How is he NOT racist?

This morning a guy came by the house to do some work for us. He’s a nice guy, comes four times a year. He always comments on my Tolkien stuff because he’s a fan of both my favorite obsessions: Tolkien and Star Wars.

He made some comment about politicians and hubby countered with something about Trump and this statement came of the other man’s mouth: “he’s not a racist.”

I was sitting here at my computer reading something inane or gazing at pictures of Chris Evans and I nearly choked. Nothing else much was said and I suspected rightly that Hubby had been feeling the guy out to see if he’s a Trump supporter (or as we like to call them: Trumpers).

I have been puzzling over that statement ever since the guy left.

Trump has a long history of racism dating all the way back into the early 70s, when he and his father were sued for racial discrimination in conjunction with his rental properties. I must say that he’s stayed consistent and broad in his racism.

· In 1991 in the book, Trumped!, he was quoted as allegedly saying this about an African American employee: “I think that's guy's lazy. And it's probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks.”

• · In 1989, he insisted the Central Park Five were guilty and does so to this day even though DNA has proved that none of the 5 were involved in the crime.

• · In the early 90s, he implied that Native Americans did not own the casinos on reservations, that they were owned by the ‘mob’ instead.

• · He referred to Mexican immigrants as rapists, murderers, and drug smugglers.

• You get the idea and most of this was before he was president.

Almost every word out of Trump’s mouth is either racist or sexist. He is a bully who fears almost everyone and surrounds himself with rabid yes men who never dare to tell him no.

How the hell could this guy not notice any of this? (I haven’t even mentioned him calling several African countries ‘shitholes’.)

The county I live in is rural, fairly poor and evidently almost totally uneducated. My husband often quotes his classmates as saying they didn’t want a better life or more education because ‘if it was good for mama and daddy, it’s good enough for me.’ That mentality still stands, unfortunately. These are people who never let a fact change their minds.

They don’t see the racism of men like Trump because they simply don’t care. They’ve never been any farther than Myrtle Beach and have no idea what the rest of the country or the rest of the world are like. The county is 90% white. 17% live under the poverty level. It’s someone else’s fault and they are fine with that as long as they can believe that they are not to blame for having no ambition to better themselves.

I wish I knew how to make this better, how to make people see that underneath, we are all human and that Trump doesn’t have our best interests in mind.

I wish I knew how to save the country from the road it’s going down.

All I can do is this.

And VOTE! All of us who are old enough can do that. It is the very LEAST we can do and perhaps, at the same time, the very most!