Barack and Michelle Obama on inauguration day in 2009. (Photo: Govt)
President Trump portrayed the Obamas as apes in his late night social post, and most people rushed to condemn his act as racist. But it might be far worse than merely racist.
What he did is called ‘’dehumanizing propaganda,” and this is not the first time he has done this.
Donald Trump posted this racist video portraying the Obamas as apes on his Truth Social account. It was later deleted, but he refused to apologize for it. (Photo: ScreenCap)
In the past, his targets have been Blacks, Mexicans, immigrants, and Muslims. The point is to place people at less than a human level. In his latest example Blacks are primates, less than human.
In the 1930s Hitler effectively used dehumanizing propaganda to compare Jews to vermin.
In the 1990s, Hutus in Rwanda compared Tutis to cockroaches.
More than 1 million people, mostly Muslims, are in Chinese concentration camps because they are considered to be less than human.
In May, Trump said about undocumented immigrants, “These aren’t people. These are animals.’’
Soon after his ICE began, at Trump‘s direction, a campaign continued that did and still does treat immigrants as animals.
Genocide followed Hitler’s and the Hutus’ dehumanizing propaganda. Millions lost their lives after people became desensitized to the genocide of whom they considered to be less than human.
Even if genocide does not follow claims that people are subhuman, deprivation of civil rights often does. We are seeing that with immigrants.
A poster dehumanizing Jews in Nazi Germany from the propaganda film ‘Wandering Jew,’ (Poster: Hans Schweitzer)
This propaganda is used to assert that a person or a class of people are superior to the target of the propaganda. Those described as subhuman are not considered by some to be worthy of the same protection as those considered superior.
Assuming Trump has more in mind than merely lashing out without a real purpose other than to be vile, dehumanizing Blacks was his effort to deny this population’s full humanity.
What he did was the opposite of promoting equality and equal citizenship for all. As an aside, he is violating rights under our Constitution and the oath he took (recall he would not place his hand on the Bible).
If a group can be effectively dehumanized, there are people who will no longer act morally and will attack this group with words and with physical action. In the past violence, even genocide, followed dehumanizing propaganda.
Reduced empathy for the targeted group is another goal of this propaganda. Dehumanizing one group can create in a second group emotions of danger, disgust and fear; these emotions can also lead atrocities committed against the dehumanized.
That this is Trump‘s intention cannot be fully eliminated.
Dehumanization made slavery and segregation possible in this country. It followed that if Blacks could be considered subhuman, slavery, or segregation would not be a violation of human rights.
We are faced with a likelihood that the president of the United States has taken graphic steps to publish that which dehumanizes nearly 50,000,000 US citizens.
Underscoring his intentions was his refusal to apologize when confronted. He said he did nothing wrong.
Incredible, simply incredible.
Maybe he was acting as a degenerate, a man suffering dementia, just a mean, evil monster. But we can’t discount the possibility he had another heinous purpose for his dehumanizing propaganda.
Is the president attempting to set the stage for further action? There’s no way to tell other than to watch what he doesc and recall that he believes that the United States should be a white Christian nation without room for others who are not.
He must be held accountable for his deprivation of rights. And perhaps worse.