed on the club. He also asked some council
members not to vote on the request because their membership
in other clubs created a conflict of interest.
Last December, after the council refused to lift the
restrictions, Mr. Trump filed a lawsuit in U.S. District
Court in Palm Beach, alleging that the town was
discriminating against Mar-a-Lago, in part because it is
open to Jews and African-Americans. The suit seeks $100
million in damages.
... Mr. Foxman seems pleased that Mr. Trump has elevated
the issue of discriminatory policies at social clubs. He
put the light on Palm Beach, Mr. Foxman says. Not on the
beauty and the glitter, but on its seamier side of
discrimination. It has an impact.
In recent weeks, Mr. Foxman says, the league has received
calls from Jewish residents telling of how Palm Beach clubs
are changing. Locals concur that in the past year,
organizations such as the Bath and Tennis Club have begun
to admit Jewish patrons. The Palm Beach Civic Association,
which for many years was believed to engage in
discriminatory behavior, this month named a Jewish resident
as its chief officer.
In other words? In other words, long before he was running for
president, there was Donald Trump battling racism and anti-Semitism
in Palm Beach society. Using every tool at his disposal.
The film he chose to send the Palm Beach town council was no
accident. Guess Whos Coming to Dinner was released in 1967 and
starred film legends Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Sidney
Poitier. The Oscar-winning story revolved around a liberal, upper-
class older couple who are stunned and discomfited when their
daughter, played by Katharine Houghton, brings her new fiancé
Poitier home to dinner and an introduction to her white parents.
As liberals, her parents were staunch supporters of racial equality
and had raised their daughter accordingly. Yet suddenly, in comes
the very personal reality of equality when their daughter waltzes in
the door after a vacation with husband-to-be Poitier, a black
widower and doctor. Soul searching about just how devoted to
equality they really are ensues.
Thus it was no accident that Trump selected this movie to tweak the
members of both the Palm Beach town council and the larger white
society it represented. Trump understood exactly what the game was
and he would have none of it. In addition to sending a copy of the
movie, he launched his lawyers, who filed that $100 million lawsuit
alleging that the town was discriminating against Mar-a-Lago, in
part because it is open to Jews and African-Americans.
This is the same Donald Trump who employs hundreds of Hispanics in
the Trump Organization at its various properties across America and
around the globe.
Yet here comes the utterly predictable charge of racism from
deportracism.com
One has to ask the obvious. Who are the real racists here? The
Democratic Party, as we have noted in this space repeatedly, has a
long and disgraceful history of out and out racism. Right from the
beginning of its history, what became the American Left was on-
record supporting slavery, segregation, lynching and, as noted by
historians, used the Ku Klux Klan as the military arm of the party
to enforce its racism. It was Franklin Roosevelt who issued the
infamous Executive Order 9066 that rounded up Japanese-Americans
which is to say legal American citizens and sent them to
internment camps merely because of their race. When a Japanese-
American fought the internment in the Supreme Court in Korematsu v.
United States, six of FDRs liberal court appointees upheld the
racist executive order. The opinion, in fact, was written by Justice
Hugo Black who held a golden passport, a lifetime membership, in
the Ku Klux Klan.
In todays world the Left demands racial quotas and supports illegal
immigration. What all of these things have in common is that they
are designed to divide Americans by race, to divide by skin color.
Which is precisely what Donald Trump stood up and fought against
when no one other than Palm Beach society was paying attention.
The harsh reality of the racism charge against Trump is not only
that it is bogus, utterly false from start to finish. The reality is
the charges of racism against Trump are coming from the one
political force in the country that has a long, deep, and immutable
history of racism. A racism that is no relic of a long ago past but
both current and visceral, used now as it has always been used to
divide and judge by skin color for political profit.
The good news here that in Donald Trump someone finally is
standing up to fight back. Just as he fought back all those years
ago in Palm Beach when no one was looking.
--
If black Democrats--and white Democrats, for that matter--cannot
disagree respectfully with a conservative who happens to be black,
they have no moral authority when it comes to combating racism in
other manifestations.