NAACP President Jim Vincent: We got to get conscious right now!
“I’m here because I’m outraged,” said Jim Vincent, President of the NAACP Providence Branch. “I’m outraged because of the constant bigotry that has come out of the White House. From the fact that [President Donald Trump] questioned the country of our former President’s birth, to talking about Mexicans being rapists, to talking about Muslims and banning them, to talking to
January 14, 2018, 10:54 pm
By Steve Ahlquist
“I’m here because I’m outraged,” said Jim Vincent, President of the NAACP Providence Branch. “I’m outraged because of the constant bigotry that has come out of the White House. From the fact that [President Donald Trump] questioned the country of our former President’s birth, to talking about Mexicans being rapists, to talking about Muslims and banning them, to talking to Navajos about things that were offensive, to talking about NFL players who are fighting racism and bigotry in this country: I am tired of the divisiveness and the vulgarity…”
[See here for all the speakers at the event.]Vincent was speaking to a packed room at the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island in response to comments made by Trump about Haiti, African countries and other non-white majority nations. The event was organized by Providence City Councilor Nirva LaFortune (Ward 3) with the help of Bernard Georges of New Bridges for Haitian Success, Kappy Bois and Norly Germaine.
Trump, continued Vincent, “has proven to be a racist, going back to when he had a real estate venture with his father in New York, to the Central Park Five, and everything in between. Let there be no mistake: He has a record that he has run on.. and that record is not a pretty one. But I’m outraged as the son of Cape Verdean immigrants because [Trump] doesn’t think that my country counts.”
“I’m outraged that [Trump] doesn’t understand that there are congresspeople in his own party that are Haitian. And he refused to apologize to them!
Not only does Trump “spew hatred” says Vincent, he doesn’t know history.
“He doesn’t know that Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable founded Chicago! [Trump doesn’t] know that there’s a memorial in Savannah, Georgia … a monument to Haitians, who were here, fighting in the Revolutionary War, for America!
“I am outraged that [Trump] thinks [he] can offend one and not offend us all. So we stand tall with the Haitian community, the el Salvadoran community, with the African community and every community of color that [Trump] seems to not feel should be here…
“Don’t enable him. Don’t try to make excuses for him… He is supported by the Ku Klux Klan. If you support somebody that is supported by the Ku Klux Klan, what does that say about you? You don’t have to utter a racist epitaph to be a racist yourself. As long as you enflame and enable people that are [racist], you’re just as bad as they are.
“The NAACP stands strong with the Haitian community. We stand with every community that’s trying to fight bigotry. Any community that’s trying to fight injustice. We have been around a hundred years trying to fight for civil rights and we’ve accomplished much, but we cannot let one President roll back 50 years of progress in this country. We just cannot allow it!
“So we got to get conscious, okay? We got to get conscious right now!”
See also
Providence City Councilor Nirva LaFortune: We must counter darkness and hate with love and light
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