“I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive.”―Harriet Tubman
The Republican party never misses an opportunity to destroy an opportunity to expand its base.
At every opportunity, President Trump showcases his disdain for diversity as he stands up for “very fine people.”
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The president who referred to the “shithole countries” of Africa has hurled insults at black women in America, like longtime ally and senior White House aide turned “dog” Omarosa, “low IQ” congresswoman Maxine Waters and her “wacky” colleague Frederica Wilson, and reporters like “loser” April Ryan, “racist questioner” Yamiche Alcindor and “stupid questioner” Abby Phillip.
Now comes word that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin reportedly plans to “delay” the printing of the new $20 bill until after Trump leaves office. That’s because the bill, under a plan set forth by President Obama, would replace slave owner, “Indian” hater and Trump hero Andrew Jackson, nicknamed King Mob, with the former slave and legendary abolitionist Harriet Tubman, the visionary behind the famed underground railroad.
How far the party of the abolitionists has fallen from its founding in 1854. The storied party of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and the Suffragists at Seneca Falls, the party that fought for the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution was the party of African Americans all the way up until the 1960 election between JFK and Richard Nixon. Tricky Dicky’s loss led him to run a “southern strategy” in his 1968 and 1972 campaigns, driving a wedge between the GOP and black voters that has widened for more than 50 years.
The bottom line is that Trump, who as a candidate called the plan to put Tubman on the bill "pure political correctness,” does not care if he offends black voters, having won the support of just 13 percent of black men and just 4 percent of black women in 2016.
For the first time in decades, there is not one black woman in the president’s cabinet or among his White House senior staff. Make no mistake, Trump is taking us backward to a time when women, and certainly women of color, remained in their place.
Their place will not be on our currency until we elect a better president.
