Donald Trump claims white Americans have been “very badly treated” by civil rights laws. His assault on affirmative action and the EEOC isn’t about fairness—it’s about grievance.
I often use my (white) dad vs the (Black) dad of a high school classmate as an example.
My dad was raised in a working class family in NJ. His dad drove a truck & his mom cleaned people's houses and worked in a bakery. After 3 years of college (on a basketball scholarship), my dad joined the Army. He knew he'd be drafted eventually (this was 1954), and the GI Bill would help him pay for law school. That all worked as planned, and he used the GI Bill also to get a low interest rate mortgage so he & my mom could buy their first, tiny home to raise us 3 girls.
My friend's dad also served in the US Army. But as a Black man in the south, with skill as a mechanic that he acquired during his service, he was denied the GI Bill loan that would have enabled him to open his own small business. He ultimately moved to NJ, but still was unable to get the veterans' support that he deserved. He and his wife raised 4 children, one of whom was my high school classmate. And while he has been quite successful, and his daughter even more so, he had to work extra hard every step of the way because his dad was held back from success.
My sisters and I benefited directly, both financially and socially, from the support that the government gave my dad. We got that leg up because we were white. That benefit carries directly forward, generation to generation.
Wow! You explained that so perfectly and easy to understand! So many deny this reality that so many experienced. Good for you that you did not ignore or deny your friend's reality and are able to help others to understand it as well.
I only wish more Americans could see that reality. Dad was Navy WW2 veteran, yet after discharge, still had to enter through back entrance of many hotels & businesses. Purchased 1st house 1949 in the segregated, worse part of our northern town. Learned machinist trade in military. After war, hired at an Ohio AFB [government jobs were not as discriminatory to him as private industry because he was a veteran]. I'm doing much better, in spite of experiencing much less housing discrimination. Many people don't realize the very important generational wealth, that many of our veterans, like dad, were locked out from obtaining.
This is part of the Great Replacement Theory. The very idea that whites have suffered racial discrimination if complete hogwash. I am 72 and remember how Black Americans,Native American adn Hispanic Americans were treated, how they were stereotyped in media, movies and in school. I did not have any black j kids in my school though there black families in town which I did not know about until I was a teen. I saw discrimination action. I witnessed the Civil Rights Movement. Even after that black were still discriminated against as well as other minorities. So poor sniffling white guys who think they were note treated fairly, boo hoo! Get a life.
Hey Adam! Good column. It should be noted WHY Trumpstein couldn't get into Penn. Fact is he wasn't particularly bright. He had his sister Mary Ann Trump (later Judge Barry) do his homework and write papers for him, and hired someone to take his SATs. His grievance should be against his parents Fred, and immigrant mother Mary Anne (MacLeod) Trump for raising such a petty, privileged, and stupid son. He claims to have graduated from the Wharton School (an exclusive graduate business school now), but when he transferred from Fordham to Penn, Wharton was an undergraduate program that accepted over 50% of it's applicants. That's not exclusive. That's damned near community college level. Even with that, his grades sucked, and the only reason he got accepted as a transfer from Fordham was daddy's money. "Fred Trump paid his children each about $20,000 a year, equivalent to $265,000 a year in 2024. Trump was a millionaire in inflation-adjusted dollars by age eight." Let that sink in, Donffrey Trumpstein was a multi-millionaire by age 8! Truth matters!
Here is a link to a couple of short and well documented bios:
That makes the most sense, Allen B. dumpy is a racist, homophobic liar. He is a mistake in all respects and we will surely get rid of him. Unfortunately, I don’t know when, but I am optimistic that we will.
Don't forget his professor, who said Donald Trump was the "dumbest goddam student" he ever had. The late William T. Kelley, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
This totally clarifies his stupidity with regard to tariffs, his dependence on the stock market over GDP, and his intransigence with regard to others opinions on same. My financial advisor and I concluded back in December 2016 that we needed to prepare for a recession because he must have paid someone to take his exams…
He didn't even get into Penn at first because of his grades even with his father's money and influence. He had to go to another college first for 2 years and then he got into Penn.
