The House and Senate POCI Caucus issued the following statement responding to Donald Trump’s social media post depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
“This is not the first time – and we doubt it’s the last – that Donald Trump posts or says something racist and deeply offensive. Invoking one of the most offensive tropes on former President and First Lady Obama is more evidence that Donald Trump is unfit for public office in our diverse nation. The Obamas served this country with respect and dignity that we miss badly today.
While we know Trump is incapable of apologizing, admitting wrong or growing as a person, other Republicans have the opportunity to show that they have a moral red line, that their loyalty to the people of this country is deeper than their loyalty to Trump.
The Trump administration has no shame or decency to hide its blatant racism; from defunding HBCUs and eliminating DEI to using racist tropes to dehumanize historic Black leaders of this generation, its actions are reprehensible.
Racist ‘jokes’ lead to racist policy. Dehumanizing a community lays the groundwork for inhumane acts of violence, like deploying thousands of federal agents with a protocol based on race to harass, arrest and deny rights to Minnesotans of color. We are less than a week into Black History Month – a time where we should be uplifting Black Americans and reckoning with the racist history of this nation. The president’s actions demonstrate why we have this month of reflection.
Every American with integrity and humanity should be ashamed of this president and denounce this immediately.”