In case you haven’t heard, Donald Trump, the billionaire American businessman is running for President. And, in case you haven’t heard, he’s a racist. More specifically, he hates Mexicans. He thinks Mexicans are murderers and rapists. He even said so. And the Internet says so. So it must be true.
First of all, let me just say that I’m not a Donald Trump apologist. I can cite several reasons why I’m not going to support him for President—namely, that he’s not what I would consider to be a true conservative. But, he’s not a racist. And he didn’t say that all Mexicans are murderers and rapists. And if you believe that, then I contend you are an incredibly foolish and gullible person who is easily swayed by popular opinion and mass media. And I think you should be ashamed of yourself.
Second, I am a Mexican. My name is Diego Jesus Rodriguez—and quite frankly, it doesn’t get more Mexican than that. Plus, my skin is brown and I grew up eating weenies con huevos for breakfast and I was called “mijo” by my parents and many other Mexican women who I don’t really know. So yes, I’m Mexican. No big deal.
But let me tell you what is a big deal—it’s a big deal when our culture is so easily swayed and influenced by mass media, repeated sound bytes, and a common leftist narrative that the majority of people can’t even have a rational thought for themselves, nor can they express their own thoughts with reasonable people who are willing to listen and respond with facts and logic. What kind of future do we have as a nation, if we are unwilling to discuss things rationally? It’s incredibly dangerous for our future if our culture doesn’t allow us to communicate or articulate our positions respectfully.
This became all too apparent recently with our media talking repeatedly about Donald Trumps “racist remarks.” With the amount of attention he’s getting you’d think that he himself raped and then murdered a poor black, single lesbian mother, who is also a disabled veteran. How could he?!?! He’s evil! He’s a racist!
Interestingly enough, in the midst of the media’s nonsense, I boarded a plane to head to Mexico on a short business trip. Yup, Mexico. And guess what? I heard it from the Mexicans down there as well. “Americans hate us,” a man told me. “What makes you say that?” I asked. “That rich guy says we’re all rapists,” was his response. Yup, even Mexican media takes their lead stories from American headlines.
So I enquired some more. “Is it dangerous down here in Mexico?” I asked. “¡Claro que sí!” they told me. “Hay muchas drogas y criminales en todo el paiz. Y no puedes tener la confianza en la policía porque son corruptos.” That means “Absolutely! There’s lots of drugs and criminals in the whole country. And you can’t even trust the police because they’re corrupt.” Sure, there are safe areas and protected tourist traps, but the country as a whole is corrupt, oppressive, and potentially dangerous. And that’s the story the Mexicans tell me about their own country. And I agree. But it’s okay if we say it, because we’re brown. Donald Trump can’t say it because he’s white and he’s rich. That’s pretty much the worst thing you can be these days—rich and white. And I guess he’s even worse because he’s a heterosexual man. And he even claims to be Presbyterian, so that makes him a rich white, heterosexual, Christian businessman. He might as well be Lucifer.
Come on folks, let’s reason together. There are illegal immigrants who are unlawfully entering this country and committing crimes. Among those crimes are murder and rape. That’s not racism, that’s a fact. And you know what the worst part is—those who are murderers and rapists are mostly murdering and raping other Mexicans. And nobody wants to talk about that. But it’s true. It’s a simple fact of life. It’s the nature of humanity. People hurt their own.
Take a look at the gangs in our country. The black gangs murder one another. It’s the Bloods versus the Crips. The Mexicans kill one another. It’s the Norteños against the Sureños. Brother against brother. People killing their own. It’s what people do.
But never mind these facts. You see, when the media has an agenda, they will jump on any opportunity to slander someone that they oppose. Donald Trump is the perfect case-in-point. He never said all Mexicans were racists. Here’s what he actually said:
“The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc. This was evident just this week when, as an example, a young woman in San Francisco was viciously killed by a 5 time deported Mexican with a long criminal record, who was forced back into the United States because they didn’t want him in Mexico.”
Read it again for yourself. Does he hate Mexicans? Did he say all Mexicans were rapists? Of course not! He said that some illegal immigrants from Mexico were murderers and rapists and the Mexican government was sending them here and he used an actual example to support his point. Then why do we keep hearing that he said “all Mexicans are rapists?” Because it’s an emotionally charged accusation that easily consumes the headlines for weeks and influences the minds of millions who are unable to think rationally for themselves. I hope that’s not you. I hope you are not one of these glittering jewels of colossal ignorance. I hope you love truth more than irrational emotion driven by false accusations. He went on to say this:
“The United States has become a dumping ground for Mexico and, in fact, for many other parts of the world. On the other hand, many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better for it. But these people are here legally, and are severely hurt by those coming in illegally. I am proud to say that I know many hard working Mexicans—many of them are working for and with me…and, just like our country, my organization is better for it.”
It’s obvious that there is a big difference between what Donald Trump actually said and the news reports you’ve probably heard which claim that he said “all Mexicans are murderers and rapists.” Now you know the truth.
My contention is that we must love truth. As a minister in an “inner city” church for nearly a decade, serving mostly blacks and Hispanics, I can tell you a lot about these cultures, and a lot about human nature. You learn a lot in that type of position. And here’s what I found—people hate being lied to but the only thing they hate more than being lied to, is being told the truth.
