By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 29, 2018 It was bound to happen after prestigious research institutions predicted several years ago that whites would become a numerical minority in the U.S. population by the year 2044. Somehow, some way, we expected a new drum major for white nationalism in America would emerge in light of this prediction. Our premonition was correct, and the new drum major's name is Donald J. Trump. White nationalism groups around the country are ecstatic because Trump occupies the White House as the 45th President of the United States. America’s White Population is Declining Excluding native-Americans, the U.S. population has been predominantly white since the founding of Jamestown in 1607. In 1950, whites accounted for about 90 percent of the nation’s population. Today, whites make up only 61% of the nation’s population and their numbers in the total population are steadily dropping. Accompanying the drop in the white population is a corresponding rise in the number of hate crimes. Nationally, levels in 2014 were the lowest since national reporting began in 1992, according to the FBI. Since then, hate crimes have steadily increased. In 2016, the last year with FBI totals available, hate crimes were up 11.7 percent compared to 2014. According to the FBI, the six most frequently targeted groups in 2016 were African-Americans; lesbians, gays and bisexuals; whites; Jews; Latinos; and Muslims. Race continues to be the most common category, comprising 57 percent of all hate crimes. Except for whites, the remaining groups have been the targets of Donald J. Trump's hate speech as a presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016 and as America's President. He trashes high profile members of these groups on a regular basis. Trump’s Aims to Stop or Slow the Browning of America Trump’s primary goal as president is to stop or slow the browning of America, by any means necessary. To accomplish this goal, Trump and his political allies in state and local governments have deployed a number of tools that are popular with conservative white voters. First, they have declared war on people of color who are seeking legal entry into the U.S. White Europeans who seek green cards and/or U.S. citizenship have become Donald Trump’s preferred category of immigrants. This year, First Lady Melania Trump showed the world how Trump’s white-privilege immigration preference works. Her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, took their oaths to become Americans in August after she sponsored their green cards. They benefited from the “chain migration” that Trump has repeatedly criticized for non-white immigrants. Under “chain migration”, a single immigrant who becomes a U.S. citizen may sponsor an unlimited number of other relatives for green cards and citizenship. Second, Trump began separating babies and young children from their migrant parents much like the Nazis did to Jewish families during World War II. In fact, the architect of this family separation policy is Steven Miller, a wayward Jewish presidential adviser who serves the same function in the Trump administration that the Jewish Ghetto Police served under Adolf Hitler. Third, Trump has declared that a U.S.-bound caravan of migrants from Central American countries will not be allowed into America even if they qualify for political asylum under applicable U.S. immigration laws. Trump and his cronies view these migrants as "invaders." Fourth, Trump has encouraged Republican officials in state and local governments to employ (a) unlawful gerrymandering of political districts, (b) discriminatory voter ID laws, (c) illegal signature matching laws, (d) the questionable purging of voter rolls, and (e) a host of other voter suppression techniques that are designed to disenfranchise voters in African-American and Latino communities. Fifth, Trump has fanned the flames of violence against African-Americans; lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people; Jews; Latinos; Muslims, and mainstream media organizations. He has also signaled that it is okay to sexually assault women. Trump calls people in these targeted groups “dogs”, “pigs”, “rapists”, “criminals”, “lazy”, “fake”, “low IQ”, “mobs”, and “thugs.” Sixth, Trump has used the Oval Office to energize and legitimate a resurgent white nationalism movement. Last year, a violent group of neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia took to the streets and chanted, “Jews will not replace us.” One of the neo-Nazis murdered Heather Heyer, an innocent counter-protester. President Donald J. Trump quickly proclaimed that there were “good” people among the neo-Nazi group. Seventh, Trump has placed two Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who are committed to reversing Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that recognizes the legal right of a pregnant woman to choose an abortion. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, fifty-one percent of the women who exercise this right are white. Under Trump’s white population preservation plan, white babies MUST be brought into the world, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the mother's pregnancy. Trump’s Hate Speech is Popular in Southern States Trump’s hate speech is popular in Southern states. Race baiting and the dehumanization of women and people of color have always been popular political themes in Southern states. Today, these states are under solid Republican political control. If you look at the faces in the crowd at Trump rallies in some of these Southern states, they remind you of the gleeful faces shown in old photographs that capture African-Americans being burned alive and lynched during the Jim Crow era. For the most part, candidates running for public office under the Republican banner in Southern states today have no political agenda other than to support President Donald J. Trump. These candidates may be drunkards, wife beaters, child molesters, sexual abusers, adulterers, thieves, tax cheaters, veterans of bankruptcy proceedings, serial liars, bigots of every sort, and social misfits. Yet, these shortcomings do not matter as long as they qualify as Republican candidates and pledge their staunch allegiance to Donald Trump. After all, Donald Trump is the new drum major for white nationalism and racial hatred in America. White hate groups are surging under Trump’s presidency. Trump cannot denounce white nationalism because he is their de facto leader. PHOTO: President Donald J. Trump (right) and neo-Nazis protesters at Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 (left).

