By: Schonn Elcock
On Feb. 6, United States (U.S) President Donald Trump shared a post on X which depicted various Democratic leaders as animals, and him being seen as a lion and “King of the Jungle”.
The depictions of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes drew criticism from various sources. The post has since been removed due to the widespread backlash.
President Trump has been known for his demeaning and racist statements on the Obamas, exemplified by his various accusations surrounding the citizenship status of the former president, cultivating a theory that he was born in Kenya, which, as of 2016, has been disavowed.
When approached by PEOPLE magazine, the U.S Press-Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press conference, “This is from an internet meme depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.”
The practice of dehumanizing Black people is an age-old trope used by the media to ensure Black voices are suppressed, according to Tim Wise, a professor and anti-racism advocate.
“The use of simian/ape-like imagery is an old trope done deliberately to lower the threshold of violence directed at Black people,” Wise told Journalist and former CNN Host, Don Lemon, on his podcast, The Don Lemon Show.
Lemon had many words for the President, disavowing his tweet and calling it “racist, deranged filth” on his podcast.
On the podcast, John Boyd, founder of the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA), explained to Lemon how much deeper this situation runs. He describes how he was deliberately kept out of a meeting in the White House that discussed possible funding for farmers.
He told Lemon, “During a call, the administration told me they were moving away from DEI, the small farmer issue, and the black farmer issue, and that they would revisit this issue in the coming years. […] They would focus on large-scale white and corporate farmers because they were producing the most food.”
“I am a farmer too, I represent a population of farmers, and I should be at the table, even if they agree with my politics or not”, Boyd states.
“How far the needle has moved on what we can absorb.” Harvard Alum Charles Blow told Don Lemon on the same previously mentioned podcast.
He articulates that, “Americans may not be used to a multi-factorial threat where multiple things can be true simultaneously. It can be a distraction or true in itself. This person can be carrying the animus or so desensitized to the fact that animus can even exist.”
Later on in the podcast, Senator Nina Turner goes on to say, “It galls me to no end when I hear well-meaning people say this is not who we are. No, this is exactly who we are.”
Turner explains that there are bigger implications of Trump’s post. In a quite powerful statement on Don Lemon’s podcast, she says, “This is so much bigger than Donald Trump. This is about the fabric […] the nature […] the DNA of the United States of America.”
However, Americans are beginning to wake up to the fact that this isn’t just a “Black problem,” but an American one.
Turner continues to say, “People are starting to understand that your relative status can not save you […]Anti-Blackness is not just reserved for white people”.
In an interview with Brian Tyler Cohen, an independent progressive political host, Former President Barack Obama broke his silence.
Obama stated that American citizens are realizing that this is “not our way” and are “pushing back with the truth, cameras and peaceful protests.”