First Trump came for the women And I did not speak out Because I was not a woman. Then Trump came for the people with disabilities And I did not speak out Because I did not have a disability. Then Trump came for the African Americans And I did not speak out Because I was not African American.

Facebook.

First Trump came for the women
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a woman.

Then Trump came for the people with disabilities
And I did not speak out
Because I did not have a disability.

Then Trump came for the African Americans
And I did not speak out
Because I was not African American.

Then Trump came for the Mexicans
And I did not speak out
Because I was not Mexican.

Then Trump came for the Muslims
And I did not speak out
Because I was not Muslim.

Then Trump came for the gay, bi, and trans people
And I did not speak out
Because I was not gay, bi or trans.*

Then Trump came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.**

Then Trump came for the journalists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a journalist.***

Then Trump came for the judges
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a judge.

And now Trump is coming for the Constitution of the United States
And if I do not speak out, what am I?

* Actually I am one of those, and I didn’t speak out about that.
** And one of those, and didn’t speak out about that either.
*** Ditto.




When I grew up in Soyth Africa, Martin Niemöller’s poem “First they came…” was a well-worn standard in any sort of Jewish education. It was plastered on posters issued by the Union of Jewish Students, printed in books and flyers, quoted at political meetings. I saw it so often that it became, for me, a secular version of the shema, the prayer anyone with the slightest amount of Jewish upbringing knows by heart: “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”

The shema and “First they came” are both statements of something at the core of Jewish identity, and they form a kind of point and counterpoint stretched across thousands of years of history. The shemareminded the early Israelites that they were the people who, unlike their pagan neighbors, worshipped a single deity. Niemöller’s poem reminds modern Jews that, as a people who were almost wiped out, it’s our duty—as it is everyone’s duty—to speak up for other minorities under attack, lest we be next. The shema sets us apart from other peoples; “First they came” binds us together again.

To see Donald Trump methodically lay into one group after another during the months of the presidential campaign has been to see Niemöller’s warning writ large across our screens. But during all these months, I haven’t noticed much speaking out by one group in support of another.

A notable exception is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Jewish anti-racism body, whose head launched a blistering attack on Trump’s Islamophobia and racism in March and hasn't remained silent for even a day . Yet just a week earlier Trump got standing ovations at the annual conference of the powerful pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC—a moment that I believe should stand as a mark of eternal shame for the leaders of America’s Jewish community.

There are probably more gestures of solidarity by one group towards another than we can easily see. One small example: non-Jews adding the “echo symbol”—triple parentheses, (((like this)))—around their names on Twitter, in a fight back against anti-Semites on the “alt-right,” who have used the symbol to single out Jews.

Yet such moments, while mildly heartwarming, almost never command the emotional power that makes them go viral; they tend to be buried in the social-media maelstrom by the latest Trump outrage. Moreover, I suspect that such solidarity is largely confined to the grassroots. How many African American leaders are there speaking out against Islamophobia, Muslim leaders speaking up for Mexican immigrants, and LGBT leaders coming out to defend people with disabilities? (If you’ve seen it happening, please let me know.)

It’s time for everyone to remember Niemöller’s words, and speak out in support of anyone who becomes the target of this hate-monger and his alt-right cohorts. At the end of the day, Trump is coming for all of us.Oy Vey Oy VeyOy Vey

God Save America from Donny T ....This weekend with prepared answers already memorized, Trump takes his fake black outreach program on the road.Trump has canned responses for his talk with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. Here are the questions he needs to be asked

This weekend with prepared answers already memorized, Trump takes his fake black outreach program on the road.Trump has canned responses for his talk with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. Here are the questions he needs to be asked



Bishop Wayne T. Jackson; Donald Trump (Credit: MSNBC/AP/Chris Carlson/Photo montage by Salon)

Donald Trump began his faux outreach campaign to African-American voters by calling them uneducated unemployed losers whose lives are a living hell. Beginning this weekend, the second stage of Trump’s outreach campaign to African-American voters will reportedly consist of meetings at a select group of black churches, a tour of inner-city communities like Detroit and an interview on the Impact Network.