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 20, 2018 Last week, he refused to condemn the torture, murder, and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi Arabian “hit squad” because he did not want Khashoggi’s murder to interfere with a multi-billion dollar arms trade deal that is supposedly in the works. Khashoggi was an American journalist who was murdered in Turkey. The Kingdom has acknowledged Khashoggi’s death and the killers have been linked directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The Kingdom's story about what happened mutates daily. Somehow, he is not outraged by Khashoggi’s gruesome murder. He readily embraces each and every false narrative advanced by the Saudis to explain Khashoggi's murder, even though Turkish and American intelligence agencies have informed the State Department that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered. He also celebrated a Congressman who body-slammed a reporter and somehow managed to call his one-time, porn star sex partner a “Horseface.” Never mind that he paid her $130,000 during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about their affair. Two weeks ago, he openly mocked a university professor who testified under oath that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when the two of them were teenagers. The professor took and passed a lie detector test. Kavanaugh would not do so. Last year, he defended violent neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. He claimed there were some “good” people in the Nazi group, even though one of them murdered an innocent female counter-protester. He did not condemn those in the crowd of Nazis who were chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” While campaigning for President in 2015 and 2016, he encouraged supporters at his rallies to beat up protesters. He even pledged to pay the legal fees incurred for assaulting the protesters. He routinely criticizes the physical appearance of women, including the wives of his Republican allies. He often calls women “dogs” and “pigs”. He loves to sling mud at women. After all, he can grab women by the “pussy” because he is a star, or so he says. He lusts after his own daughter, Ivanka, whom he allowed a celebrity radio host to call a “voluptuous”, “piece of ass,” with no adverse consequences for this man's disrespect of his daughter. . His wife’s body language telegraphs that she cannot stand for him to touch her. They sleep in separate bedrooms in the White House. The way he mistreats the First Lady in public is embarrassing to all Americans. Yet, he is incapable of experiencing embarrassed for himself. Supporters Excuse His Lack of Character, Compassion and Decency Because He is Doing a Good Job His political allies and supporters say his character flaws, moral lapses, and lack of conscience do not matter because he is doing such a good job as President of the United States. After all, the economy is strong, Wall Street is thriving, inflation is under control, unemployment is low, taxes have been cut, and he has placed two far-right conservatives on the Supreme Court. The top one percent is doing extremely well. And, the list of his achievements goes on. Like former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, he has freed his political base from the burden of politically correctness when interacting with and/or discussing women, people of color, Muslims, gays, people from “shithole” African countries, Spanish-speaking people, and undocumented immigrants. He has also made it clear that it is okay to separate parents from their young children in order to advance and protect homeland security. The Nazis did the same thing to Jewish families as they were rounded up in Germany. He falls in love easily with brutal despots in North Korea, Russia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, China, and other authoritarian countries. He never condemns their heinous actions. Instead, he searches for ways to justify and spin them. He mocks the weak and poor, and trashes them with impunity. Meanwhile, he gleefully ingratiates himself to dictators. He has attacked the mainstream news media, his own Department of Justice, the FBI, America’s 16 national intelligence agencies, and America’s most trusted allies. He has run up the deficit to $17 trillion under a bogus and discredited theory that the economic benefits flowing to the rich from his big spending programs and recent tax cuts will trickle down to middle class Americans. As expected, nothing has trickled down from the enrichment programs for America’s wealthy oligarchs but their grey water and toilet sludge (figuratively speaking). He has successfully demonized his political opponents and all of the traditional centers of influence that have historically provided a check and balance on executive power. This is why he is free to say and do as he pleases. What is more, he has copied German Führer Adolf Hitler’s playbook for an “Aryan Nation” and is implementing it to perfection. As long as the streets in Germany were clean and paved, the trains ran on time, the economy was strong, the banks were open, trade was good, and the “good” German people were making money, Hitler could do as he pleased with Jews, Gypsies, Black Germans, members of the media, and his other declared “enemies of state.” The “good” Germans simply looked the other way while Hitler exterminated 6 million fellow Germans because he was doing what was necessary to advance and protect homeland security and their way of life. Trump’s dehumanization of entire categories of people paves the way for some very dark and difficult days for America. When an American president actually tries to assist a Saudi Crown Prince in his efforts to cover-up the torture and gruesome murder of an American journalist, this singular disgusting event becomes a defining moment in American history and in the country's national values. Adolf Hitler would have loved Donald J. Trump. Like Hitler, Trump is devoid of any feelings as a human being, and he has no conscience whatsoever. If Trump had been America’s president during Hitler’s reign of terror, he would have been a staunch ally of Hitler and an after-the-fact accomplice to the Holocaust. Both despots exemplify the old axiom that leadership without a moral compass is no leadership at all. PHOTO: President Donald J. Trump (left) and murdered American journalist Jamal Khashoggi (right).

