Many observers argue that it was, in fact, the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the US presidency, that emboldened the racist underbelly of America to rear its ugly head in public. So it is of no surprise, that Trump offered a lacklustre and vague condemnation of the terrorist attack by a white supremacist in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday which killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer, a paralegal and civil rights activist.
He condemned hatred on “many sides” without singling out white supremacists specifically. The failure of Trump to directly blame white supremacists, after some had marched through Charlottesville’s streets shouting, “Hail Trump” while making Nazi salutes, has prompted much-deserved criticism.
Many are urging the president to make his condemnation more specific, including leading Republicans such as senators Marco Rubio and Cory Gardner and New Jersey’s governor Chris Christie, as well as a slew of Democrats.
This is a positive step, but it has come too little too late, and if he was held accountable and properly investigated for his murky ties with prominent white supremacists during his campaigning, then maybe we wouldn’t be in the position we are today.
Already such pressure has proven to be effective as Ivanka Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence have since issued more specific condemnations against white supremacy and neo-Nazis.
But, no one can say we didn’t see this coming. “Look at the intentional courting of these white nationalist groups,” Charlottesville’s mayor, Michael Signer, said.
“There are two words that need to be said over and over: domestic terrorism and white supremacy, and we are not seeing leadership from the White House on this.”
