I am sure by now that the world is divided over the upheaval the president has caused with his snatching children from their mothers. However, I tend to take the side of some of the social media posts I’ve seen that remind the United States that this is not new to America, in fact as far as I am concerned, this is part of the American culture.

You see, America was built on the premise of divide and conquer for the purposes of political leverage, and the cruel practice of separating mothers from children as a means of perpetuating chattle slavery. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you say—I get it, but I think the loudest message to me was Mrs. Trump’s jacket.

It was passed off as “just a jacket with no hidden meaning”, but the issue was that there was plenty of meaning because as you know, words mean things. The whole ordeal is eerily reminiscent of the slave trade the Africans endured. Think about it this way, when the enslaved African women gave birth to their children, they were ripped from their mothers, or worse when they were old enough to fend for themselves they were sold off. Same practices which are still legal in 2018.

Child Protective Services has been legally separating African American families for decades. African American children, who are products of the same government sanctioned legalized separation, are tied into the system and their parents don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell at getting them back.

According to an article by NPR, "More than 500,000 children in the U.S. are in the foster care system, and African American kids make up 40 percent of the number.” To further support this claim, an article written by the Foster Coalition stated, “Child welfare services removes black children from their parent’s home at twice the rate of white children.”

Historically, as a punishment, the children of slaves were often sold as a means keeping the enslaved submissive and oppressed by deterring them from engaging in behaviors which were either “illegal” or unwanted. Is this not what Trump is doing? Is he not separating children from the parents to deter an illegal and unwanted behavior? Is he not shipping them off to other states to be detained?

Back to Mrs. Trump’s audacious choice in attire, “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” To answer your question, Yes. Yes, I do care, Mrs. Trump; however, it is obvious that your husband does not. Now here’s the meat of it, I can remember reading biographical fiction and nonfiction by Solomon Northup, Harriet Jacobs, and Hannah Crafts, to name a few, and each author describes the scenes where the master sells the children of the enslaved parents to plantations across the South as a form of punishment or debt repayment, and the wife of the master watches. She said nothing, she did nothing, and her face remained emotionless.

Is this not what Melania Trump embodied with her poor choice of clothing? Is this not what she has done while he made some of the most racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim comments? This is the same president who issued a travel ban, discriminating based on nationality or religion.

I am not taking the validity away from what is happening presently to those of Hispanic descent, but it is amazing that the world is shocked. People are watching this happen and are in disbelief. Like the age-old adage, “history repeats itself.”. The sub-culture America has created is one that is desensitized and one that aids in the marginalization of those who are of African and Hispanic descent. We march for human rights and equal protections, yet some argue that “these people” do not get those rights. Well, neither did the enslaved, nor the African Americans who were freed—they weren’t considered human and therefore had no rights either.

"What kind of sub-culture are we creating now?"

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And let’s be honest, the only reason Trump made an attempt to do something, is because the world is watching and America’s racism is on full display globally. Much like the brutalization of those marching across the Edmund-Pettus bridge, and the televised open casket funeral of the beaten beyond recognition 14-year-old Emmett Till. The world watched in horror and in disbelief, and it wasn’t until the American government was embarrassed that the president and local officials stepped in for damage control purposes.

I watched a couple of Fox news segment for as long as I could, and here were two of my problems: 1) Laura Ingraham so thoughtfully described these detention centers as essentially being, “summer camps”; and 2) Ann Coulter called the detained immigrant children “actors” and she went on to turn to the camera to tell Trump, “not to fall for it.”.

Again, the same propaganda was used to explain that slavery was “not that bad” in the images of enslaved men, women, and children, whistling Dixie while happily picking cotton coupled with the idea that they were given three square meals per day and a place live for free. Ingraham and Coulter have done no differently than what has been done in the past to belittle the plight of those who suffer so that they can sleep better at night.

Like many who participated in the Presidential election this last time, I watched in total disbelief as the projected winner was announced. I knew those who voted him in were probably as spirited as those who voted for Obama, but how? How could you be proud of someone to represent you unless you feel the same way? Rhetorical question.

The point is this, where are the: "There’s only one race, the human race" people, the “All Lives Matter” people, the “We are the world.” people? Have we all just decided that because they are not U.S. citizens then by proxy they are not humans either? Have we decided that their children are less important than those of European descent? What kind of sub-culture are we creating now?