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 26, 2018 We have been here before. We have seen the violence that flows when a political demagogue stokes the flames of hatred against fellow Americans and other targeted groups of human beings. For over a century, we have seen social and political activists in America maimed, lynched, assassinated, and killed in the bombings of churches, homes, and offices because of this hatred. As a child growing up in Montgomery, Alabama during the early 1960s, I watched Governor George C. Wallace repeatedly fan the flames of racial hatred in Alabama until they became a towering inferno. In 1958, Wallace ran in the Democratic primary for governor. At the time, the Democratic Party was virtually the only party in Alabama. After Wallace lost the race to Alabama Attorney General John Malcolm Patterson, he told aide Seymore Trammell, “I was outniggered by John Patterson. And I'll tell you here and now, I will never be outniggered again." Wallace thereafter adopted a hard-line segregationist stance and used this mantra to court the white vote in the 1962 gubernatorial election. When asked why he used racist messages on the campaign trail, Wallace replied, "You know, I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. And then I began talking about niggers, and they stomped the floor." In the 1962, Wallace defeated State Senator Ryan DeGraffenried Sr., by running as a staunch segregationist. Wallace took the oath of office on January 14, 1963, standing on the gold star marking the spot where, nearly 102 years earlier, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America. In his inaugural speech, Wallace said: “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Nine months later, four little girls died in a church bombing in Birmingham that was a direct result of the hatred Wallace had fanned. Donald Trump Has Resurrected Wallace’s Old Politics of Hatred George Wallace ran for president in 1968. He did not make it. In 2016, Donald Trump ran for president and won. As a candidate and again as an elected official, Trump wasted no time in dehumanizing and stoking the flames of hatred toward entire categories of people. The targets of this hatred are mostly women, Muslims, Americans of color, and non-white immigrants from poor “shithole” countries. Trump has described members of these groups as “dogs”, “pigs”, “rapists”, “criminals”, “lazy”, “low IQ”, “mobs”, and “thugs.” Trump celebrates violence against people who oppose his political views. Recently, he praised a Congressman who body-slammed a reporter. In true Wallace fashion, Trump has praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who fought against the American flag during the Civil War. Last year, Trump defended violent neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia. He claimed there were some “good” people in the Nazi group, even though one of them murdered an innocent female counter-protester. He has never condemned those in the Nazi group who were chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” While campaigning for President in 2015 and 2016, Trump encouraged supporters at his rallies to beat up protesters. He even pledged to pay the legal fees incurred for assaulting the protesters. As was the case with Wallace, Trump’s reckless political rhetoric has inspired predictable violence. This week, pipe bombs were delivered to Trump’s high-profile political and media targets, including President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, actor Robert DeNiro, billionaire philanthropist George Soros and CNN, among others. A total of twelve bombs have been located to date. Fortunately, none of the bombs detonated. A Repeat of the Edmund Pettus Bridge Bloody Scene In 1965, George Wallace ordered Alabama State Trooper Colonel Al Lingo to stop civil rights activists, whom he labeled “troublemakers” and “outside agitators,” from marching from Selma to Montgomery. In what is known as “Bloody Sunday,” Lingo and his armed troopers brutally attacked the unarmed marchers with horses, billy clubs, and tear gas at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma as they were attempting to march to the state capital in Montgomery. Fast-forward to 2018. Donald Trump has alerted the military and federal border authorities that a U.S.-bound caravan of 7,000 migrants from Central America constitutes a “national emergency." He has promised to turn the unarmed migrants around at the border. The White House has dispatched 800 troops to the border to confront marchers in the caravan. Of course, any migrant can apply for political asylum at the border and there is nothing illegal about traveling to the border to make such an application. With no evidence to back up his claims, Trump has labeled the migrants as “terrorists” and “drug-dealers.” In reality, they are innocent men, women, and children who are escaping abject poverty and gang violence in their country. This is Trump’s “Edmund Pettus Bridge” moment. This is his opportunity to inflict violence on unarmed men, women, and children just like Wallace did at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Merely separating babies and young children from their parents at the Southern border was not a sadistic enough move for Trump and his diehard supporters. The President obviously senses that his supporters want to see migrant blood running in the streets. We have been here before and it was not good. As a nation, we are better than this. PHOTO: Pipe bomb mailed to John Brennan.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 28, 2018 Alabama Governor George C. Wallace (left) and President Donald J. Trump. In 1968, Alabama Governor George Wallace ran in the United States presidential elections as the candidate for the American Independent Party. Wallace lost, but his ideological twin -- Donald J. Trump -- made it to the White House in January of 2017 as the 45th President of the United States. Both men used hatred as a convenient political tool. Both men vilified people of color in the process. As a result, both men pandered to the worst instincts in Americans. Both men were so-called “law and order” candidates. Both men promoted states rights on racial matters. Both men courted rural white voters and blue-collar union workers, while demonizing non-white, Jewish, and Spanish-speaking Americans. Both men claimed to be a “Nationalist,” which is today’s code word for white nationalism. Wallace referred to Central American, South American, and African nations as “rat-hole” countries. Trump refers to them as “shithole” countries. Both men demanded that European and Asian allies pay more for