Exposing Economic Racism and the Myth of Scarcity: Here is Why Divisive Rhetoric Fails Us All
How Trump’s Racist Tropes and Hoarding Mentality Are Symptoms of a Larger Economic Injustice
During the U.S. Presidential debates on September 10, we witnessed, among many tasteless moments, when Donald Trump unleashed his usual racially charged attack, seemingly targeting Haitians, mocking them as people who supposedly eat pets — a dehumanizing and racist trope that took us back to his infamous “shithole countries” remark. While this incident and many others coming from the shithole-of-a-mouth former President and his supporters were disturbing on many levels, it points to a much deeper problem that has long plagued not just the United States but global economics: the demeaning of non-white nations to distract from the plundering of their rich resources.
Let’s look at Haiti, a country Trump disparaged. The bottom line is that Haiti is rich! This nation has been endowed with abundant natural resources for centuries. Yet, a significant portion of its wealth has been siphoned off by foreign interests, including corporations from affluent nations like the United States. This justification isn’t a tale of scarcity but of unjust hoarding — a mindset that underpins both systemic racism and the capitalism we…
