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Op-ed: Trump's wall is a monument to white supremacy

madasheck

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This opinion piece by Bryan Lee Jr. is a great piece of writing and says what is the underlying reason for this border wall folly. Lee compares it to the move to keep Confederate monuments and notes that it's all propaganda.

As the Trump administration conceives it, a border wall would be next-level propaganda: a racist monument designed to stretch across states, dividing humans, instilling fear in communities, and occupying land to promote a system that views migrants and refugees as an enemy to be subjugated through force. And as he notes, Americans are already paying for the wall on the backs of the furloughed federal workers.​

And now, he says, changing from a concrete wall to steel whatevers shows how hollow this idea was in the first place.

Trump,you know what you can do with your wall.

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/...remacy/580513/
 
This opinion piece by Bryan Lee Jr. is a great piece of writing and says what is the underlying reason for this border wall folly. Lee compares it to the move to keep Confederate monuments and notes that it's all propaganda.

As the Trump administration conceives it, a border wall would be next-level propaganda: a racist monument designed to stretch across states, dividing humans, instilling fear in communities, and occupying land to promote a system that views migrants and refugees as an enemy to be subjugated through force. And as he notes, Americans are already paying for the wall on the backs of the furloughed federal workers.​

And now, he says, changing from a concrete wall to steel whatevers shows how hollow this idea was in the first place.

Trump,you know what you can do with your wall.

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/...remacy/580513/

Why are the current physical barriers on the border not also "racist monuments" and/or "immoral"? Trump is (now) asking for upgrades to some of the existing border barriers and adding about 220 miles of new barriers.
 
This opinion piece by Bryan Lee Jr. is a great piece of writing and says what is the underlying reason for this border wall folly. Lee compares it to the move to keep Confederate monuments and notes that it's all propaganda.

As the Trump administration conceives it, a border wall would be next-level propaganda: a racist monument designed to stretch across states, dividing humans, instilling fear in communities, and occupying land to promote a system that views migrants and refugees as an enemy to be subjugated through force. And as he notes, Americans are already paying for the wall on the backs of the furloughed federal workers.​

And now, he says, changing from a concrete wall to steel whatevers shows how hollow this idea was in the first place.

Trump,you know what you can do with your wall.

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/...remacy/580513/

If this was something new, "maybe" I would agree with it. However, it isn't. I do agree it's become a monument for Trump and his ego, as well as his hill he chooses to die on but that's about it. This is not white supremacy since we already have walls up.
 
If this was something new, "maybe" I would agree with it. However, it isn't. I do agree it's become a monument for Trump and his ego, as well as his hill he chooses to die on but that's about it. This is not white supremacy since we already have walls up.

I think the point is legitimate because of what Trump says. Trump is playing the white supremacy game.


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I think the point is legitimate because of what Trump says. Trump is playing the white supremacy game.

Yeah but that's like labeling a parking cone or speed bump as racist because Trump directed for it to be built. It is infrastructure already in place. Now if there wasn't any walls or barriers there could be an argument for it, but continuing something that has already been done I just don't see it in this case. I DO understand how some people see it that way, I just can't for myself. To each their own on this one I guess.
 
I think the point is legitimate because of what Trump says. Trump is playing the white supremacy game.


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What game where those who authorized building of the current border physical barriers playing? It seems that the 'race card' is played based not on what was (or is to be) done but rather by who is currently supporting (or opposing) it.
 
What game where those who authorized building of the current border physical barriers playing? It seems that the 'race card' is played based not on what was (or is to be) done but rather by who is currently supporting (or opposing) it.
But But But Trump

Like some of the opposition to Obama all reason and common sense has been thrown out the window.
 
But But But Trump

Like some of the opposition to Obama all reason and common sense has been thrown out the window.

Reason and common sense have little to do with politics. Physical barriers on the border were seen as effective until Trump wanted more of them - at that point they suddenly became "racist monuments" and "immoral". Note that these folks do not want the existing "racist monuments" or "immoral" border barriers to be removed or no longer maintained - only those efforts by Trump to pretend to keep a campaign promise are wrong (evil?) and thus must be stopped.
 
Yeah but that's like labeling a parking cone or speed bump as racist because Trump directed for it to be built. It is infrastructure already in place. Now if there wasn't any walls or barriers there could be an argument for it, but continuing something that has already been done I just don't see it in this case. I DO understand how some people see it that way, I just can't for myself. To each their own on this one I guess.

He's using the idea of keeping out Mexicans to pump up his racist followers. It's not just the infrastructure in place. He's revved it up more.
 
