MNI Alive Analysis: Are White Supremacists and President Trump One and The Same?

Let us be clear on one thing. Ideas of White Supremacy such as those that were recently on display in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, this weekend - those ideas never went away in the minds and practice of many.

The march through Charlottesville, Virginia, by White Supremacists, that was met by a counter march by those opposing bigotry, hatred and racism, left one woman dead and scores more injured as a car plowed into the counter protesters. The vehicle was driven by a man who has known connections to hate groups in the United States.

As the images were flashed across our television screens, I could not help but wonder, how does America come back from this advance of hatred that now seems to have found its resurgence with the election of current President, Donald Trump?

What has been furthermore most discomforting for anyone who cares about the state of race relations within the human condition - not just in the United States but globally - is to see the most powerful man in the world; the leader of the "free world' refusing to openly condemn these White Nationalists for what they truly are.

It can be argued that Trump is from an era when such open acts of racial violence were met with cheers and applause in the deep Southern parts of the United States. Thus for Trump, the reality of how grave and retrogressive the actions that took place in Charlottesville actually are, have been lost on him.

Trump's response to Charlottesville was to denounce "both sides" who came to inflict violence.

Both sides? Really Mr President? There is one side that came to spread hate and fear, and there was another side that came to oppose hatred and fear and instead wished to promote liberty and equality. How then can it be assessed that both sides are in the wrong via the developments that resulted in one death and further carnage?

Perhaps the answer to Trump's position can be found in his historical references to race matters in the United States. Prior to him running for the Presidency, he was the champion behind the Birther Movement that was adamant President Obama was not born in the United States, thus his Presidency was illegitimate. A racist movement, or a movement borne out of patriotic American concern? You decide.

Then it was Trump who looked to decree that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States. It was the President also who early in his Presidency refused to disavow the alt-right movement and place distance between himself and these groups that spread hate and racism.

When asked by the media whether he rejected the support of white supremacists, President Trump offered no response. This so pleased the White nationalists that one of their media outlets wrote; “When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him.”

Interesting they should say "God Bless him" for not disavowing racism and bigotry.

Responding to the developments in Charlottesville, the City's Mayor, Mike Signer, told CBS's Face The Nation programme that Trump made a choice while running for President "to play on our worst prejudices.”

He went on to mention; “I think you are seeing a direct line from what happened here this weekend to those choices. ”

Trump has refused to call the atrocities that took place in Charlottesville acts of home-grown terrorism.

This is quite telling, as it has been Trump who in the past so easily jumped to call other such events that have taken place around the world, from mainly persons perceived to be Muslim, acts of terrorism.

Some Republican Senators however, are not waiting for Trump to condemn the perpetrators of the violence that took place in Charlottesville.

One Senator from Colorado states: “The president needs to step up today and say what it is,” said Sen. Cory Gardner.

“It’s evil. It’s white nationalism.” Gardner went on to say.

The most poignant question that now faces America is whether Trump even cares to do more to curb the overt acts of racism, bigotry and hatred that have been further emboldened under his Presidency, by those who feel that he stands with them in their ideologies about White Supremacy.