22Apr
WASHINGTON DC — Common Defense and our veterans strongly condemn the racist video posted by Trump earlier today. Trump’s racism is nothing new and racism in America is not a new phenomenon by any means. The struggle against it has been long and will surely continue after Trump; however, it is incumbent on all of us to loudly, and under no uncertain terms, speak out against this type of hate whenever it rears its ugly head.
Black Americans have endured at every turn when the most powerful man in the land has legislated, mandated, or insinuated that we are subhuman. 160 years after Emancipation, our racist President gleefully depicts us as monkeys. 60 years after the Voting Rights Act, this racist president fights to neuter our vote across the country.
But this Black History month — and every month — no matter what this racist president believes, Black Americans are as American as any American can be. From Crispus Attucks and Harriet Tubman to Medgar Evers and Harry Belafonte, Black veterans and Black heritage are part of the fabric of freedom in this nation. Buffalo Soldiers, Harlem Hellfighters, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Six Triple Eight and countless others fought and died for this nation, and those who made it home faced discrimination and unequal treatment.
Black Americans — civilians and veterans alike, have sacrificed more for America than this racist President could ever imagine.
Since he came down the escalator and called Mexicans rapists, he tells the world over and over that he is a racist. In act and in word, it is at the core of who he is and the core of who he wants this nation to be. But we won’t let that come to pass. We are working every day so that those words ‘Liberty and Justice For All’ finally become a lived reality instead of just dreams.
Martin Luther King Jr said that all we ask of America is to “be true to what you put on paper.” From rejecting Black renters and calling for the deaths of the Central Park Five, to spewing birtherism and white nationalism and now this despicable video, this racist President has always been true to what *he* has put on paper. As America celebrates its 250th birthday this year, it’s on all of us to ensure liberty and justice truly is for all and make clear that racism like this has no place in America.
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Common Defense Civic Engagement is the nation’s largest grassroots organization of veterans and military families. Founded in 2016, we organize to defend the Constitution, oppose Forever Wars, and fight for a democracy where liberty and justice truly exist for all.