C’mon Julie, he started out white! My only observation is doesn’t orange eventually turn to brown and then black when it’s really old! I will ask which country that turning brown orange wants to be deported to. I have a favorite and maybe you can guess it?😖
Thank you for writing this. When babies are born, they don't care about skin color. You've got to be taught to hate and fear (from the song 'You've got to be carefully taught" by Rogers and Hammerstein.) There is one race - the human race.
My parents grew up under Jim Crow and fought for their civil rights in various ways, even it when was costly. My dad lost his college football scholarship and was kicked out of school for participating in a civil rights demonstration, but he did what he needed to get re-enrolled into school and graduated. His former football buddies didn't turn his back on him despite what happened.
It is rather sad (yet unsurprising) to see where things are now. But as one of my parents told me, the work never ends. It needs to continues on with our generation and the work takes a prolonged effort.
When it comes to my generation (millennial), white supremacy is in vogue again thanks to the technocratic broligarchy given white supremacy has proliferated through social media algorithms. Such messages are money makers and added with the proliferation of AI with biased algorithms, it is the full realization of the beliefs of the tech ring leaders (Thiel, Yarvin, etc).
I found out from someone else about this, for he never told me. To me, that just shows that he felt did what needed to be done , dealt with what came with that decision, and carried on which was his typical fashion. I think that's the biggest takeaway for me is to do what you need to do and keep moving forward.
Adam, I have family in the construction business that have been frustrated when they have been forced to seek bids from and sometimes award contracts to minority owned contractors. Your article explains this well and I am going to use this article to discuss this issue with these family members. Thank you for explaining and justifying the history behind this so well.
It is important to remember that even those of us whose parents or grandparents or great-grandparents came here after the end of slavery, if we could pass for white, we benefited from the discrimination against Black and Brown people, even if we did not participate in it. Even if we abhorred it.
Mostly, of course, we were oblivious. I know that I was. Pollyannaishly (is that even a word) I believed that with the successes of the 1960s and with the election of Barack Obama we had won.
Ha! What a sap I was.
We Shall Overcome. As Joyce Vance signs off, "We are in this together."
Marc, I really thought the election of Obama was the fruit of generations of effort and, to mix metaphors, the doorway into a more just society. We were idiots together. I was stunned by what has happened since.
Vance says, "We are in this together," and Cox says, "We the People". A No Kings sign said, "Radicalized by basic decency," I think and hope that the mass of Americans are revolted by Trump and with hard work and the grace if God we will make a better country.
I believe it was the sign of change, and that that change was frightening to a voter bloc that wanted to blame someone else for their failure to succeed. The idea of people of color succeeding is so repulsive to these folks that they would vote against their own financial interests. Politics of hatred and division serving the financial elites. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
I felt the same hope when Obama was elected. I was and am totally surprised that, that progress and hope has retreated back so far. Sadly, I know those who have experienced the prejudice directly growing up and through their families and even now, who are not surprised.
Your last sentence is so accurate, & indicative of a huge problem of American history. I participated in a peaceful pro MLK demonstration in 1963 [13 yrs old], saw extreme segregation & racism my whole life. Always had white allies in our quest for equality & justice. Good. Always also been realistic as to the actions of most white Americans in our history. Not as good. Huge exodus of whites from Democrat to Republican after Civil Rights Act early 60's & election of Nixon. [backlash against black progress]. Election of DT after Obama's 2 terms. [backlash again]. Our folks know, there WILL be a negative white backlash after real progress for my folks. Only question is, how much of a backlash? Polls differ slightly, but around 50% white women & around 60% white men voted DT between 2016-2024. I was NOT surprised by DT's election both times. Very disappointed, but not surprised. Will never give up on making this place great for all ethnic & religious groups. Our diversity is truly our real strength.
I always go back to remembering my teen years and watching Immitation of Life for the first time. That movie moved me in ways I couldn't believe. I watched it again last year, and it still moved me to tears.
many who came here were discriminated against. When they saw the hierarchy in this country of white over black, they tried to assimilate as much as possible to act more like those racists here to show they can fit in and be accepted. Like they thought at least they weren't as dark as the 'black' people. I know this is true for the Sicilian side of my family. I know it was a way for survival here in America but still sad.