What game where those who authorized building of the current border physical barriers playing? It seems that the 'race card' is played based not on what was (or is to be) done but rather by who is currently supporting (or opposing) it.

More supporting. In fact, that's the reason they want it.
 
Reason and common sense have little to do with politics. Physical barriers on the border were seen as effective until Trump wanted more of them - at that point they suddenly became "racist monuments" and "immoral". Note that these folks do not want the existing "racist monuments" or "immoral" border barriers to be removed or no longer maintained - only those efforts by Trump to pretend to keep a campaign promise are wrong (evil?) and thus must be stopped.

Again, it has to do with the theater Trump started with the whole "build the wall" thing. Obama didn't do that. He did what he had to do. Trump made an issue out of it for a (racist) reason.
 
But But But Trump

Like some of the opposition to Obama all reason and common sense has been thrown out the window.

There's a difference. The real reason Reps opposed Trump didn't have as much to do with his policies as the brown suit he wore. With Trump, the guy is so incompetent and stupid, not to mention racist, it's easy.
 
This opinion piece by Bryan Lee Jr. is a great piece of writing and says what is the underlying reason for this border wall folly. Lee compares it to the move to keep Confederate monuments and notes that it's all propaganda.

As the Trump administration conceives it, a border wall would be next-level propaganda: a racist monument designed to stretch across states, dividing humans, instilling fear in communities, and occupying land to promote a system that views migrants and refugees as an enemy to be subjugated through force. And as he notes, Americans are already paying for the wall on the backs of the furloughed federal workers.​
And now, he says, changing from a concrete wall to steel whatevers shows how hollow this idea was in the first place.

Trump,you know what you can do with your wall.

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/...remacy/580513/

Excessively bloated writing, and the constant repeat of unsupported accusations, characterizations and platitudes to a gullible reader is not "great writing", it may not even be great propaganda, especially when most of the essay's "proof" is nothing more than an author's muddy emotionalism and fuming that he feels and wants to be true. You do know that, right?

Sadly, Lee's best moment opens with an anecdote of what is an implausible (if not impossible) event, that someone attending a panel discussion in San Francisco could have thought the South won the war because of 'all those statutes'. Lee would not be the first opinion writer to have spun a ludicrous story to make a thematic point, but even if we generously accept that this grotesquely illiterate crank exists in SF, it says more about the SF culture of its citizens ignorance of history and their talents in propagating the crazy as "normal" than it says about some universal meaning found in confederate statues in the old confederacy (none of which even exist in the state).

Anyway, after this alleged run-in with a local dummy Lee dives into the narrative, that is repetitive for over half the essay; yes, he warns "these symbols, lionized in civic space, are so incredibly dangerous: They validate a racist system of policies and practices designed to subjugate the powerless and operate continuously, independent of individual biases." (They do? Who would have thought that civic spaces of Sparta Mississippi are so powerful that 2000 or 3000 miles west they make the city's older white people of San Francisco forget their primary school lessons ?)

Lee's "great writing" continues as a "stream of partisan consciousness" parrot phrases. Lee says "Walls are on the southern border" so "it's under the same cause" of white supremacy. (I guess we are just supposed to believe him). Skipping over any proof of this is the role of walls, he assures the reader there is "the spatial justice movement" which "is rooted in the larger struggle for freedom and liberation" that challenges the "systems represented by those symbols." (And we know these "systems" still exist, or that "those symbols represent" these alleged systems why, because he keeps repeating his claim?)

Lee then repeats his assertions and characterizations over and over, simply using different phrases and generating different ideological buzz phrases. Its all the usual clichés...which can boiled down to a few simple-minded assertions, that racism and white supremacy is an idea, confederate statues represent the idea of racism and white supremacy, and the wall is also a symbol of that idea, so its also a monument that must be prevented.

And just as Lee feels no need to prove any of this, his sudden transition to attempting to discredit the efficacy of a wall is equally unsupported. How do we know the wall won't work? Because he says so. How do we know the wall is too expensive, because the Democrats say so. How do we know human beings "shows a severe political/moral deficiency", its when anyone believes that their is a material purpose to the wall, of which he has yet to disprove.

So why? Because the author says so.

When you can tell the difference between "great writing" in a persuasive essay and tiresome hack propaganda of the fevered parrot phrases of anti-racism let me know.
 
Why are the current physical barriers on the border not also "racist monuments" and/or "immoral"? Trump is (now) asking for upgrades to some of the existing border barriers and adding about 220 miles of new barriers.
Because the one wanting them is Trump and he has made it political and racist by saying illegals are rapists and drug dealers.

