How Do We Fight Back?

“Flesh on the Ground in the Trump Era” Part III of III

By Talib Kweli Greene
I have always hesitated to compare Trump to Hitler. It can come off as petty and dramatic and undermine otherwise sound arguments to jump to Hitler comparisons. However, Donald Trump has without a doubt consistently displayed the traits of a narcissistic fascist who doesn’t understand the difference between president of a democracy that has governmental checks and balances and a dictator. When I saw his first unhinged press conference, in which he disrespected a black journalist, silenced a Jewish journalist, and told bold faced, very unnecessary lies about the margin of his victory over Hillary Clinton, I knew I was watching a Hitler moment. It wasn’t good enough that Trump won the election, he very badly needed us to believe that he won bigger than anyone in history. This is so far from being true it’s amazing that he even fixed his lips to trot this lie out, but lie he did. Bigly.

When challenged on this lie by a journalist from NBC, Trump’s response amounted to “well that’s what I had heard, so…” When no other journalist pressed the issue, when Trump was simply allowed to tell lies to the American people from that podium, when Trump was allowed to say that the buck shouldn’t stop with him as president, I knew we were in bigger trouble than I thought. The politicians, Hillary, Bernie, they failed to stop Trump. The journalists are now failing to correct Trump and hold him accountable. The media has completely failed us.
The right-wing media insisted for almost weeks that Hillary Clinton was under criminal investigation over emails, when she wasn’t. Obama was criticized for everything from asking about the price of arugula during a campaign stop to mentioning that his blackness helped him relate to Trayvon Martin. GOP congressman Joe Wilson literally yelled “liar” at Obama during a speech, while Obama was the president. The double standard that is applied to Trump is unacceptable. Donald Trump built his political career on a racist lie about Obama being born in Kenya. Why is nobody yelling “liar” at Trump? If the politicians and the media refuse to hold the Trump administration accountable, the people have no choice but to.
How do we fight back? We show solidarity with marginalized groups that will be further marginalized in Trump’s America. We stand with the family of Ben Keita, a black American Muslim who was lynched in Seattle. We stand with the families of Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, the Indian men shot by a white supremacist in Kansas. We show solidarity with the women who marched on Washington during 2017’s historic women’s march. We show solidarity with Jewish people whose communities and cemeteries are currently under attack by white supremacists. We stand with the Native Americans who are protecting Standing Rock from the DAPL pipeline. We say no to mass incarceration. We say no to the over-policing that leads to over-criminalization of communities of color. We say no to the travel ban, we say no to the wall, we say no to Donald Trump, loudly and often.

These are the reasons I decided to show up in Washington on Monday, March 6th. I was inspired by the Green Revolution, by Occupy Wall Street, by the Ferguson Uprising. Hashtags and RTs are cute and make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but without actual flesh on the ground, there is no movement. Many working class people say that they do not have the luxury to take time away from their lives to resist Trump, but we are now at the point where we don’t have the luxury not to. So I will do what you can’t.
As an artist and my own boss, I can determine my schedule easier than someone who has a boss. So I will put my flesh in these streets as much as I can. I don’t know what this is about to be, as I have never done anything like this before. But I can’t just sit around and do nothing. I am not rich, I still have to work for a living, and I still will. But when I’m not getting that bag, I will be in these streets showing solidarity for as long as I can be.
For two weeks, I invited those who wanted to resist to meet us at Rock Creek Park, 24th and P St NW, Washington D.C., at noon. We held our ground, demanding that the House Of Representatives begin the impeachment process of Donald Trump, staring with his violation of the Emolument clause, a release of his tax returns and a call for an independent bipartisan investigation into the Donald Trump’s Russian connections.

Talib Kweli is one of the world’s most talented, accomplished, and socially conscious hip-hop artists. His book, Vibrate Higher: A Rap Story (MCD, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2021), is a first-hand account of hip hop as a political force. Kweli commands attention by delivering top-tier lyricism, crafting captivating stories, and showing the ability to rhyme over virtually any type of instrumental. In 2011, Kweli founded Javotti Media, a record label and platform for independent thinkers and doers.