There are comments you can make that have racist undertones, that cleverly hint that you might secretly be a terrible person—and then there are comments that straight-up say, “Hey guys! I’m racist!” Lately, the Trump administration is really into that second type.
On Thursday, Trump appointee Carl Higbie resigned as chief of external affairs for the federal government’s volunteer service organization after CNN some disturbing comments he made in 2013.
In one of his comments, he claimed that could “guess the color” of a family based on their living conditions: “I told this story the other day on my show. Somebody who lives in my condo association that has five kids, and it’s her and her husband with the five kids and the mother, the grandmother of the kids, and they don’t have jobs, they’re there all the time — I bet you can guess what color they are — and they have no job.”
During one appearance on the radio, Trump appointee Carl Higbie said “the black race” had “lax morals” and black people thought “breeding is a form of employment.”https://t.co/MWhCJiafbO pic.twitter.com/v4bfnD51DT
— andrew kaczynski? (@KFILE) January 18, 2018
In another instance, he said that he did not like Muslims, and that if that made him racist, he was fine with it: “I was called an Islamophobe and I was like, ‘no, no, no, no, no, I’m not afraid of them. I don’t like them. Big difference.’ And they were like, ‘well, you’re racist.’ I was like, fine if that’s the definition of it, then I guess I am.'”
Among other appalling statements, he said soldiers with PTSD had a “weak mind”, that 75% of soldiers who say they have PTSD are lying, and not only that he is opposed to gay marriage, but that “I don’t like gay people. I just don’t.”
In a tweet Friday morning, he stated, “I’m sorry. I’m not sorry that my words were published, I am sorry that I said them in 2013. Those words do not reflect who I am or what I stand for, I regret saying them. Last night I informed the WH that I was resigning so as not to distract from POTUS’ many success. #noexcuses”
It can be extremely disconcerting to hear the blatant racism that has been excused in our culture for so long, and, frankly, it’s exhausting to wake up day after day and hear another racist comment made by our country’s leadership. Take care of yourselves, collegiettes. We will get through this rocky political climate.