“Poisoning the blood of America” is the new mantra by Donald Trump as he spews out his venomous views on immigration policy into the United States. In language that mirrors Adolf Hitler’s attacks on Jews in Europe in the 1930’s, Donald Trump is going out of his way to dehumanize immigrants entering this country from non-white regions of the world.
In a speech last week in New Hampshire Trump made direct reference to “places in Africa and Asia” as the home of people who are poisoning the blood of America. (I guess that means that Trump’s wife, Melanie Trump who immigrated from Slovenia in Central Europe does not poison our nation’s blood.)
This language is the opening salvo of an outright attempt to assert white supremacy. It is the real meaning of Make America Great AGAIN! It is tied to an intentional effort to maintain a political system that is run by and on behalf of white people in this country, many of whom are terrified at the prospect of demographic changes in this country over the next 10-15 years that will result in white people no longer being the population majority in the United States.
The best way to prevent this poisoning of the bloodstream of this country in the mind of would-be dictators and despots is to stoke fear and create hatred for people who do not fit within the White Anglo Saxon Protestant tradition. What is ironic in his language is that Trump is likely unaware that this same language about poisoning the blood stream of the country was used against white Roman Catholics who came to this country from Ireland in the 19th century, and from Italy in the early 20th century, as well as Jews who were coming from Eastern Europe.
Apparently 246 years of rape and sexual violence by white men against black women did not result in poisoning the blood stream of the country as they were fathering children whose appearance covers nearly every shade known to humankind.
Over time, those European-based ethnic groups were allowed to meld into the broad category of “whiteness.” However, as Michael Novak wrote in his 1972 book, The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnic, there does not seem to be an opportunity for non-white people to be viewed as equal citizens in this country.
That is on display in immigration policy meant to limit entrance into this country of persons of African, Hispanic, Asian, or Arab heritage. It is also on display in attempts to limit access to voting rights for many Americans that were born in this country.
What is particularly amazing is the idea of poisoning the blood of the country was not seen as a problem during the slave era in this country. White slave owners like Thomas Jefferson were fathering children with enslaved black women like Sally Hemings.
As Dr. Deborah Abbott, a Cleveland-based genealogist discovered, my own family on my mother’s side includes a slave owner named Benjamin Prall who fathered four children by an enslaved woman, one of whom was my great-great grandmother from Kentucky. I guess 246 years of rape and sexual violence by white men against black women did not result in poisoning the blood stream of the country as they were fathering children whose appearance covers every shade from nearly white to clearly dark-skinned people.
We should remember that Native Americans were the first group of people to be excluded from citizenship because they might poison the bloodstream of 18th and 19th century America. Today, that same vile language is being used by a former President of the United States who is the current Republican front runner for their nomination for yet another term in office.
It should be kept in mind that no national Republican officeholder has rebuked these comments by Donald Trump. Their silence at this moment in history serves only to embolden and affirm what Trump is saying.
Let me speak loudly in the face of their silence, it is not immigrants that are “poisoning the blood” of this country. It is the bigotry of people like Donald Trump and his sycophants who cling to the presumption of white privilege that are the greatest dangers to the future of our multiracial democracy.
R E C E N T:
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A brief primer on the history of Palestine
The Hamas Attack
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The Rev. Dr. Marvin A. McMickle, pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, is interim executive minister, Cleveland Baptist Association, American Baptist Churches, USA. He served as president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, New York, from 2011 to 2019.
