Dear Editor,
Republican Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign of race hate against minorities and immigrants should be cause for concern to Guyanese and other immigrant groups in the United States as well as Guyanese in general looking forward to migrate to America.
The Republican nominee has been running a narrow ethnic appeal campaign, first for the party’s nomination which he won, and now for the Presidency, appealing almost exclusively to white voters based on racial bigotry, ethnic divisiveness and hate. He appeals to white basal instincts or white nationalism that has not been seen in decades in American politics.
Fair minded people must speak out in every way possible, whether in Guyana or America or wherever, against the politics of hate from Trump or from anyone else for that matter in any country. There must be no place for race hate and certainly not white nationalism in multi-ethnic America. History is replete of examples of what happens to countries and people when politicians appeal on hate or discriminate against others.
This is not the Trump people grew up admiring. It is inexplicable why he would run such a narrow race hate campaign. Trump must be convinced by his election strategists that white voters alone will be sufficient to give him the Presidency. It is possible but is a long shot as his competitor, Democrat Hillary Clinton, who runs on national unity has the edge.
Trump’s calculations could very well be wrong as winning an election on white votes alone is almost impossible, and even if possible it is wrong for a candidate to direct his campaign towards only one race in a developed multi-ethnic nation like America.
One can understand ethnic electoral appeals in Africa or Guyana or Trinidad where there is stiff competition for ethnic control of the state, but there should be no place for ethnic appeals in America the way Trump has been campaigning.
Trump increasingly depends on whites to win the general elections in November. Currently, Trump trails Hillary 50 to 42 per cent in national polls overall. But opinion polls show him leading Hillary Clinton among white males by 58 to 38 per cent. However, he trails Hillary among white women 60 to 38 per cent. The only way Trump can win is if he maximises white turnout and if minority turnout is minimised.
The electorate is 68 per cent white to 32 per cent non-white. Trump needs to get over 60 per cent of the white votes in order to win; right now, he is running well below that. He is doing very badly among minorities – 5 per cent among blacks, 15 per cent among Asians and Indian-Americans, 2 per cent among (native) American-Indians; and 10 per cent among Hispanics.
Minority turnout is usually lower than whites but this election could see the highest minority turnout since 2008 when minorities, blacks in particular, came out in record number to vote in the first minority President.
Trump runs a disgusting campaign that represents exclusion and hate and is Islamophobic and xenophobic. He has become the champion of white interests in America. He has been preying on white ignorance of life in America, blaming minorities for their economic problems.
Over the last nine months, the world has witnessed Trump inciting hatred against Muslims, immigrants, women, and minorities of all stripes (Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, Indian-Americans, American-Indians, etc), handicapped, poor, food stamp recipients, and anyone who critiques or opposes him. If you don’t support him, he attacks you.
Early on during the campaign for the Republican nomination, Trump appealed on race attacking minorities and immigrants to cement the Republican nomination as most primary voters tend to be nationalistic. As he recognized he would not get much minority and immigrant support, he went on a campaign of race hate and xenophobia that has been condemned by fellow republicans as “racist”.
Although he appeals to race, this was not the Trump people knew just a few years ago. As Asians, Hispanics and Indian-American attest, Trump was warm towards minorities and immigrants, advocating for an open immigration policy. All of his (former) wives, except one were/are immigrants. It is inexplicable why a man who became wealthy employing or doing business with immigrants and minorities, who contributed significantly to his becoming a billionaire, would attack them.
Some of Trump’s proposals are impractical, but they appeal to the anger and frustration of working class whites who have seen their standard of living decline or remained stagnant.
Trump has threatened to deport all undocumented immigrants and to build a wall on the US-Mexico border to keep out Hispanics. He plans to close down Mosques and expel some Muslims. He also said he would expel Muslim refugees.
None of these proposals is workable and will never happen even if Trump wins the Presidency. He has refused to condemn white supremacy. His supporters beat up Hispanics and threatened Muslims (Arabs) and many a times, Indians like myself, have been misidentified as Arab and pounced upon by bigots. His supporters spat on immigrants like me, and they have also accosted blacks in rallies relating to “Black Lives Matter”.
There should be no place for a Trump Presidency unless he shows he has changed and is willing to embrace people of all ethnicities and immigration status. His fear-mongering and ethnic bullying should be rejected and Guyanese-Americans should work towards that objective.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
