Donald Trump, You’re Fired!

It's finals week and I should be working on my paper right now. It's for my multicultural psychology class and it's on the topic of microaggressions-the idea I first introduced in my article on exotic beauty, which sparked a little bit of debate. Readers called each other racist, I was postulated to look "exotic" myself, and some fun was certainly had.

But as I sit here typing away about the various forms in which we discriminate on the basis of race, gender, and sexual orientation, I can't help but think about Donald Trump. In the middle of one my procrastination web surfing breaks, I stumbled onto a little blurb on my MSN page on Trump's accusations against our president, as well as the uploaded photo of the birth certificate. Often falling prey to current events ignorance that befalls many students with their noses in books (no, this is not a good excuse, I know), I'll admit that I was a bit confused. Trump is running for office? Our president's citizenship is being questioned? As of 30 minutes ago, his educational merits?

As I attempt to write my paper, all I can do is think, racial microaggressions people! Should I use my trusty new, "Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation" book by Dr. Derald Wing Sue (2010), breaking down what is going on seems pretty clear. Trump is operating off of several biased and flawed assumptions. Foreigners are bad. One might be running our country. If this is occurring, then it must be stopped. African Americans certainly cannot be as intelligent as Whites. And for those of you who may have choked on your coffee on the last statement, that one comes directly from Sue's theme of ascription of intelligence, which states the inherent message is, "people of color are generally not as intelligent as Whites" (p. 32). While we're getting technical, I should perhaps mention that the idea of President Obama's place of birth being questioned is an example of the theme Sue entitles, alien in one's own land. Essentially this is all old news, rehashed. Trump is operation off of a number of microaggressions. While we're talking politics, another bold claim made by Sue and colleagues (2007):

It appears that modern and symbolic racism are most closely associated with political conservatives, who disclaim personal bigotry by strong and rigid adherence to traditional American values (individualism, self-reliance, hard work, etc.), whereas aversive racism is more characteristic of White liberals (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1996, 2000). Aversive racists, according to these researchers, are strongly motivated by egalitarian values as well as antiminority feelings. Their egalitarian values operate on a conscious level, while their antiminority feelings are less conscious and generally covert (DeVos & Banaji, 2005). (pg. 272)

So at the end of the day, we're all still a little racist. Now back to my paper. It's doubtful my professor will see this post and grant me extra credit, but I suppose one can dream...