The Chris Moeller Archives

Taking a knee-- a year later

The president is pretty selective when it comes to confronting people on Twitter. For example, when ESPN’s Jamele Hill called him out, he retaliated with a tweet that she should be fired by the sports network. When the new Miss America, a white woman named Cara Mund, did the same, he stayed silent. He took on Colin Kaepernick a week ago-- from the safe distance of a right-wing rally in Huntsville, Alabama. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, as well as a 2016 Trump campaign supporter, Rex Ryan, who is also a colleague of Hill at ESPN, issued statements saying they were disappointed in the president-- but there was no volley from Trump towards either of those men. NBA superstar Steph Curry said he wouldn’t go to the White House for a photo op with the president and the league champions, and Trump tweeted that he was rescinding the invitation Curry had already declined.

I tell you, if I wasn't already a believer in extraordinary coincidences, I would think Trump was most comfortable coming after people when they're black. As there are studies that show right-wing voters respond negatively even to political TV ads that feature black people, it’s hard to imagine that this could come back to bite him with his base.

The thing that gets me still about Trump is that he thinks he’s been elected to be our boss-- when his greatest achievement in life is actually gaining the privilege of us being his boss. He's a top-down guy so when he wants embarrassing protests to stop, his gut tells him that the solution is to talk to their “bosses” and tell them what they should be doing to the protestors as a punishment. Meanwhile, the story of the protests is getting warped by a media simmering in white supremacy. They are not protests against America and its military, or against Trump. They are protests against racism. The actor Jeffrey Wright pointed out the irony yesterday: If a knee in Freddy Gray’s back had upset White America as much as a knee on the ground, this would be over.

posted by CM @ 6:33 PM