Over the weekend, President Trump took to Twitter, repeatedly, to attack Congressman Elijah Cummings and the predominantly black district of Baltimore City that he represents. He described Maryland’s “rat and rodent infested” 7th District as a “very dangerous & filthy place” and declared that “no human being would want to live there.”
In a way, there was nothing new in this latest outburst: It comes fast on the heels of him telling four freshman congresswomen of color, all Americans, that they should, “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places” from whence they came. Since his emergence on the national political stage, he has used his bully pulpit to attack and denigrate women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, and those with disabilities. Trump has deployed a variety of well-worn racist tropes to describe black and brown politicians and cities, communities, and countries. His racialized rhetoric harkens back to a time of slavery and Jim Crow, and to the deeply rooted belief that America is a land that belongs only to white people.
