Where would we White people be without Donald Trump to translate what Black people say?

We may hear their words, and we may know what they say, but we don’t really know what Black people mean when they use understandable words that express clear thoughts.

Maxine waters suggests that any time we see one of Trump’s cabinet members in our spaces we should let them know in uncertain terms that we do not agree with what they are doing, especially when it involves marginalizing people, and, in spite of our thinking we heard what she said, we obviously didn’t.

She said,

“If you think we’re rallying now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Already, you have members of your Cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants who have protesters taking up at their house, who say, ‘No peace, no sleep. No peace, no sleep.’ God is on OUR side! On the side of the children. On the side of what’s right. On the side of what’s honorable. And so, let’s stay the course. Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up and if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

She may have used the word “cabinet” twice, and we may have thought that is what she had been talking about, but Trump has to translate that word for us White people so that we know what she really said was to attack his supporters.

What she said didn’t sound anything like that, so, thank God, Trump was there to translate.

And I know his translation was a faithful one because as I channel surfed the cable news stations the last few days I kept seeing all the White pundits assessing his translation of Waters and explaining how harming Trump supporters was not “going high”, while not saying anything about what I, at least, thought she had meant by the actual word, “cabinet”, that she had used.

The Tea Party.org people are claiming she is facing a five year sentence for inciting a riot.

Now Waters may have explained,

“I have no sympathy for these people that are in this administration who know it is wrong what they’re doing … but they tend to not want to confront this president”,

but obviously this needs translation into White-speak because it seems to emphasize she is talking about the members of the administration, not Trump supporters.

Perhaps my misunderstanding of the real meaning comes from my not, like the president has boasted about himself, knowing words.

As he assured us,

“I went to an Ivy League school. I’m very highly educated. I know words, I have the best words.”

Thank God he does. It is like the last time we needed him to translate standard English used by a Black man into standard White English.

When Colin Kaepernick first sat during the National Anthem at football games, and then took a knee after a veteran told him doing that would be more respectful of the flag while still being a form of protest, he wanted the country, especially those in a position to address this, federal, state, and local government, and figured his public status could begin that discussion.

He explained his concern with the number of unarmed Black men shot by rogue police officers in situations where White men would be spoken and given to opportunity to follow a calm command.

When he explained his action he had said,

“Ultimately it’s to bring awareness and make people realize what’s really going on in this country. There are a lot of things that are going on that are unjust, people aren’t being held accountable for, and that’s something that needs to change. That’s something that–this country stands for freedom, liberty, justice for all. And it’s not happening for all right now.

Yes. I’ll continue to sit (he later knelt). I’m going to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me this is something that has to change and when there’s significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent in this country–is representing the way that it’s supposed to–I’ll stand.”

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

I was misled into thinking I had understood what he meant, but Trump had to translate this concern for racial disparity, so I would realize it is all about disrespecting the flag and the troops

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get given a traffic ticket,that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired. He’s fired,'” Trump said in a speech and he tweeted,

He made it all about the flag and who is a patriot when I thought it was about that racial inequality thing. I am so thankful there was a White Guy who could get us to ignore the actual issue as we had thought it was and got us to see it was all about disrespecting what America stands for which, I have to accept, includes racism.

It is like that time in Charlottesville.  I thought I understood what “Jews will not replace us” meant until it was translated by the president  and it rwally was “We are really good guys.”

Big Irony?

While dismissing the racism that exists in this country, and while he and his supporters claim they are not racists, Trump, as the man in the big house, objects to the Black man saying what is on his mind, and takes it upon himself to not only change what the Black man says, but  telling him where and when he can speak.