And this is nothing new, even the great Apostle Paul found that his own disciples despised him for telling them true things that they did not want to hear (Galatians 4:16). It’s why we say that “children are cruel.” Not because children are intentionally sadistic, but because they are not sophisticated enough to understand political correctness so they open their mouths and say true things that we don’t want to hear. They say that people are fat and ugly and things like that. You know, painful things that are obvious and true that people don’t want to hear.
I remember the time my son Micaiah asked me, “Dad, why do people call black people black? They’re not black, they’re brown!” Gotta love it! It’s true. Think about it. They are brown. They’re not black. Or the time one of the kids in our church told me, “Pastor, you have crooked teeth.” (I used to have terribly crooked teeth). But you can’t say stuff like that. I’m not talking about being intentionally rude or disrespectful—I’m talking about telling the simple truth. But in America today, you can’t tell the truth. You can’t say Bruce Jenner is a dude and you can’t say that some illegal immigrants are murderers and rapists. You can’t say these things! Why? Because they are true.
Donald Trump has violated this liberal code. He said something true and the elite social engineers of our culture have deemed it unholy and unrighteous. You can’t say that, Donald! You bigot! You racist!
Never mind the fact that in 2014 alone, our Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department released illegal immigrants back into our midst who were responsible for over 80,000 murders, rapes, kidnappings and other criminal offenses. But of course, those facts get very little coverage because we are too busy talking about how awful it is that Donald Trump said some illegal immigrants were murderers, instead of talking about how awful it is that illegal immigrants actually committed murder (like Kathryn Steinle)! Welcome to America 2015.
Can we be mature enough in this country to allow the truth to be spoken, even if we don’t like it? Can we be intellectually honest enough to at least determine what someone actually said or what they actually believe instead of ignorantly believing the headlines of mass media and celebrity tweets?
When will we as a culture start to judge and identify people as individuals and not as categories or groups? Isn’t that the dream of the promised land that Martin Luther King foresaw and longed for?
If a white racist cop abuses me because I’m Mexican (and yes, this has happened to me), should I then assume all white cops are racists? Should I assume all cops abuse their authority? If a black teenager steals from a convenience store to buy drugs, should I assume all black teenagers are drug addicts and criminals? If I meet an overweight white hillbilly at Walmart with a confederate flag on his shirt and no teeth, buying 2 cartloads of food with his EBT card, should I assume that all Caucasians from the south are obese white trailer trash on welfare? Come on folks! Aren’t we smarter than this? I wish we were, but we’re not in this country anymore.
This last week, I was attending a conference where Donald Trump was a guest speaker. At the end of his speech, he took questions. The first question was from a man who claimed to be from Mexico who stated that he was deeply offended by Trumps recent remarks. He went on from there with the usual and expected media narrative, so I decided I had to make a rebuttal. I didn’t want everyone in the room to think that all brown people (like me) believe this same nonsense. So I got in line to ask a question and make my statement.
I stood behind a young blond girl who became increasingly agitated with every word Donald spoke. She evidently couldn’t stand him. Her facial expressions and constant muttering gave the impression of her own perceived piety—that she was the morally superior soul who alone cared about the well-being of these poor Mexican people that Mr. Trump was demeaning and verbally abusing. She kept looking at me to see if she would gain some support to her grumblings against Mr. Trump. After all, I’m a brown guy, so I must agree with her, right? But, I just kept clapping whenever Trump finished his responses.
She finally looked up at me and asked, “Do you like him?” And I responded, “Yes. And I’m Mexican.” Then I just smiled.
Her face became immediately flush and she was evidently flustered and angered. “I don’t understand how that could be? Don’t you know he’s racist?” she asked in disgust. “No he’s not,” I responded. “Yes he is!” she demanded. “He said that all Mexicans are rapists. How racist is that?!?!” My response was simple, “Miss, he didn’t say that. You are allowing yourself to be manipulated by the media.” With that she retorted, “Hmmphh! I am the media. I work for Reason magazine, thank you very much!” Then she turned around angrily and clearly sent me the message that I disgusted her and she did not want to talk to me anymore.
How about that? She claimed to represent the media. As if her opinion and position was the position for the whole media. As if she was exempt from my statement about the media’s manipulation tactics simply because she worked for a magazine. And isn’t it ironic that this woman who evidently couldn’t have a reasonable or rational conversation works for a magazine called Reason?
So how about this? How about I judge Reason Magazine (a decidedly Libertarian publication, by the way), by my single interaction with this one young lady? Should I now assume that Reason Magazine is an irrational news outfit that only hires emotionally charged, pious white ignorant youth, who actually lack reason, and buy into the popular leftist media narrative on all issues, regardless of facts, thereby making them unworthy of my readership? After all, that was my experience with ONE of their representatives?
You see, I think it is obvious and self evident that if you judge an entire group or category of people by one individual in that group, then you’re an idiot. Furthermore, if you believe hyped up media stories based on ulterior motives and political agendas without determining what the facts are for yourself, then I think you’re an idiot.
Fortunately for myself, my friends, and my family—and I guess even for Reason Magazine, I’m not that ignorant, foolish, or irrational. Unfortunately for America, too many Americans are.
So to my young blond friend in line ahead of me at Donald Trump’s speech, it’s not that Trump is a racist, it’s that you’re an idiot. And what a shame, because you were kind of cute. (I know, how sexist of me! But hey, she was kind of cute.)
