Statement of Claude Cummings on Donald Trump’s Racist Attack on Congresswomen of Color

It’s past time to be surprised or even disgusted when Donald Trump displays his overt racism. His attack on women of color honorably expressing their views and values as duly elected officials isn’t Trump’s first display of racial hate. It won’t be his last.

Donald Trump is a man with a broken, irredeemable character who fails as a leader every day. He’s not changing. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.” Our challenge is to convert our disgust with Trump’s message of hate and division into activism to protect the American values we love.

There is nothing gained by hating Trump back. There is everything to gain by using our power at the ballot box to remove him and all those who accommodate and advance his message of hate with their silence. Dr. King gave us guidance here as well when he said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

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CWA District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings, Jr. heads CWA's Human Rights Program.