Donald Trump Is A Racist, And His Attack On John Lewis Proves It

Atlantan Robbie Medwed Responds To President-Elect’s False Claims About Georgia’s 5th District

On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, verbally attacked Congressman John Lewis, a hero of the Civil Rights Movement and accused him being “all talk, talk, talk — no action or results.” 

As a proud resident of Georgia’s 5th Congressional District and as someone who’s been privileged to know and be represented by Congressman Lewis for years, I can only respond: Far from it. 

John Lewis played an integral role in the Civil Rights Movement and he continues to play an integral role in national politics and in community events and efforts here in Atlanta. Congressman Lewis is constantly spotted out and about in town and with groups of all kinds. (It’s not officially Atlanta Pride until Congressman Lewis runs by you during the parade greeting everyone with high-fives and hugs.)

The problem with Trump’s Saturday tweets weren’t with the accusations of Congressman Lewis. Those were easily proven wrong. The most offensive aspect of Trump’s tweets was the inherent racism.

Trump described Georgia’s 5th District as a place that’s “in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime-infested.)” That’s simply wrong. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta is 14th in the country for violent crime, and in nearly every other metric, we’re at or below the national average. Almost nine out of 10 of my neighbors here are high school graduates and about 40 percent of them have at least a bachelor’s degree. 

People love living here. Throughout the day Saturday, Atlantans (or, I should probably say, ATLiens, as we say) clapped-back. We may not be perfect but there’s a reason #WeLoveATL and #ForeverILoveAtlanta are mainstay ideas around here. 

So what was the basis for Trump’s claim? Georgia’s 5th District is majority black, (58 percent) and in Donald Trump’s world, black people all live in the “inner city.” As Slate’s Jamelle Bouie writes, Trump’s vision of America is a white supremacist’s fantasy. Trump even went so far as to double-down on his racist tirade Saturday evening, saying, “Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!” 

Atlanta isn’t burning (not since 1865, at least.) We aren’t crime ridden. We are home to some of the world’s largest businesses. Coca-Cola, CNN, Delta, Georgia-Pacific, Porsche, Honeywell, the American Cancer Society and numerous others all call Atlanta the 5th District home. We’ve got the world’s busiest airport.  We’re home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the largest federal employer outside of the D.C. area. We’ve got plenty of incredible universities: Emory, Georgia Tech, Morehouse, and Georgia State, to name a few. Oh, yeah, and we also hosted the only debt-free Olympics in the modern era and we’re the center of a massive music movement.

(At one point Trump loved the Georgia 5th so much he wanted to build a massive Trump Tower complex here. It failed, miserably.)

But John Lewis is an accomplished and beloved black man and in Trump’s world, that’s a bridge too far. Remember how Trump dedicated the majority of the past eight years working to delegitimize the first black president  by claiming Barack Obama wasn’t actually American or Christian? This weekend’s attack came from the same deep-seated disdain for black people Trump has displayed for years. 

At this point, I don’t know how many ways we need to say it before people fully understand it: Donald Trump is a racist. This weekend’s attack on John Lewis was steeped in racism. His speeches have been rooted in racism. The president-elect of the United States is racist. 

I tweeted this weekend that “It’s not enough to quietly disagree with Trump. It doesn’t count if you’re silent. If you don’t speak out, you’re helping him.” 

Robbie Medwed is an Atlanta-based LGBTQ activist, educator, and writer. He’s been proud of his congressman more times than he can count and he loves living in his “horrible, falling apart, and crime-infested district.” Follow him on Twitter: @rjmedwed