their defense. Both men implied that they would use nuclear weapons to win wars against other nations. In a now-famous reference to a protester that had lain down in front of President Lyndon B. Johnson's limousine the year before, Wallace stated, "I tell you when November comes, the first time they lie down in front of my limousine it'll be the last one they ever lay down in front of; their day is over!” While campaigning for president, Trump encouraged supporters at his rallies to beat up protesters. He even pledged to pay the legal fees incurred for assaulting these protesters. Wallace labeled political adversaries “punks . . . in diapers.” Trump calls them “dogs”, “pigs”, “rapists”, “criminals”, “lazy”, “fake”, “low IQ”, “mobs”, and “thugs.” Both men made political targets out of Americans of color, Jews, gay Americans, major mainstream news organizations, and non-white immigrants from poor “shithole” countries. On the campaign trail, Wallace often attacked the "pseudo-intellectual government, where a select, elite group have written guidelines in bureaus and court decisions, have spoken from some pulpits, some college campuses, some newspaper offices, looking down their noses at the average man on the street." Trump has tweaked and mimicked this theme. Wallace never condemned mob violence against civil rights protesters. He said the protesters brought the violence upon themselves because they were “outside agitators” and “troublemakers.” Last year, a violent group of neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia took to the streets and chanted, “Jews will not replace us.” One of the Nazis murdered Heather Heyer, an innocent counter-protester. President Donald J. Trump quickly declared that there were “good” people among the neo-Nazi group. Wallace was a 1960s-era flamethrower for racial divisiveness and anti-Semitism. Trump fulfills this role today. Innocent Americans have died within our borders from the gratuitous hate speech spewed by Wallace and Trump. In Birmingham, four little girls died in the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church because of Wallace’s scorching hate speech. Yesterday, 11 Jewish worshippers in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania were murdered in their synagogue because of Trump’s daily barrage of hate speech. God punished George Wallace for the needless suffering he inflicted upon innocent men, women, and children who yearned to enjoy basic constitutional rights in Alabama. The man who stood in the door at The University of Alabama in 1963 to prevent African-Americans Vivian Malone and James A. Hood from registering as students, never stood again after May 15, 1972. That day, a 21-year-old busboy named Arthur Bremer fired on Wallace, paralyzing him for life. Thereafter, Wallace lived everyday in excruciating pain as a result of wounds suffered from Bremer's assassination attempt. Donald J. Trump’s hate speech continues, for the moment. Like Wallace, Trump is now planning his own “Edmund Pettus Bridge” moment. It will occur at the Southern border in early November when a U.S.-bound caravan of 7,000 migrants from Central America reaches our border. Trump has already engaged in a steady stream of reckless hate speech to dehumanize these migrants. Trump has also dispatched 2,700 military troops and federal law enforcement officials to the border to confront the unarmed men, women, and children in the caravan. Rather than setting up adequate stations to accept and process their applications for political asylum, as required by U.S. law, Trump is preparing to inflict violence upon these migrants. George Wallace chose the same path when he ordered state troopers to brutally attack unarmed and peaceful civil rights marchers in 1965 at the base of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Donald J. Trump embodies all of the evil that possessed George Wallace’s mind and body. Trump delivers this evil from the White House in a manner that entertains his rabid political base. In doing so, Trump has unleashed the dogs of hatred in this country and they are running wild.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 22, 2018 On October 2, 2018, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured, murdered, and dismembered by a Saudi Arabian “hit squad” in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Initially, the Saudis attempted to cover-up this murder by denying it. Since October 2nd, President Donald J. Trump has aided this cover-up by parroting every explanation provided by the Saudis for Khashoggi’s murder and finding each one of the ever-changing explanations to be "credible." Trump has coddled and kissed the Saudis throughout this ordeal. Trump justifies his enduring passivity in this matter by saying he does not want Khashoggi’s murder to interfere with a multi-billion dollar arms trade deal that is supposedly in the works. In recent days, the Kingdom finally acknowledged Khashoggi’s murder. The Kingdom also admitted that the killers are linked directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. As a loyal lapdog of the Saudis, Trump has embraced each and every false narrative advanced by the Saudis to explain Khashoggi's murder, even though Turkish and American intelligence agencies informed Trump early on that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered. Trump has a knack for embracing every murderous despot who will meet with him and stroke his oversized ego. He has shown absolutely no disdain for the use of murder as an acceptable political tool. We first saw Trump's acceptance of murder as a political tool in the aftermath of a neo-Nazi’s despicable murder of an innocent protestor in Charlottesville, Virginia. We saw it again with Khashoggi’s murder. Nobody inside Trump’s inner circle has been able to convince Trump that murder is not an acceptable political tool. Trump's political supporters, many of whom are Evangelical Christians, don’t seem to care, one way or the other. To them, “Thou shall not kill,” is just a cute Bible verse that children memorize in Sunday School. Otherwise, it is okay with them to murder innocent people as long as Trump’s close friends in the defense industry profit from arms deals with the murders. We have never had an American president who would say and do anything, no matter how stupid, ignorant, and distasteful it sounded. We have one now. I fully understand why President Trump’s former cabinet members called him an “idiot” and “moron.” They saw his juvenile behavior up-close and on a personal basis. PHOTO: Murder victim Jamal Khashoggi (left) and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right).