I understand tRump purchased a full page from the New York Times, posting a notice demanding the death penalty for the Central Park Five of whom were falsely accused and convicted of raping a white woman jogging in Central Park. All five were eventually acquitted of the charges after spending several years in prison (the actual attacker later admitted to the crime and DNA acquired from the victim following the crime confirmed he was the rapist). tRump has a long history of quickly jumping to conclusions and going on the attack (such as his response to the murder of Ms. Good in Minneapolis) before fully understanding the facts.
He will probably never apologize for anything. tRump knew he was lying when he commented about the ICE murder of Ms. Good. This MAGA Modis Operandi of doubling down is eventually going to catch up to them. It's a house of cards that will collapse before too long.
I sure hope so. It seems like a lot of red lines have been crossed and the Republicans just keep going along with his and his cronies' dangerous and unethical agenda.
Well written truths. DJT supporters ignore facts and focus on their greed and supremacy. How about you, Adam, and Mark Kelly team for next president? I’d love to see a highly qualified female but regrettably the voters aren’t sophisticated for such. Thx for country first.
Excellent column, as usual.
I often use my (white) dad vs the (Black) dad of a high school classmate as an example.
My dad was raised in a working class family in NJ. His dad drove a truck & his mom cleaned people's houses and worked in a bakery. After 3 years of college (on a basketball scholarship), my dad joined the Army. He knew he'd be drafted eventually (this was 1954), and the GI Bill would help him pay for law school. That all worked as planned, and he used the GI Bill also to get a low interest rate mortgage so he & my mom could buy their first, tiny home to raise us 3 girls.
My friend's dad also served in the US Army. But as a Black man in the south, with skill as a mechanic that he acquired during his service, he was denied the GI Bill loan that would have enabled him to open his own small business. He ultimately moved to NJ, but still was unable to get the veterans' support that he deserved. He and his wife raised 4 children, one of whom was my high school classmate. And while he has been quite successful, and his daughter even more so, he had to work extra hard every step of the way because his dad was held back from success.
My sisters and I benefited directly, both financially and socially, from the support that the government gave my dad. We got that leg up because we were white. That benefit carries directly forward, generation to generation.
The story that was repeated so many times in so many families. Good for you for explaining it in such a personal way
Wow! You explained that so perfectly and easy to understand! So many deny this reality that so many experienced. Good for you that you did not ignore or deny your friend's reality and are able to help others to understand it as well.
I only wish more Americans could see that reality. Dad was Navy WW2 veteran, yet after discharge, still had to enter through back entrance of many hotels & businesses. Purchased 1st house 1949 in the segregated, worse part of our northern town. Learned machinist trade in military. After war, hired at an Ohio AFB [government jobs were not as discriminatory to him as private industry because he was a veteran]. I'm doing much better, in spite of experiencing much less housing discrimination. Many people don't realize the very important generational wealth, that many of our veterans, like dad, were locked out from obtaining.
This is part of the Great Replacement Theory. The very idea that whites have suffered racial discrimination if complete hogwash. I am 72 and remember how Black Americans,Native American adn Hispanic Americans were treated, how they were stereotyped in media, movies and in school. I did not have any black j kids in my school though there black families in town which I did not know about until I was a teen. I saw discrimination action. I witnessed the Civil Rights Movement. Even after that black were still discriminated against as well as other minorities. So poor sniffling white guys who think they were note treated fairly, boo hoo! Get a life.
Hey Adam! Good column. It should be noted WHY Trumpstein couldn't get into Penn. Fact is he wasn't particularly bright. He had his sister Mary Ann Trump (later Judge Barry) do his homework and write papers for him, and hired someone to take his SATs. His grievance should be against his parents Fred, and immigrant mother Mary Anne (MacLeod) Trump for raising such a petty, privileged, and stupid son. He claims to have graduated from the Wharton School (an exclusive graduate business school now), but when he transferred from Fordham to Penn, Wharton was an undergraduate program that accepted over 50% of it's applicants. That's not exclusive. That's damned near community college level. Even with that, his grades sucked, and the only reason he got accepted as a transfer from Fordham was daddy's money. "Fred Trump paid his children each about $20,000 a year, equivalent to $265,000 a year in 2024. Trump was a millionaire in inflation-adjusted dollars by age eight." Let that sink in, Donffrey Trumpstein was a multi-millionaire by age 8! Truth matters!