The New York Times has obtained a leaked copy of the questions that the Republican presidential nominee will be asked during his interview with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson as well as the scripted responses to them. A presidential candidate will prepare for an important interview. This is both expected and reasonable.

But given that Donald Trump has been endorsed by avowed white supremacists such as David Duke, is the preferred candidate of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and is leading a nativist and racist political movement, the entire scenario is laughably disingenuous and the stuff of a skit on “Saturday Night Live” or “Chappelle’s Show.” The setup would be made only more perfect if David Chappelle’s character Clayton Bigsby, the blind black white supremacist, interviewed Donald Trump.

The New York Times has reported:His team was leaving nothing to chance.

Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things.

One of the leaked questions and answers include this gem:

As President, I must serve all Americans without regard to race, ethnicity or any other qualification. I must approach my task with the utmost wisdom and make sure that all Americans have opportunities to achieve to their potential. If we are to Make America Great Again, we must reduce, rather than highlight, issues of race in this country.

Apparently, Trump, like other conservatives, did not take Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun’s wisdom to heart when he said, “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”

In all, Trump’s prepared answers are the same tired, ineffective and tedious talking points that have been recycled by the Republican Party in its black “outreach” campaigns since at least the days of leaders like Ronald Reagan and likely back as far as Richard Nixon’s time. The policies described have been proved ineffective in improving the economic and political fortunes of black and brown communities.

Moreover, the “color blind,” free market, neoliberal, “small government” policies advocated by Trump and the Republican Party are in many ways responsible for the institutional and systemic inequalities that they purport to correct. As I wrote in an earlier piece, African-American voters are not stupid, bamboozled, dumb or unsophisticated: They have chosen to reject the poison pill offered by a Republican Party that is racist and hostile toward people of color.

If Trump was actually serious about wanting to win over African-American voters he would answer the following questions during his interview with Bishop Jackson on the Impact Network.

1. Mr. Trump, you were one of the first people to suggest that Barack Obama, the United States’ first black president, was not born in the United States and is thus ineligible to hold the country’s highest elected office. Many black Americans perceive this to be profoundly racist and insulting to Obama, the person, and African-Americans, more generally. How would you respond to those concerns?

2. Mr. Trump, you helped to manage apartment buildings in New York City that as a matter of policy did not renting to African-Americans and other people of color. Your father’s company, for which you served as an executive and manager, settled a civil rights lawsuit in 1975. Please address this matter.

3. Mr. Trump, your father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1927. Can you share some more information about this incident?

4. Mr. Trump, you have called the Black Lives Matter movement dangerous and described its members as thugs who are a threat to the police and public safety. You have even gone so far as to personally threaten Black Lives Matter protesters with physical violence. How would you address the Black Lives Matter movement’s concerns about police brutality? What would say to the large number of African-Americans who support the Black Lives Matter Movement?

5. Mr. Trump, in a recent speech you said that you feel that police in places like Chicago are afraid to do their jobs and have been acting with restraint in the country’s inner city communities. Chicago’s police have been involved in numerous high-profile killings of unarmed African-Americans. Chicago police were even operating a “black site” where they tortured and abused people to coerce confessions and obtain other information from them. The Chicago police department was also described in a recent internal report as having “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.” Do you still believe that police in cities like Chicago are acting with “restraint” in how they treat African-Americans and other people of color?

God Save America from Donny T ....This weekend with prepared answers already memorized, Trump takes his fake black outreach program on the road.Trump has canned responses for his talk with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. Here are the questions he needs to be asked

This weekend with prepared answers already memorized, Trump takes his fake black outreach program on the road.Trump has canned responses for his talk with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. Here are the questions he needs to be asked



Bishop Wayne T. Jackson; Donald Trump (Credit: MSNBC/AP/Chris Carlson/Photo montage by Salon)

Donald Trump began his faux outreach campaign to African-American voters by calling them uneducated unemployed losers whose lives are a living hell. Beginning this weekend, the second stage of Trump’s outreach campaign to African-American voters will reportedly consist of meetings at a select group of black churches, a tour of inner-city communities like Detroit and an interview on the Impact Network.