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 12, 2018 After rapper Kanye West’s meeting yesterday with President Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office, the GOP's talking heads on the evening TV news shows quickly proclaimed Kanye as the new black leader for African-America. Kanye, who embarrassed African-Americans across the nation during his visit with Trump, put on a degrading “Stepin Fetchit” minstrel show that has not been seen in America since the 1930s. If Kanye West is the GOP’s chosen role model for African-Americans, then Republicans need to become very familiar with the shameful lyrics to the songs he writes. Let’s start with his current hit song, “I love it” (courtesy of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, LLC): “Cause you know in the old days they couldn't say the shit they wanted to say They had the fake orgasms and shit We can tell niggas today "hey, I wanna cum, mothafucka" You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (I love it) You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (I love it) You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (Love it, love it) (I'ma fuck a bitch, tell her cousin) Your boyfriend is a dork, McLovin (dork, McLovin, ooh, ooh, ooh) I just pulled up in a Ghost (Ghost) Fucked that bitch up out in London (up out in) Then I fucked up on her cousin Or her sister, I don't know nothin' (uh-uh, woo) And my niggas gettin' ignorant Like a lighter, bitch, we ignant (ignant, yeah) All this water on my neck Look like I fell when I went fishin' (fell) So much diamonds on my bust down Ooh, fuck, what's the time? (where we at?) Me and Smokepurpp sippin' drank (aye!) Ooh, fuck, she take lines (lines) You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (scoop!) (I love it) You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (I love it) You're such a fuckin' ho When the first time they ask you if you want sparklin' or still? Why you try to act like you was drinkin' sparklin' water 'fore you came out here? You're such a fuckin' ho I'm a sick fuck, I like a quick fuck (whoop!) I'm a sick fuck, I like a quick fuck (whoop!) I'm a sick fuck, I like a quick fuck (whoop!) I'm a sick fuck, I like a quick fuck (whoop!) I'm a sick fuck, I like a quick fuck I like my dick sucked, I'll buy you a sick truck I'll buy you some new tits, I'll get you that nip-tuck How you start a family? The condom slipped up I'm a sick fuck, I'm inappropriate I like hearin' stories, I like that ho shit I wanna hear mo' shit, I like the ho shit Send me some mo' shit, you triflin' ho bitch (bitch, bitch, bitch) You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (I love it) You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (I love it) 'Cause you know in the old days they couldn't say the shit they wanted to say They had the fake orgasms and shit We can tell niggas today "hey, I wanna cum, mothafucka." I see why President Trump, who calls women “dogs” and “pigs,” thinks Kayne West is a “terrific guy.” Kanye was so at home with Trump that he started using the term “mothafucka” in the Oval Office. Nobody tried to stop Kanye from slinging profanity in the Oval Office. It did not matter to the President or his cronies. In “Get Em High”, Kanye wrote these famous lyrics: “Now, throw your motherfucking hands Get 'em high All the girls pass the weed to your motherfucking man Get 'em high Now I ain't never tell you to put down your hands Keep 'em high And if your losing your high then smoke again Keep 'em high.” The African-American community does not need this kind of toxic musical poison from a successful cultural suicide bomber, whether he is on the loose in the White House or hanging around the Poor House. While President Trump admires men who use terms like “bitch” and “ho” to describe our mothers, sisters, daughters, and nieces, these men are not legitimate role models for African-Americans (or anybody else). While the recreational use of “weed” may be fashionable with Kanye West and his White House admirers, it has no useful place in our efforts to build and enhance African-American communities around the nation. Court jesters and minstrels have been around for thousands of years. They provide a form of nauseating entertainment for the ruling class. In Kanye West’s case, the GOP should not try to convert this modern-day “Stepin Fetchit” minstrel into real world leader for African-Americans. PHOTO: Kanye West in his minstrel costume for "I Love It".

