American Racism and Selfishness Is Killing Us All—Including Ukraine
I covered national politics for eight years before I moved to Ukraine full time to report on the full scale invasion here in Ukraine.
During my stints at The Root and FUSION (a former property of UNIVISION), I traveled the nation picking people’s brains about what issues mattered to them and who they planned on voting for address their concerns. Most of the time, people responded by outlining their individual needs. That’s natural, of course. However, I am beginning to wonder if I (and the rest of national media ) aren’t asking the most important question: which elected officials are best for all of us?
What is clear in this era of political discourse dominated by MAGA is that everyone is out for themselves. People have always voted for themselves but these times are especially bad. Enough of us don’t care how our individual choices impact our fellow human beings. We are seeing the very worst of that with Donald Trump and his supporters. We see Latinos—with various documentation statuses—who voted for him now cry over their chosen candidates’ cruel deportation policies that have sent their loved ones (or them) out of the country or put them in detention. Working class people of all ages and races fear Medicaid cuts and rising electricity bills they never suspected would impacted them.
His 34 felony convictions (including sexual assault in a civil court), cruel language, sexism, incompetence and racism didn’t dissuade his supporters because none of his vile, criminal behavior was supposed to hurt them. But it has and it’s too late to change course because the U.S. isn’t a revolutionary state that forces leaders to step down in color revolutions (like Ukraine) or switch leaders as is the case in parliamentary systems like in Britain, for example. Nope. We have to wait until next year’s midterms to punish Republicans (they are all pretty much MAGA at this point) in Congress whose Democratic replacements can stand as a bulwark of democracy until the presidential election in 2028 when, we hope, voters make better choices.
But will they? I am not optimistic.
Americans are not conditioned to think as a collective. For one, we’ve never truly worked to mend of history and present of white supremacy, sexism and anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes. In fact, many states, with Florida as the leader, pass legislation banning books that dare to confront America’s original sin of slavery. Any attempt to acknowledge how, say, a white person is economically and socially privileged in the U.S. is met with vapid counterarguments of anti-whiteness and unfounded defensiveness. Acknowledging racism is seen as a personal attack instead of an opportunity to learn how we can be better humans to each other.
Many Latinos, for example, who voted for Trump see themselves as the good ones who came to the U.S. the right way and didn’t ask for handouts (which is flawed thinking)—even though the U.S. tax code is designed to give wealthy people government handouts they feel entitled to, but the rest of us are conditioned to feel shame for demanding government-funded healthcare and food assistance.
It took Trump deporting and arresting their family members for them to see that they are the “rapists” he famously fear-mongered about during his first term and are also the people who are coming to America “poison the blood of our country.” Many of them now regret their choices. I am not moved. They are regretful because his harmful words are hurting them. Pure selfishness is what has gotten them and the rest of us here.
Poor, working class White American will suffer greatly because of the Big, Beautiful Bill the vast majority of Republicans in Congress backed and is now signed into law. But White America is so engrossed in the mythology of Trump’s aspirational whiteness that they cannot see that his anti-Blackness is just as bad for Appalachia and Iowa as it is for Chicago and Detroit. Southern states that vote Republican have long ranked at the bottom of education quality and economic growth charts. It doesn’t matter. When former President Barack Obama tried to give them better access to healthcare, they revolted. Why? The American Journal of Medicine pointed to race as a leading factor.
You’d have thought it was Nat Turner showing up at those town halls threatening to kill every white family in the Union instead of the U.S. President explaining the details of the his legislation that proposed to keep them healthy without risking bankruptcy.
Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill will hit them especially hard. But this will not change their voting behavior because living in object GOP-led poverty has never been enough to sway their votes. Promises to preserve their whiteness against the browning of America has always been enough for them.
The Republican Party has gladly assumed the helm of being race pimps and Americans consumed in white grievance are glad to be their tricks.
I am going to end with how this connects to Ukraine.
There is a reason why a photo of Trump and Pete Hegseth is at the top of this article. I’m sitting in a small village in Western Ukraine, less than two hours away from the Polish border, where U.S. military aid is waiting to enter the country. Hegseth, whose main qualification for being Defense Secretary is kissing Trump’s ass on Fox News, reportedly halted the shipment without notifying key U.S. agencies, NATO allies or Ukraine. Even though it would not negatively impact U..S. stockpiles.
Hegseth is also xenophobic, sexist and reportedly has an alcohol abuse problem. And, yes, this matters for Ukraine.
This spring, I spoke to international relations students at Taras Shevchenko University, in Kyiv, about Trump and race. They were a captivated audience. I was told that I was the first Black American to deliver a lecture to their students. I was also told the mostly white visitors to their campus never talk about race in America. So when I was asked to discuss why Trump is so hostile to Ukrainian interests, I explained MAGA supporters have long labeled Ukrainians as freeloaders.
Donald Trump Jr. called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy an “ungrateful international welfare queen” after he asked the U.S. for more military aid. The term Welfare queen was popularized by Ronald Reagan during his first run for president and became synonymous with poor, Black women who gamed the system. That Trump Jr. would use the same language to describe Ukrainians revealed how terms used to vilify Black folks can be easily weaponized against white Eastern Europeans when it’s convenient.
Also keep in mind that Trump shares Putin’s racist, view of the world. Both men play into the thinking that Russians and white men are being devalued and only the church can save them. Thus, the push for more Russians and Americans to have babies.
(Note: I know some of my Ukrainian readers don’t think white fits their overall human experience —I agree—but I will address this in a separate article later this week)
My point to the students was that anti-Blackness eventually harms everyone else and it would behove us all remember our destinies are intertwined. Trump’s xenophobic immigration policies that target people of color and focus on making the rich richer are now threatening working-class white Americans who were more than happy with (or indifferent to) his white supremacy—until they weren’t.
These selfish, racist Americans, I explained to the students, are the very people who were hoodwinked into believing that supporting Ukraine was a drain on their pockets—even though that was never the case.
I am lucky to be in Western Ukraine, hundreds of kilometers away from the drone and ballistic missile attacks taking place in Kyiv and the rest of the country. But the Polish border less than two hours away with key military aid for Ukraine on the other side should remind us of one key reality: Trump‘s 2024 campaign of anti-Black, LGBTQ+ hatred that targeted people who look like me now has the Ukrainian people in its crosshairs. Many face deportation.
All while being murdered by a Russian president Trump sees more as a business partner than an internationally-wanted criminal. I guess that’s what happens when the vast majority of white Americans elect a criminal to the White House.
We‘re all suffering because of racist, selfish white people.
I can’t Ukrainians my niggas, but they’re definitely getting a taste of the nigga treatment.