Native Sun News Today Editorial: Indigenous people victimized by Donald Trump's racism

Friday, August 9, 2019

Trump: Sounding the bugle of racism

Mass killings! They are happening with astounding frequency.

By Native Sun News Today Editorial Board

El Paso, Dayton, Las Vegas and New Zealand, and many more. All of them are frightening, but the one at El Paso, Texas is exceptionally frightening because indigenous people were the main victims and the shooter was a young, white nationalist who was spurred on by what he saw on the Internet and by Donald Trump, a man who has cast terrible aspersions upon Hispanics and immigrants.

Trump has been warned over and over by some of his most responsible staff, before most of them got sick of his racism and moved on, that his hate-filled rhetoric has consequences. Not much was made of it by the national media when a radical white supremist tried to send bombs in the mail to many prominent Americans including former presidents Obama and Clinton. The man’s van was covered with photos and quotes from Trump and the man was clearly a disciple of that radical hatred. Most of the media just shrugged and wrote that it wasn’t really Trump’s fault. It was. He was the source of this maniac’s inspiration.

Families are mourning the loss of a loved one, a friend, or a coworker. Children have lost their parents. Parents have lost their children. This vigil is a painful reminder of what we all have lost in this era of hate fueled rhetoric. #ElPasoStrong pic.twitter.com/WtpWdZWMBE
— Rep. Deb Haaland (@RepDebHaaland) August 7, 2019

The most frequent businesses used as a focus of the mass killings appears to be the Walmart Stores. Many of the stores, such as the one in El Paso, are frequented by racial minorities. Some of those gunned down in El Paso where Mexican Nationals from across the border in Juarez who were shopping for school supplies at Walmart. The gunman’s posted manifesto clearly targeted Hispanics and immigrants.

Can such a thing happen in South Dakota? Our newspaper distributes flyers every Wednesday advertising the great sales at Walmart, Menard’s and Family Fare. On any given weekend all of these stores are visited by hundreds of Native Americans. The Walmart Store is especially popular among the visitors from the Indian reservations and from the very large Native American population living in Rapid City and Box Elder.

Many of the employees at Native Sun News Today shop at all of these three stores on weekends. Our publisher’s wife always shops at Walmart on Sunday. And this Sunday, for the first time ever, he was a little apprehensive about her shopping at Walmart this weekend. He even advised her about what to do if an active shooter did materialize at the store.

This editorial is not intended to scare any Native Americans away from Walmart or from any other store in Rapid City. However, we do caution everyone to be aware of the people around them.