The New York Times has obtained a leaked copy of the questions that the Republican presidential nominee will be asked during his interview with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson as well as the scripted responses to them. A presidential candidate will prepare for an important interview. This is both expected and reasonable.

But given that Donald Trump has been endorsed by avowed white supremacists such as David Duke, is the preferred candidate of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and is leading a nativist and racist political movement, the entire scenario is laughably disingenuous and the stuff of a skit on “Saturday Night Live” or “Chappelle’s Show.” The setup would be made only more perfect if David Chappelle’s character Clayton Bigsby, the blind black white supremacist, interviewed Donald Trump.

The New York Times has reported:His team was leaving nothing to chance.

Instead of speaking to the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International, Mr. Trump had planned to be interviewed by its pastor in a session that would be closed to the public and the news media, with questions submitted in advance. And instead of letting Mr. Trump be his freewheeling self, his campaign prepared lengthy answers for the submitted questions, consulting black Republicans to make sure he says the right things.

One of the leaked questions and answers include this gem:

As President, I must serve all Americans without regard to race, ethnicity or any other qualification. I must approach my task with the utmost wisdom and make sure that all Americans have opportunities to achieve to their potential. If we are to Make America Great Again, we must reduce, rather than highlight, issues of race in this country.

Apparently, Trump, like other conservatives, did not take Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun’s wisdom to heart when he said, “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.”

In all, Trump’s prepared answers are the same tired, ineffective and tedious talking points that have been recycled by the Republican Party in its black “outreach” campaigns since at least the days of leaders like Ronald Reagan and likely back as far as Richard Nixon’s time. The policies described have been proved ineffective in improving the economic and political fortunes of black and brown communities.

Moreover, the “color blind,” free market, neoliberal, “small government” policies advocated by Trump and the Republican Party are in many ways responsible for the institutional and systemic inequalities that they purport to correct. As I wrote in an earlier piece, African-American voters are not stupid, bamboozled, dumb or unsophisticated: They have chosen to reject the poison pill offered by a Republican Party that is racist and hostile toward people of color.

If Trump was actually serious about wanting to win over African-American voters he would answer the following questions during his interview with Bishop Jackson on the Impact Network.

1. Mr. Trump, you were one of the first people to suggest that Barack Obama, the United States’ first black president, was not born in the United States and is thus ineligible to hold the country’s highest elected office. Many black Americans perceive this to be profoundly racist and insulting to Obama, the person, and African-Americans, more generally. How would you respond to those concerns?

2. Mr. Trump, you helped to manage apartment buildings in New York City that as a matter of policy did not renting to African-Americans and other people of color. Your father’s company, for which you served as an executive and manager, settled a civil rights lawsuit in 1975. Please address this matter.

3. Mr. Trump, your father was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1927. Can you share some more information about this incident?

4. Mr. Trump, you have called the Black Lives Matter movement dangerous and described its members as thugs who are a threat to the police and public safety. You have even gone so far as to personally threaten Black Lives Matter protesters with physical violence. How would you address the Black Lives Matter movement’s concerns about police brutality? What would say to the large number of African-Americans who support the Black Lives Matter Movement?

5. Mr. Trump, in a recent speech you said that you feel that police in places like Chicago are afraid to do their jobs and have been acting with restraint in the country’s inner city communities. Chicago’s police have been involved in numerous high-profile killings of unarmed African-Americans. Chicago police were even operating a “black site” where they tortured and abused people to coerce confessions and obtain other information from them. The Chicago police department was also described in a recent internal report as having “no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.” Do you still believe that police in cities like Chicago are acting with “restraint” in how they treat African-Americans and other people of color?