Is Trump racist?

[Coolface Sock #42069]

No, Islam is not a race. Neither is illegal immigrant.

True, but that puts him into a xenophobe category.

Perhaps, but not a racist one.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

If he wins he'd be the most racist president of the last 50 years.

If you truly believe this, you are incredibly naive and historically ignorant.

If I said last 40 years would it be better?

[Asian Nazi]

If I said last 40 years would it be better?

You'd still be wrong but there'd at least be a debate to be had

[Joe Biden is your president. Deal with it.]

He's a racist blow hard who needs to have a roundhouse kick to the face.

[P123]

No, not at all. The guy built his empire in freaking queens lol.

Supporting a secure border is not racist. Some of his supporters might be, but most, like me are not.

[Ogre Mage]

As a politician he is a blatant and open racist.  And he is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.  

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

No, not at all. The guy built his empire in freaking queens lol.

Supporting a secure border is not racist. Some of his supporters might be, but most, like me are not.

Comes to the south and see how many Trump supporters hate Arabs, Muslims, Hispanics and Blacks.

As a politician he is a blatant and open racist.  And he is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. 

Yes and that is quite sad about the party's state of affairs.

[Sir Mohamed]

No, he's just a narcist.

[IceSpear]

I doubt it. He does, however, want to win a Republican primary.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

He's openly courting digits of all varieties. At this point it doesn't matter if it is because of opportunism or not.

[DavidB.]

No, he is a shameless opportunist who recognizes that Republicans (and I am not talking about the establishment) are simply not ready to broaden their tent to include minorities and immigrants, so he went for the 'missing white voters' strategy instead.  In other words, the path of least resistance.   

This.

[ag]

It is irrelevant. He is willing to ride on racism. Even if he does not believe a word he is saying, his supporters are his supporters because they are racists.

[Stranger in a strange land]

He may not personally be racist, but he does a damn good job playing one on TV.

[°Leprechaun]

I don't think his views on immigration, however bad they may be make him a racist, so no.
The fact that he is pro torture is the thing that I dislike most.

[President Johnson]

Of course not.

[James Monroe]

Probably. But to me it's a wash when rest of the remaining candidates want to throw black kids in jail for smoking pot, do mass deportation, and only care about drug abuse when lily white states like New Hampshire have a heroin epidemic, and in general are largely in support of the institutional racism that still exists in the system.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

We know he flip flopped on Iraq. He didnt want to take on Bush W because he showed strength after 911. I think hes an opportunist. He knew Jeb was weak, and he could take him down, thus becoming the GOP rather in 2016.

[AmericanNation]

To those that say yes,
I'm wondering why you would say that exactly.
He might make people feel bad or feel offended, but that isn't racism, that is being politically incorrect.
To many seem to think non-PC automatically equals racist.
Also,
Same crowd seems to think nationalist is automatically xenophobe.

It has always boggled my mind how SO MANY people are anti-nationalist, but I don't automatically start calling those people america haters or traitors.  

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

To those that say yes,
I'm wondering why you would say that exactly.
He might make people feel bad or feel offended, but that isn't racism, that is being politically incorrect.
To many seem to think non-PC automatically equals racist.

"Casino bosses hid black employees ‘in the back’ when Donald Trump arrived, ex-worker says"
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/casino-bosses-hid-black-employees-in-the-back-when-donald-trump-arrived-ex-worker-says/


"Donald Trump Was Once Sued By Justice Department For Not Renting To Blacks"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/donald-trump-blacks-lawsuit_n_855553.html

[AmericanNation]

To those that say yes,
I'm wondering why you would say that exactly.
He might make people feel bad or feel offended, but that isn't racism, that is being politically incorrect.
To many seem to think non-PC automatically equals racist.

#1
"Casino bosses hid black employees ‘in the back’ when Donald Trump arrived, ex-worker says"
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/casino-bosses-hid-black-employees-in-the-back-when-donald-trump-arrived-ex-worker-says/
#2
"Donald Trump Was Once Sued By Justice Department For Not Renting To Blacks"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/donald-trump-blacks-lawsuit_n_855553.html

I appreciate the response, but after spending the time reading the links I'm more confused.

link 1 has a guy remembering somethingNOT done by Trump in the 1980's .
link 2 details dozens of things Trump did to HELP minorities contrasted with some extremely weak and improbable "wrongs"  ...most of which get inappropriately thrown at every business in the country.
  

[SteveRogers]

To everyone saying, "No, he just pretends to be," can you explain how that makes it less racist? When you denigrate another race for your benefit at their expense, it's racism regardless of whether you're doing out of sincerely held beliefs or out of opportunism.

And yes, I know Islam is a religion and not a race, but it's highly correlated with race, and Trump is seizing on a sense of "otherness" to stoke the flames of hatred and scapegoat a group of people because they look different than his supporters. I guess it'd be more accurate to call him a bigot, but I'm not gonna split hairs here.

[AmericanNation]

To everyone saying, "No, he just pretends to be," can you explain how that makes it less racist? When you denigrate another race for your benefit at their expense, it's racism regardless of whether you're doing out of sincerely held beliefs or out of opportunism.

And yes, I know Islam is a religion and not a race, but it's highly correlated with race, and Trump is seizing on a sense of "otherness" to stoke the flames of hatred and scapegoat a group of people because they look different than his supporters. I guess it'd be more accurate to call him a bigot, but I'm not gonna split hairs here.

This is kind of what I'm trying to understand.
You have this vague boilerplate "otherness", "stoke the flames of hatred" based on nothing or very little and than you jump to yelling "racist".

How do you make that jump?

Example:
Trump says : illegal immigration is a problem, it causes a lot of harm, we need to fix it.
'Jumpers' say: Trump is a racist, he hates Mexicans, and he's ginning up blind hatred of others.

...doesn't your brain consider other responses?  I mean that is so non linear, unless that is your response to everything you disagree with. 
 

[IceSpear]

To everyone saying, "No, he just pretends to be," can you explain how that makes it less racist? When you denigrate another race for your benefit at their expense, it's racism regardless of whether you're doing out of sincerely held beliefs or out of opportunism.

And yes, I know Islam is a religion and not a race, but it's highly correlated with race, and Trump is seizing on a sense of "otherness" to stoke the flames of hatred and scapegoat a group of people because they look different than his supporters. I guess it'd be more accurate to call him a bigot, but I'm not gonna split hairs here.

If I believe in climate change, but want to be a Republican politician and say I don't believe in climate change, does that mean I really don't believe in it?

I'm not saying it makes it any less despicable that he's pandering to racists for votes. I thought this thread was solely about his personal views, not his morality.

[SATW]

no, he's not. He is a vile opportunist who is trolling hard.

[yankeesfan]

Since we can't read Trump's mind--then we can't definitively know his actual views on race.

Given that, we are left to interpret his actions and public statements.  The public record has shown that he's a racist that has incited racial violence and xenophobia.  I see no reason to believe he's doesn't actually hold these views.