I will give you another example.

The leader of the Danish parliament is a woman from the People's Party. She is and always has been a white nationalist.

Some years ago as part of her job, she proposed that the Danish flag be put up behind the speakers chair as a symbol.

Now I have always wondered why there was no flag and support the idea, but the fact that she proposed it, was an issue because I knew that it was politically motivated. When she then chose a flag type associated with Nazi collaboration, well that only confirmed my point. Sadly she was never confronted on it and the flag hangs there today.

In the end this is not about a barrier or wall since money has been allocated to build and maintain the wall. What it is about, is Trump and his clear white supremacist links and views. What makes it even worse is that he has no plan what so ever for the money he is asking for.



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He's using the idea of keeping out Mexicans to pump up his racist followers. It's not just the infrastructure in place. He's revved it up more.

The above comment is why you will never be considered relevant in the arena of exchanging ideas.
 
This opinion piece by Bryan Lee Jr. is a great piece of writing and says what is the underlying reason for this border wall folly. Lee compares it to the move to keep Confederate monuments and notes that it's all propaganda.

As the Trump administration conceives it, a border wall would be next-level propaganda: a racist monument designed to stretch across states, dividing humans, instilling fear in communities, and occupying land to promote a system that views migrants and refugees as an enemy to be subjugated through force. And as he notes, Americans are already paying for the wall on the backs of the furloughed federal workers.​

And now, he says, changing from a concrete wall to steel whatevers shows how hollow this idea was in the first place.

Trump,you know what you can do with your wall.

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/...remacy/580513/

Brian Lee: We don't need no stinking wall to keep out illegal democrat voters we disgruntled Americans welcome with open arms and open pocketbooks of those still working for a living and paying for the upkeep of these hordes of homeless people.
 
This opinion piece by Bryan Lee Jr. is a great piece of writing and says what is the underlying reason for this border wall folly. Lee compares it to the move to keep Confederate monuments and notes that it's all propaganda.

As the Trump administration conceives it, a border wall would be next-level propaganda: a racist monument designed to stretch across states, dividing humans, instilling fear in communities, and occupying land to promote a system that views migrants and refugees as an enemy to be subjugated through force. And as he notes, Americans are already paying for the wall on the backs of the furloughed federal workers.​

And now, he says, changing from a concrete wall to steel whatevers shows how hollow this idea was in the first place.

Trump,you know what you can do with your wall.

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/...remacy/580513/

What The Trump and now Republican agenda actually is has nothing to do with protecting America. It has everything to do with preserving white European ancestry Republican rule. It is a whining cry not unlike the cry from the Confederate states when they feared their way of life was being threatened. Trump and Republicans see immigrants both legal and illegal as Democratic votes and the changing of America's collective skin color from white to shades of brown with whites being bumped. Trump and Republicans are resisting the demographic change of America. They have embarked on a agenda that seeks to limit immigration in all its forms. From walling off the country to deporting as many as they can. Deportations are not limited to just illegal immigrants. The Trump administration is going after every conceivable category of foreigner they think they can deport. It is fear based identity politics at its worse. All of this is exactly why white supremist and other fair race disciples are uproariously enthusiastic Trump supporters. You can see the Republican agenda working in a whole barrage of tactics designed to limit the voting of brown skinned people. I think the fear is misplaced and ultimately reasonable people of all skin colors will make their case for America. You can always camouflage actual motivations by wrapping yourself in the flag, thumping a bible, and shouting patriotism.
 
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What The Trump and now Republican agenda actually is has nothing to do with protecting America. It has everything to do with preserving white European ancestry Republican rule. ... Trump and Republicans see immigrants both legal and illegal as Democratic votes and the changing of America's collective skin color from white to shades of brown with whites being bumped. Trump and Republicans are resisting the demographic change of America. … ultimately reasonable people of all skin colors will make their case for America. You can always camouflage actual motivations by wrapping yourself in the flag, thumping a bible, and shouting patriotism.

Ah yes, someone else drunk on slogans of mock-righteousness phraseology - useful only to the intellectually lazy (and ungifted). Perhaps if you were more intellectually and historically grounded you might have discovered that parroting the left catechism is pretend argument, canned ranting.

Peruse the 90 year old history of your ideological forefathers and its an old line; your ancestral new leftists and communists, denounced other Presidents as fascists and oppressors, wailing about "new chains for labor" and Presidential "policies have(ing) but one purpose, to make the workers and farmers and middle classes pay the costs of the crisis, to preserve the profits of the big capitalists at all costs, to establish fascism and to wage imperialist war abroad ."...yada, yada, yada.