Here is a link to a couple of short and well documented bios:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Revealed
That makes the most sense, Allen B. dumpy is a racist, homophobic liar. He is a mistake in all respects and we will surely get rid of him. Unfortunately, I don’t know when, but I am optimistic that we will.
I'm enthusiastically rooting for the cheeseburgers.
Yeah, me too. Add in the fries and all those chemicals in a Diet Coke.
well now our HHS reversed the food pyramid so now cheeseburgers and fats are at the top of the pyramid! lol
Extra bacon and extra cheese please and chocolate shake to wash it down😵
Don't forget his professor, who said Donald Trump was the "dumbest goddam student" he ever had. The late William T. Kelley, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
This totally clarifies his stupidity with regard to tariffs, his dependence on the stock market over GDP, and his intransigence with regard to others opinions on same. My financial advisor and I concluded back in December 2016 that we needed to prepare for a recession because he must have paid someone to take his exams…
He didn't even get into Penn at first because of his grades even with his father's money and influence. He had to go to another college first for 2 years and then he got into Penn.
He needs to look in the mirror. God bless ALL Americans! This is a country for all humans regardless. Ship him out
Hi Adam
Wowzer…Trump is white? Are you sure, sir?
I could swear the guy is orange.
C’mon Julie, he started out white! My only observation is doesn’t orange eventually turn to brown and then black when it’s really old! I will ask which country that turning brown orange wants to be deported to. I have a favorite and maybe you can guess it?😖
LoL
As a white American all my pretty long life, he’s so damn full of it. I’ll leave what ‘it’ is to the reader.
Thank you for writing this. When babies are born, they don't care about skin color. You've got to be taught to hate and fear (from the song 'You've got to be carefully taught" by Rogers and Hammerstein.) There is one race - the human race.
Well said. "There is one race - the human race."
Love that song- it's timeless
My parents grew up under Jim Crow and fought for their civil rights in various ways, even it when was costly. My dad lost his college football scholarship and was kicked out of school for participating in a civil rights demonstration, but he did what he needed to get re-enrolled into school and graduated. His former football buddies didn't turn his back on him despite what happened.
It is rather sad (yet unsurprising) to see where things are now. But as one of my parents told me, the work never ends. It needs to continues on with our generation and the work takes a prolonged effort.
When it comes to my generation (millennial), white supremacy is in vogue again thanks to the technocratic broligarchy given white supremacy has proliferated through social media algorithms. Such messages are money makers and added with the proliferation of AI with biased algorithms, it is the full realization of the beliefs of the tech ring leaders (Thiel, Yarvin, etc).
you must be so proud of your dad!
I found out from someone else about this, for he never told me. To me, that just shows that he felt did what needed to be done , dealt with what came with that decision, and carried on which was his typical fashion. I think that's the biggest takeaway for me is to do what you need to do and keep moving forward.
America in the 21st century should be a place of opportunities for everyone living here. This country wasn't built by pampered obese idiots.
Adam Kinzinger , Great + Many Thanks for your always well-chosen, Superb + Inspiring Words today! Lifting us up + forward
Adam, I have family in the construction business that have been frustrated when they have been forced to seek bids from and sometimes award contracts to minority owned contractors. Your article explains this well and I am going to use this article to discuss this issue with these family members. Thank you for explaining and justifying the history behind this so well.
Time to start singing "We Shall Overcome" again.
It is important to remember that even those of us whose parents or grandparents or great-grandparents came here after the end of slavery, if we could pass for white, we benefited from the discrimination against Black and Brown people, even if we did not participate in it. Even if we abhorred it.
