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Racism, Patriotism, Republican - Where do we draw the line

by Patience Rashai
02 Feb 2017 at 11:20hrs | Views
During the first Presidential debate night, the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton asked viewers to remember that her opponent had started his career with a 1973 lawsuit brought against him by the Justice Department "because he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans, and he made sure that the people who worked for him understood that was the policy."

Today Trump's yester activities come into question, what really was his policy then and worse off now that he is the United States President. His approach begs the question, is Trump a racist? And how safe are Muslims, Africans, African-Americans, Homosexuals, Immigrants, Refugees, from Trump's wrath?

Trump is a republican harboring the American conservatism ideology, which opposes the former modern liberalism. The Republicans Party's platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labour unions. In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies, the Republican Party also thrives on social conservative (particularly in its opposition to abortion and same sex marriage), and seeks to uphold traditional values.

These virtues best describes a republican, something which Trump is eager to uphold!
Last Friday, hardly a fortnight after his inauguration, President Trump released a statement barring immigrants from seven Muslim - majority countries namely: Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, from entering the United States for at least the next 90 days.

He also went ahead to suspend the United States Refugee Programme for 120 days, specifically banning Syrian refugees until further notice. He further reduced the number of refugees to be admitted to the States this year to 50 000 from 110 000 and specified that refugees from religious minority and fleeing religious persecution should be prioritized above everything else.

Why would he ban immigrants for the next ninety days? Isn't this a trial balloon lick to taste the waters and assess how the world will react to his move before permanently barring these other minority states that have nothing to offer to America without justification?

Another point to note is that the new Trump policy seems to persecute Muslims and not Christians; clearly this is a case of religious persecution guised as an effort to make the United States a safer hub.

Trump should have a moral obligation to at least uphold his nation's rule of law and observe The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which outlawed discrimination of immigrants based on national origin.

Clearly Trump's policy is a deviation from the mindset on the meaning of human rights which America is forever preaching to Zimbabwe as they continue justifying their move on the imposed illegal sanctions on our land.

After all, is seclusion of other states guarantee for America's safety from terrorism or this move is merely Trump's way of reaffirming American dominance over other smaller nations?

Notably though is the fact that President Trump's ban isn't ostensibly based on security concerns as he proclaims. The ban surprisingly excludes countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, whose citizens have been responsible for some of the most serious terrorist plots against the United States since 2001. The truth is that these countries are difficult to push around since they either pose a threat to America or America stands to benefit something from them. Pakistan has nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia is a major source of oil, and the United Arab Emirates is a major source of investment by Americans.

Reports have it that Trump's company has a golf club in Dubai and a possible hotel venture in Saudi Arabia, how convenient!

Zimbabwe's former Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mission in New York, Boniface Chidyausiku was also quoted criticizing this discrimination of nationals.

"Discrimination of nationals on the basis of religion or other grounds is inhumane in this 21st century and building of walls against other nations does not work as we now live in an interconnected global village" he said.

This is just but the beginning of Trump and American hypocrisy. Since time immemorial, Americans have been well known for bulldozing their way through smaller states.

Who then will school America, or the world is just going to be on halt awaiting American hegemony to be imparted as the pace setter for the rest of the world to blindly follow.

Where are human rights and democracy?

Source - Patience Rashai