By Alexis Taylor
AFRO Managing Editor
On the fifth day of Black History Month the 47th president of the United States promoted racist content to millions using social media.
Appearing late on the night of Feb. 5, the video shared by the president included debunked information about the 2020 election, before concluding with images of the former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. In the video, the two are briefly seen as monkeys dancing to the song, “The Lions Sleep Tonight,” the song popularized in the 1960s by The Tokens, but originally sang in 1939 as “Mbube” by Solomon Linda, a South African artist.
Within hours, the video made its way around the globe. Garnering likes, shares, comments and a whirlwind of criticism.
“Trump posting this video — especially during Black History Month— is a stark reminder of how Trump and his followers truly view people. And we’ll remember that in November,” said The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in a brief statement posted to their own social media accounts.
The video from the president’s account clearly repeats and publicly broadcasts racist imagery of two of the world’s most prominent, influential and beloved African American leaders, officials in the White House want the masses to believe the monkeys in the video had another meaning.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters,” said White House Press Secretary Kaaroline Leavitt, in a statement on the matter to The Associated Press (AP). Leavitt noted that the clip was part of a longer video that showed several Democrats–even White leaders– as animals.
While it was initially defended, according to AP, the White House has changed course and now blames the posting of the video on a staffer. The video has since been deleted. Still, even Republicans in Congress noted the racist nature of the content shared.
“It’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” said a reaction posted to social media by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). Scott’s use of the term “most racist” stands out, as it implies there have been other incidents from the leader he helped rise to power.
Baltimore County NAACP President Roland Patterson said Trump and people like him are “foolish people in adult clothes” who seek to “put down Black people for their own elevation.”
“It is beyond disappointing and beyond embarrassing that the president of this country and the reported ‘leader of the free world’ would stoop to a 19th–or before–century tactic,” Patterson said, of Trump. “We recognize that he is a White nationalist and thereby a White Supremacist.”
Ultimately, Patterson said the decision to post the racist content was much more of an indictment of “Donald John Trump and his unfitness for the office” than it was an insult to the Obama family.
