As a broad and committed pan-African movement, Africans Rising is outraged by President Trump’s indecorous and demeaning remarks that dismissed people from African nations, Haiti and El Salvador as unwelcome on U.S soil.
President Trump used a derogatory term when talking about countries that harbor the world’s fastest-growing economies and with whom the U.S. has mutually beneficial relations. In doing so, the president of the United States has deemed these entire populations unfit to immigrate to the U.S merely because they do not come from predominantly white countries. Trump’s vulgar referral to the Africans people can only be thought of as racist and xenophobic. The international reprehensibility of such a referral transcends the derogative term itself; but instead, it does confirm a misguided image of our prosperous continent. As this despondent image of Africa remains present elsewhere, Africans Rising has dedicated its efforts to paint a hopeful and accurate notion of Africa and thus we cannot accept such a dangerous setback, especially one that is initiated by a leader who’s followed by many.
Africans Rising has never attempted to deny the distressed realities of many African people, however, we refuse to be solely recognized as a useless burden to the United States of America. The most problematic aspect of Trump’s comments is the fact that they exclusively brand Africa as the home to unskilled and vacuous immigrants when in fact, the US immigration policies are widely merit-based, hence the African diaspora in the U.S have continuously proven that they are more than worthy of being celebrated thanks to their hard-earned achievements.
Perhaps president Trump should know that according to a 2007 Census, almost 44% of African immigrants in the US had obtained a college degree, compared with only 29% for immigrants from Europe, Russia and Canada and 23% of the U.S. population as a whole. This further proves that African immigrants are as far ahead of Americans in their educational achievement, which consequently makes them a valuable addition not only to the U.S but also to the global community. Since education translates into higher household income, Nigerian-Americans, for instance, have a median household income well above the American average. These are the same Nigerians that president Trump infuriated last year in a meeting with cabinet officials when he said that they never go back to their “huts”. Clearly, the Trump administration needs to revisit the question of diversity and its added value to the core of the American social compositions.
Africans Rising supports concerned American politicians, US ambassadors, African leaders, the African Union, the United Nations, and many other entities across the world that have sharply denounced president Trump’s attitude towards our people. We call on him to retract his inadequate statement and officially apologize not only to Africans but also to all people of African descent around the globe.Yet again, president Trump has disregarded the basic respect and humanity that his position entails. These abhorrent remarks can only confirm Mr.Trump’s unsubtle bigotry towards people of color. Amid the global dismay over the incident, the President of the United States has been branded as ignorant and racist, both of which are adjectives which are extremely incompatible with the status of any head of state, however, he continues to cause contention locally and internationally.