Mostly, of course, we were oblivious. I know that I was. Pollyannaishly (is that even a word) I believed that with the successes of the 1960s and with the election of Barack Obama we had won.
Ha! What a sap I was.
We Shall Overcome. As Joyce Vance signs off, "We are in this together."
Marc, I really thought the election of Obama was the fruit of generations of effort and, to mix metaphors, the doorway into a more just society. We were idiots together. I was stunned by what has happened since.
Vance says, "We are in this together," and Cox says, "We the People". A No Kings sign said, "Radicalized by basic decency," I think and hope that the mass of Americans are revolted by Trump and with hard work and the grace if God we will make a better country.
I believe it was the sign of change, and that that change was frightening to a voter bloc that wanted to blame someone else for their failure to succeed. The idea of people of color succeeding is so repulsive to these folks that they would vote against their own financial interests. Politics of hatred and division serving the financial elites. They are laughing all the way to the bank.
I felt the same hope when Obama was elected. I was and am totally surprised that, that progress and hope has retreated back so far. Sadly, I know those who have experienced the prejudice directly growing up and through their families and even now, who are not surprised.
Your last sentence is so accurate, & indicative of a huge problem of American history. I participated in a peaceful pro MLK demonstration in 1963 [13 yrs old], saw extreme segregation & racism my whole life. Always had white allies in our quest for equality & justice. Good. Always also been realistic as to the actions of most white Americans in our history. Not as good. Huge exodus of whites from Democrat to Republican after Civil Rights Act early 60's & election of Nixon. [backlash against black progress]. Election of DT after Obama's 2 terms. [backlash again]. Our folks know, there WILL be a negative white backlash after real progress for my folks. Only question is, how much of a backlash? Polls differ slightly, but around 50% white women & around 60% white men voted DT between 2016-2024. I was NOT surprised by DT's election both times. Very disappointed, but not surprised. Will never give up on making this place great for all ethnic & religious groups. Our diversity is truly our real strength.
I always go back to remembering my teen years and watching Immitation of Life for the first time. That movie moved me in ways I couldn't believe. I watched it again last year, and it still moved me to tears.
many who came here were discriminated against. When they saw the hierarchy in this country of white over black, they tried to assimilate as much as possible to act more like those racists here to show they can fit in and be accepted. Like they thought at least they weren't as dark as the 'black' people. I know this is true for the Sicilian side of my family. I know it was a way for survival here in America but still sad.
I felt the same after Obama was elected. I thought we had finally arrived and was so proud of our country. What a gullible, naive, sap!
I understand tRump purchased a full page from the New York Times, posting a notice demanding the death penalty for the Central Park Five of whom were falsely accused and convicted of raping a white woman jogging in Central Park. All five were eventually acquitted of the charges after spending several years in prison (the actual attacker later admitted to the crime and DNA acquired from the victim following the crime confirmed he was the rapist). tRump has a long history of quickly jumping to conclusions and going on the attack (such as his response to the murder of Ms. Good in Minneapolis) before fully understanding the facts.
If I recall correctly, Trump never apologized or even admitted that he was wrong in accusing the Central Park Five.
Apologize is not in his vocabulary
He will probably never apologize for anything. tRump knew he was lying when he commented about the ICE murder of Ms. Good. This MAGA Modis Operandi of doubling down is eventually going to catch up to them. It's a house of cards that will collapse before too long.
I sure hope so. It seems like a lot of red lines have been crossed and the Republicans just keep going along with his and his cronies' dangerous and unethical agenda.
Such good writing and information. Thank you. What a vindictive being. Where does all this hate come from?
The root is extreme love of self.
Well written truths. DJT supporters ignore facts and focus on their greed and supremacy. How about you, Adam, and Mark Kelly team for next president? I’d love to see a highly qualified female but regrettably the voters aren’t sophisticated for such. Thx for country first.
When is someone going to do him in? He should not be alive.
Don't worry, the cheeseburgers are taking effect now.
So that's the reason for his "orange glow", the cheese!
The cheese, the chuky cheese, the cheeze whiz….we need a scientific study he can refute