Opinion: Donald Trump wasn’t the first GOP candidate to get the white supremacist vote

To the editor: Racism is a fact, and Jay A. Pearson has provided the definitional attributes that social scientists and psychologists use to affirm a diagnosis of the president. Donald Trump understands the type and has deftly gathered America’s racists to form his loyal base. (“Donald Trump is a textbook racist,” Opinion, Oct. 4)

It is no coincidence that the Republican Party has garnered the white supremacist vote in the last three elections. It happened twice because America had the temerity to elect an African American, and once because the white supremacists actually had their own candidate. This president’s history is prima facie evidence that he is a racist and purposefully promotes division among the American people.

The GOP has been hijacked. It is time Republicans across the country repudiate this president in the strongest terms. If it comes down to choosing between patriotism toward my fellow Americans of all origins, races, religions and colors, or standing in front of our flag singing the national anthem, I’m taking a knee.

Jim Krause, San Pedro

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To the editor: “Trump is a racist,” Person writes. “What he says and does meets the scholarly definition of the term.”

This is followed by a lengthy academic definition of racism, each of which Pearson attempts to link to specific examples of Trump’s behavior. But his citations are more innuendos than hard examples.

Pearson writes, “Trump’s actions, according to a growing number of mental health professionals, reveal deep-seated and possibly unconscious prejudices (insidious racism).” Why didn’t Pearson quote some of those professionals by name? Pearson then writes that the Trump administration’s cutting of funds for certain Department of Homeland Security programs indicated “institutional racism,” and that Trump’s travel ban and plan to build a wall are “internalized racism” — all stretches of logic at best.

As for comments on U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, Trump make reference to nationality, not race. Yes, Trump may have been a “bigot” in that instance, but it does not make him a “textbook racist.”

Donald Prell, Palm Springs

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