In James Whitman's book, Hitler's American Model, he writes that the German Nazis regime in the 1930s learned much from American racism. In 1935, the Nazis sent 45 lawyers to America to study our race-based legal system. These lawyers had a reception with the NYC Bar Association. Whitman found document after document in the German archives about the lessons Nazis had learned from the United States.
We knew before he was elected that Trump was a racist. He demonstrated that time and again in New York City. His most infamous action - asking for the death penalty for the "Central park Five" who, ten years after imprisonment, were found to have been innocent. Trump continued as president to be incredibly racist. After Charlottesville, Timothy Snyder in the New York Times writes that President Trump faced an easy test, and failed. When presented with an obvious opportunity to condemn the evil that was and is Nazism, he first waited, then equivocated, then read from a teleprompter, then relativized. He spoke of “very fine people on both sides” (Snyder).
"The Confederate statues he admires are mostly artifacts of the early years of the 20th century, when Hitler admired the United States for its Jim Crow laws, when Mr. Trump’s father was arrested at a Klan rally, before America passed its test. The presidential slogan “America First” is a summons to an alternative America, one that might have been real, one that did not fight the Nazis, one that stayed home when the world was aflame, one that failed its test" (Snyder).
These racist rantings continued on January 6th when we watched confederate flags being carried into the U.S. Capitol. Then the attacks on voting rights came with renewed vigor. As we continue the civil rights struggle for equality of all races, we must stop the widespread conspiracy and actions to impede the voting of people of color. With the vote comes power, the power of a mayor to hire a chief of police, the power of a state legislator to introduce legislation to insure equality under the law, the power of a congressional person to oversee and stop the executive branch's rush to deport people of color. The most important action Congress can take is to pass voting rights legislation. Without the vote, the Nazis win.
We knew before he was elected that Trump was a racist. He demonstrated that time and again in New York City. His most infamous action - asking for the death penalty for the "Central park Five" who, ten years after imprisonment, were found to have been innocent. Trump continued as president to be incredibly racist. After Charlottesville, Timothy Snyder in the New York Times writes that President Trump faced an easy test, and failed. When presented with an obvious opportunity to condemn the evil that was and is Nazism, he first waited, then equivocated, then read from a teleprompter, then relativized. He spoke of “very fine people on both sides” (Snyder).
"The Confederate statues he admires are mostly artifacts of the early years of the 20th century, when Hitler admired the United States for its Jim Crow laws, when Mr. Trump’s father was arrested at a Klan rally, before America passed its test. The presidential slogan “America First” is a summons to an alternative America, one that might have been real, one that did not fight the Nazis, one that stayed home when the world was aflame, one that failed its test" (Snyder).
These racist rantings continued on January 6th when we watched confederate flags being carried into the U.S. Capitol. Then the attacks on voting rights came with renewed vigor. As we continue the civil rights struggle for equality of all races, we must stop the widespread conspiracy and actions to impede the voting of people of color. With the vote comes power, the power of a mayor to hire a chief of police, the power of a state legislator to introduce legislation to insure equality under the law, the power of a congressional person to oversee and stop the executive branch's rush to deport people of color. The most important action Congress can take is to pass voting rights legislation. Without the vote, the Nazis win.
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