Trump's violent legacy. Racism, Sexism, get the Green Light

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Facts For Working People apologizes to our readers for the graphic to the right but we think it is important that we share it with our readers.

It is an image from a Facebook page, friend of a former co-worker of one of the authors of this blog. The co-worker's time is more often spent attacking and demonizing Muslims. It is appropriate that the two are friends on social media.

The man whose FB page this is on, is named Steve Ross of Sparks Nevada.  This is a disgusting, racist, sexist and all round violent anti-social image. Ross accompanies the image with the following statement:
"Remember the Obama family dog? Well the EBT card was sent to the old address so Mooch couldn't go "FREE" shopping as she usually does. That poor dog would still be around if the Obamas didn't live off entitlements.  Yeah, I know, I'm racist." Ross also likes to refer to Obama as the "Moslem Prince"

Yes you are Mr. Ross. Good judgement on that at least. 

Steve Ross

That any worker would have a friend of any sort that would spread this around is sad and against the interests of all working class people.  It is anti-union as well. We cannot have strong unions if women, people of color and those workers in marginalized communities are not safe among us. The issue is being discussed on a private FB page but we in Facts For Working People will not stay silent on these issues and we urge all workers to not allow us to be divided and the main issues to be obscured by this filth. Trump and his gang have given the green light to the racists, Nazi's white nationalists and other enemies of working people. Let's not let them hide. Let's get the cards on the table and deal with it because workers cannot defend ourselves unless we confront this Trump offensive. It is not a new offensive, just a more crude, aggressive and blatant one.

The ironic side of this is that the former co-worker whose FB friend Mr. Ross is and who wages war against Muslims was defended by his union many times. His work ethic is poor, he is white and from a financially stable background. Yet no one in the union complained about him "being a lazy white boy" or anything like that even if they thought it. No one said he didn't deserve to be defended. His union has Muslim members, black members, women members and it defended him, a weak link.  And so it should have.  How can he not condemn a FB friend that posts these images?

Ross says he is a business owner of Ross Enterprise and former owner/President at Ross Transport Company. We call on workers, activists and anti-racists to share this on social media, publicize it far and wide. If you can locate the address of his business, send letters condemning his views. If you are in Nevada and you can boycott or picket it even better.  You can send a letter to the Better Business Bureau or anything else that will help.

If any readers do anything, Facts For Working People stresses that we do not support threats or acts of violence or destruction of property. We believe in mass action not revenge. We believe in being non violent with people that are non violent with us as Malcolm X once said.

Marie M: Right on Richard for taking a stand. Im a firm believer that silence only encourages unacceptable behavior and empowers the ignorant to continue on in their oppressive thoughts.

Cynthia Chandler It's not even just racist. It's violent. Totally alienating and antisocial.

Doug Nielson This is a rare opportunity to see what your racist co-workers will normally hide from you if they sense you don't share their affinity for the KKK bedsheet.

Patricia Mccarley Oh Richard this infuriates me and breaks my heart. I don't understand how those hateful people live with that inside of them.

Elaine Mastromatteo Just because you have an asshole friend doesn't mean that regressive religions should be defended. We need to watch out for what we are defending, just because some people we don't like are attacking it.

Richard Mellor All religions are regressive. Islam is no different than Christianity. I traveled all through Iraq when it was still Muslim. No one bothered me, people were kind to me, women were in government. Lebanon was once called the "gem of the middle east.". The crisis and rise of islamic fanaticism is a political question not a religious one. What was Northern Ireland, was Catholicism regressive? Protestantism? I was the only Catholic in a Protestant English village, I was safe. No one bothered me. These are political questions. The friend is not simply an asshole and he's not as friend. 

Doug Nielson This is a rare opportunity to see what your racist co-workers will normally hide from you if they sense you don't share their affinity for the KKK bedsheet.

Richard Mellor Just to clarify, this picture above is not my co-worker. This is a friend of his on FB, a guy who who wrote of the need to "eradicate" Muslims and refers to Obama as the "Moslem Prince". As anyone who reads my views knows, I do not need to refer to this type of imagery or to racist, sexist and anti-social politics to oppose Obama. As a representative of US capitalism he has blood on his hands,his slaughter of innocent people in the former colonial world and his escalation of the Bush wars is reason enough. My co-worker rails against Muslims and has friends like this. If one doesn't condemn this, one is suspect and has to take responsibility for the consequences. Trump has given the Nazi's and fascists of all types a green light.

Howard McCarley This type of shite is reminiscent of the Nazi caricatures of Jews in the thirties - and dehumanizing an individual leads to dehumanizing all of your enemies - and then the trouble starts. These assholes feel free to come out from under the rock now that their Fuhrer is in charge. I only wonder when the brown shirts and armbands come out. Mark fails to understand that if you don't call people on this shit you are supporting them.

Doug Nielson That's a horrible attention grabbing picture. I almost wish you hadn't posted it. On the other hand, I noticed you only posted it to friends. I guess it's important for us to be aware of the kind of vile hateful shit that's circulating out there.

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Richard Mellor Yeah, I wasn't sure about that Doug and I'm still not. The problem is this stuff is so damaging, and it is so harmful to all workers including white workers. I have older black friends who used to say to me that they preferred the racism of the south, they knew where things stood. I sympathize with that. My co-worker I am talking about here never said any racist stuff or stuff like he's saying now to my knowledge, not within earshot of me anyway. and it's been mostly rants against Muslims. But the present climate has stirred up fears among people to detract us from the real issues. The image was on his friends page and that image should be condemned by all. He never condemned it and who would have friends like that? I don't care what damn religion someone is, it's their business.

But to not see the rise of Islamic fanaticism in the context of the political developments and US foreign policy is dangerous. The roots of its rise lie in Washington/Pentagon policy and their allies the Saudi's. Mark is ignorant, but ignorance can be very dangerous and if you're going to say and write things that undermine the unity of all working people, including white workers then say it publicly and defend it. For me as a person who was active for years in the union, black workers had my back as did white workers, Asians, the few women that worked with us. But if I was connected to anything like this imagery suggests I would not have been able to survive.

It's important for white workers to openly condemn this too. One doesn't have to be a socialist, or anything. One doesn't have and shouldn't be driven by guilt or feeling sorry for people. It is because the ruling class is the same color and they use that to con us, to separate working class people along racial or more accurately color lines as they savage our living standards and drive us back to conditions that preceded the rise of the CIO and the Civil Rights movement. We are stronger than them, we fight back, they divide us and we musn't fall prey to it. It's been very successful here. In Northern Ireland they used religion. Islam, and more importantly the Arab world, has a rich beautiful history. Zionism is Jewish extremism, I think it's from a Zionist supporter that that image comes. All cultures and religions can exhibit this.

Think of the misery millions of Muslims are experiencing through US and western foreign policy that is all about oil, profits and resources than religion. Why do you think the Irish came here, they didn't like their homeland? That's what made me so mad when a privileged middle class white dude whose folks have money and who has a "socialist" type job talks like he does. I was talking to a guy this weekend and asked him to think about the fact that the life expectancy of white workers is declining in the richest country in the world. What the hell is happening on the ground to bring this about? Their living standards are being savaged that's what. So much for white privilege? The irish didn't get much white skinned solidarity from the British invasions. For ethnic and religious minorities it's worse and it's not going to get any better for any of us. This is why that image and assaults on people's religion (I am talking about their right to believe and attacks on them personally not what organized religion does) and race, gender and other issues is so damaging. We cannot stop our own demise without working class unity and this stuff weakens working class unity.

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Roger Martinez That's Disgraceful!!!
Mark I'm ashamed of you how could this person be your friend