Posted on October 8, 2018 This editorial cartoon of President Donald J. Trump congratulating Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) says it all. She is the undisputed "Sucker of the Decade."

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 6, 2018 To the Women of America: Welcome to Dred Scott Land -- a special place where you have no rights that men are bound to respect. It took you nearly a hundred years to arrive back at this awful destination in America history, but you made it. You can thank U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) for delivering you to this dreadful place and sad moment in time. She made sure you arrived at President Donald J. Trump’s political plantation with all the “pomp and circumstance” befitting of a politician who proudly sold you out to an unabashed sexist and chauvinistic plantation master. Senators Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) and Joe Manchin III (D-West Virginia) joined Sen. Collins in delivering you to Dred Scott Land, but she was clearly the political ringleader of this group. Sen. Collins represents to you what Clarence Thomas represents to African-Americans -- a subservient being whose sole reason for living is to please and faithfully serve her plantation master. For women who do not pay attention to American history, Dred Scott is an 1857 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared that black Africans imported as slaves “had no rights that the white man was bound to respect.” Like slaves, women in America had no rights that men were bound to respect from the time the first colony was founded in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 until the 1870s, when a husband’s legal right to (a) beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb, (b) pull her hair, (c) choke her, (d) spit in her face, (d) kick her about the floor, and (e) inflict upon her like indignities came to a fitting end through a series of landmark court cases around the nation. Women did not get the right to vote until 1920. Furthermore, a husband’s legal right to rape his wife did not end until 1979. Like African-Americans, women in America today have legal rights on paper that are rarely enforced in reality. Empty political rhetoric about these rights has replaced genuine enforcement actions. You should know that President Donald Trump is a cold and cruel plantation master. He has an obvious disdain for all women. In his eyes, women have no rights that men are bound to respect. Trump’s view in this regard also applies to his sister, daughters, successive wives, and mistresses. Trump enjoys calling women “dogs” and “pigs.” He brags about grabbing women by the “pussy” and kissing them without their permission. He cheated on third wife Melania with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. He even allowed radio shock jock Howard Stern to call his daughter Ivanka a “voluptuous”, “piece of ass”. Nineteen different women have accused Trump of various incidents of sexual misconduct. Of course, Trump says all of them are lying. Last week, Trump openly mocked Dr. Christine Ford, who took and passed a lie-detector test on her sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. As expected, Trump did not ask Kavanaugh to take a lie-detector test on this subject. Trump also claimed last week that “this is a very scary time for young men in America” because they may have to answer to credible allegations of sexual assault lodged against them by the victims of these assaults. President Trump and his overseers/cult followers (both male and female) will see to it that you are put in your proper place in Dred Scott Land -- vigorously enforced subjugation in American society. Regardless of your political affiliation and/or socio-economic status in life, you will now join First Lady Melania Trump in her miserable life on President Trump’s plantation. If you become a sexual assault victim in Trump’s America, may God help you because Donald Trump and his cult followers will not. As for Sen. Susan Collins, her performance during Friday’s speech in support of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation as the next Supreme Court Justice reminded me of Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal of the fictional character “Stephen” in “Django”, a 2012 movie about slave life on a brutal Mississippi plantation in the early 1800s. She is as cold and cruel towards you as "Master" Trump. I am praying that God will send a modern-day “Moses” to lead you out of Dred Scott Land very soon. Meanwhile, do what you can to survive in this place with dignity. PHOTO: Caricature of an overseer in Donald Trump's version of Dred Scott Land.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 4, 2018 In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. In a 7–2 ruling that was authored by Chief Justice Roger Taney, the Court declared that: “[Black Africans imported as slaves] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, which no one thought of disputing, or supposed to be open to dispute; and men in every grade and position in society daily and habitually acted upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in matters of public concern, without doubting for a moment the correctness of this opinion.” For more than two centuries after America was colonized by European settlers, women in the United States fared no better in their legal standing than African slaves. Like slaves, men could beat and abuse women, at will. Like slaves, women had no legal rights that men were bound to respect. Today, women in America are rapidly approaching a modern-day Dred Scott moment and destination. Their fate is being decided in Washington within the context of the Senate confirmation battle involving President Donald J. Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. The Republican controlled Senate is determined to confirm Kavanaugh as the next Supreme Court Justice, despite a growing controversy involving sexual assault allegations leveled by Dr. Christine Ford against Kavanaugh that occurred when both of them were teenagers. Under pressure from undecided senators, President Trump ordered a supplemental FBI background investigation last week into Dr. Ford’s sexual assault claims. The agency’s investigative report was released to senators today. As expected, the FBI investigation was incomplete and "scripted" to favor Kavanaugh. Agents did not conduct routine interviews with material witnesses who possessed relevant information regarding the alleged sexual assault incident in question. Furthermore, the agents did not interview Dr. Ford and Kavanaugh. For all practical purposes, the FBI investigation was a “sham” exercise that was designed to provide law enforcement "cover" for Republican senators who need a political reason to justify their vote for Kavanaugh. President Donald Trump, who defined the parameters of the FBI investigation and who has browbeat the agency throughout his presidency, is leading the charge for delivering American women to their modern-day Dred Scott destination. In Trump’s world, women have no rights that men are bound to respect. This view applies to Trump's sister, daughters, successive wives, mistresses, and women across America. Trump wants their votes and bodies, but not their political voices. Trump, who views women the same way Chief Justice Taney viewed slaves, enjoys calling them “dogs” and “pigs.” He brags about grabbing women by the “pussy” and kissing them without their permission. He gave radio shock jock Howard Stern permission to call his daughter Ivanka a “voluptuous”, “piece of ass”. He cheated on third wife Melania with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. Nineteen different women have accused him of various incidents of sexual misconduct beyond cheating on his wife. According to Trump, all of these women are lying. Yet, Trump’s propensity to lie is unparalleled in the annals of recorded history for an American president. Earlier this week, Trump openly mocked Dr. Christine Ford, who took and passed a lie-detector test on her sexual assault claims against Kavanaugh. Ironically, the FBI did not ask Kavanaugh to take a lie-detector test on this subject. Trump also claimed that “this is a very scary time for young men in America” because they may have to answer to credible sexual assault allegations lodged against them by the victims of these assaults. “Think of your son”, he told an enthusiastic crowd at a campaign rally two nights ago in Mississippi while talking about the Ford’s sexual assault claims against Kavanaugh. If the Senate confirms Kavanaugh, this seminal event, alone, would signal to the world that American women have finally arrived at their modern-day Dred Scott destination. President Trump and his political supporters (male and female) would have achieved their life-long goal of putting women in their proper place -- renewed subjugation in American society. The “very scary time for young men in America” that Trump so elegantly described in his Mississippi speech would be over. In the new world order under President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and others of their ilk, American women and girls will have no rights that men are bound to respect, especially women and girls who become sexual assault victims. PHOTO: American women may have to prepare for a new world order under the Trump-McConnell-Kavanaugh modern-day Dred Scott-like existence.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 3, 2018 He calls women “dogs” and “pigs.” He brags about grabbing women by the “pussy” and kissing them without their permission. He gave radio shock jock Howard Stern permission to call his daughter Ivanka a “voluptuous”, “piece of ass”. He cheated on third wife Melania with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. He has never said a positive word publicly about his sister, a former prosecutor and retired federal judge, or his mother. Nineteen different women have accused him of various incidents of sexual misconduct beyond cheating on his wife. According to him, all of these women are lying. Yet, his propensity to lie is unparalleled in the annals of recorded history for an American president. He attacked Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife and her physical appearance when he was running against Cruz for the Republican presidential nomination. Like a coward, Ted Cruz (R-Texas) did nothing to protect his wife from this unprovoked, gratuitous, and personal attack against her. He openly supported former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, a reputed pedophile, in his unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Senate seat last year. Moore was accused of molesting several young teenage girls while he was serving as a local prosecutor in Gadsden, Alabama. Last night, he mocked Dr. Christine Ford, the woman who accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers. Ford took and passed a lie-detector test on her sexual assault claims against Kavanaugh, who has not volunteered to take a lie-detector test on this subject. Now, he claims “this is a very scary time for young men in America” because they may have to answer to credible sexual assault allegations lodged against them by the victims of these assaults. “Think of your son”, he told an enthusiastic crowd at a campaign rally last night in Mississippi while talking about the Ford’s sexual assault claims against Kavanaugh. The man who is leading the charge for the protection of male privilege in America is Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States. Trump claims that, “nobody has more respect for women than me." Based upon his word and deeds, Trump has shown that this statement is a lie, as well. PHOTO: Donald J. Trump, the Number 1 protector of male privilege in America.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on October 1, 2018 “You seem to dwell a lot on the past”, wrote one of my readers in response to my article on “Why Do So Many Women Tolerate Male Privilege?”. The reader was correct in his observation. I am a student of history. I study the past in order to understand our present situation and prepare for our future. Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. America’s four hundred years of history are filled with centuries of abusive conduct by white men towards women, blacks, and native Americans. Some people think that just writing about this abusive behavior, “passes blame forward to non-participants” and is “counter-productive.” I disagree. Blame is not passed forward by simply discussing America’s past. Without a doubt, the vestiges of America’s centuries of de jure mistreatment of women, blacks, and native Americans are alive and well today. "Non-participants" can acknowledge this fact or ignore it. Regardless, it is a well-documented fact that tangible privileges and benefits continue to flow to "non-participants" because of these unabated vestiges. If they are honest with themselves, “non-participants” will also acknowledge that certain political groups in this country would love to take America back to a period where white male privilege once again ruled the day. Women, blacks, and native Americans have progressed from no legal rights in America to many legal rights, at least on paper. Their progress in America was the direct result of countless personal acts of sacrifice that are unimaginable by today’s standards. All of us can name a handful of women, blacks, and native Americans today who have attained some measure of power and influence in society. For each one who readily comes to mind, there are thousands of similarly situated white men. With respect to women (who catch more hell in American society on a daily basis than any other group), all of us know they want to be respected for their minds and not their bodies. Women deserve an equal opportunity to compete on a level playing field in the workplace without being subjected to sexual harassment and/or sexual assaults. Women and girls also deserve to live and enjoy productive lives without having to worry about pedophiles, rapists, and sexual predators. When women and girls are molested, raped, and assaulted, all of us who value them want the perpetrators held accountable in the criminal justice system. This seems like a very simple in matter in principle, but it is a very difficult to achieve in reality. Furthermore, no man should ever call a woman (or anybody else) a "dog" or "pig." This is particularly true for the President of the United States, whose tweets are archived in our nation's official records. White men routinely called all women “dogs”, “pigs”, “wenches”, “bitches”, “Jezebels”, “tramps”, “doxies”, “floozies”, “hoochies”, “whores”, and other demeaning names before women got the right to vote in 1920, but who would have ever thought that a modern-day, sitting U.S. President would call them “dogs” and “pigs”. Furthermore, who could have imagined that members of the President’s ruling political party would fail to chastise him for calling any woman a “dog" or "pig." This is why we must always know our country’s history. We have been here before. This was not a “great” period in American history for women, blacks, and native Americans. Nothing came out of this period for women, blacks, and native Americans but agony, anguish, emotional distress, and pain. Finally, the men who profess to love their wives, daughters, sisters, nieces, and other women in the family circle ought to man-up and at least join them in leveling the playing field. Too many of these men are like Sen. Ted Cruz, who allowed candidate Donald Trump to insult his wife and was too weak-kneed and scared to check Trump on his inappropriate, sexist remarks. It is easier for men like Cruz to rationalize and normalize abusive conduct toward women than it is for them to check the men who perpetrate it. PHOTO: American women want to be treated with respect.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on September 30, 2018 If we are honest with ourselves, we would readily admit that all men in America benefit from engrained male privilege in all aspects of our lives, and they do so on an ongoing basis. Men passed all of this country's original laws. For hundreds of years, these laws governed American society. Women had no rights under our laws until a hundred years ago. Even then, their legal rights on paper were rarely enforced in our male-dominated court system. Furthermore, legal protection for marital rape just ended in America in 1979. The vestiges of this legally protected "head start" for men are present to this day. Men run America's national government; they run Wall Street; they run the nation's justice system; they run the nation's regulatory bodies; they run the defense industry; they run America's diplomatic missions around the world; they run private and public corporate boards across America; they run religious institutions like the Catholic and Mormon churches; they run Hollywood; they run country clubs and private civic organizations; they run professional sports franchises; they run the gaming industry; they run the nation's lobbying industry; and they run the media industry. In short, men run everything that matters in American society. If money and power are at stake in any aspect of American life, men run it. Privileges and perks in American society have always accompanied money, power and control. The more money, power and control men have, the more privileges and perks they enjoy. Additionally, there has never been a woman president of the United States, despite the fact that many female candidates have run for the office since women received the right to vote in 1920. Finally, this is what confuses me: Why do men who profess to love their wives, sisters, daughters, nieces and other female relatives so often fail to fight for their long-delayed right to enjoy a level playing field in all aspects of American life? When I fight for the rights of women, I am labeled a "troublemaker." Too often, other men simply invent excuses to avoid fighting for equal opportunity and equal protection for women, including those in their families. Why? I believe these men are afraid to stand up for women in their families because they know how engrained male privilege is in our society, and they do not want to be labeled a "troublemaker." They will go along with male privilege in order to get along with their male friends, family members, co-workers, and colleagues. This is the cold, hard, documented truth about male privilege in America. PHOTO: President Donald Trump, who calls women "dogs" and "pigs," holds a cabinet meeting that is dominated by men. This picture depicts the underwhelming status of women in America today.