However, should you try some independent thinking you might arrive at something uncanned - something that isn't cadre speak.

Yes the Trump and Republican agenda have had more than one purpose, one of them to do with protecting THE WELL BEING of America. In general, Americans who voted for Trump (Democrat and Republican) feel politicians have betrayed them (in particular, the establishment Republican mainstream) and ignored the sense that the blue collar middle class has regressed, rather than advanced, with the loss of manufacturing jobs. No one, except Trump, was serious about the use of tariffs to make an equal playing field nor was anyone serious about low cost immigrant labor taking jobs and living off welfare programs at the tax cost of long-time, native born, Americans.

That doesn't mean their was not also a sense of lost culture and shared values, a belief that those in unprotected classes were being economically harmed by "protected classes", that folks were tired of being called racists on every social issue when they wanted equal treatment, and the political landscape was nothing but a sea of identity politics (with their race or gender being the object of denunciation, direct or implied).

So naturally the left, having largely abandoned concern over the blue collar class (except Sanders), and far more obsessed over race and gender (and those glass ceilings for rich female executives) got working class backlash - much harder than anyone could have anticipated.

Mind you I don't agree that all these concerns were necessarily valid, but I have no need to ignore their actual motivation to fit my political prejudices (as you do).

So yes, illegal immigration has been a hot issue beginning the late 1970s, when even many blue collar Democratic leaders were on the side of the heritage population. And for the last 50 years the ONLY thing that has changed is the transformation of the left into promoters of identity politics (over class) and their growing awareness that but for the relentless infusion of new foreign voters, the demographics would be running against them rather than for them. In other words, both assimilation and a stable population is the enemy to Democratic electoral success - something that Democrats recognized long before mainstream Republican leaders (and some still don't get it).

"The competing agendas" of Republicans has not changed but there has been growing agreement that whatever reform may be adopted, 50 years of six and seven digit illegal immigration is not acceptable.

All of which leads me to ask, so what? What is wrong with preserving the historic culture of Europe or Western Civilization? What is wrong with protecting blue collar jobs? What is wrong for ANY RACE or GROUP to feeling threatened by extinction - be they American Indians, WASPs, or Jews? What is wrong with assimilation? What is wrong with attempting to check the impact of population growth and the loss of farmland, the transformation if rural towns into enclaves for those with money, and skyrocketing housing prices? What is wrong with treating our right to make legal vote as at least as serious as of what is required to open a bank account or cash a check, a photo ID?


Cont...
 
Cont.

Every people have a right to self-determination within their borders. Unfortunately that right has been undermined by the fraudulent promises of politicians 40 and 50 years ago, the chamber of commerce business lobby, and the aims of Democratic leadership to care more about the well-being of foreigners than they do of Americans.

So yes, we do understand the agenda.
 
This opinion piece by Bryan Lee Jr. is a great piece of writing and says what is the underlying reason for this border wall folly. Lee compares it to the move to keep Confederate monuments and notes that it's all propaganda.

As the Trump administration conceives it, a border wall would be next-level propaganda: a racist monument designed to stretch across states, dividing humans, instilling fear in communities, and occupying land to promote a system that views migrants and refugees as an enemy to be subjugated through force. And as he notes, Americans are already paying for the wall on the backs of the furloughed federal workers.​

And now, he says, changing from a concrete wall to steel whatevers shows how hollow this idea was in the first place.

Trump,you know what you can do with your wall.

https://www.citylab.com/perspective/...remacy/580513/

Why isn't anything short of open borders with no check points or control not immoral or racist?
 
What game where those who authorized building of the current border physical barriers playing?

The current border barriers are nothing like the 8 Trump prototype 30' high walls that were erected in San Diego for testing. To equate them is a bit disingenuous.

Probably the main problem is that Trump used border security as red-meat for his base. His wall was a totem, an icon of Trumpism.

His ugly politicization of border security ensured significant pushback. Not against border security per se, but against this contrived emblem of Trumpism.
 
The current border barriers are nothing like the 8 Trump prototype 30' high walls that were erected in San Diego for testing. To equate them is a bit disingenuous.

Probably the main problem is that Trump used border security as red-meat for his base. His wall was a totem, an icon of Trumpism. That seems to be the equivalent of physical barriers on the border are fine so long as they are not to high and have plenty of gaps between them.

His ugly politicization of border security ensured significant pushback. Not against border security per se, but against this contrived emblem of Trumpism.

OK, and that differs from any other resist, resist, resist "reason" how?
 
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