WS Chronicle

At least one North Carolina congressperson joined a plethora of critics expressing utter outrage over confirmed reports that President Donald Trump, in a meeting with Senate leaders last week, referred to Haiti and African countries as “shithole” nations while expressing disdain for the prospect of more immigrants from those nations coming to the United States.

Trump reportedly expressed a greater interest in seeing people from Norway, an overwhelmingly white country, immigrate to America.

“I am personally offended and appalled by today’s comments which are yet another example of President Trump’s racist ideologies,” said U.S. Rep. Alma Adams (D-12-NC) in a statement Jan. 11 after reports of Trump’s vulgar remark hit the fan. “My concern now is solely with the millions of people and our allies who will be impacted by this administration’s policies that are clearly driven by racism. These prejudiced beliefs are a betrayal of our American values and tantamount to an abdication of his basic responsibility to represent all Americans.”

A spokesperson for Rep. Adams added that she would support a call for the censure of President Trump by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) and Rep. Jerold Nadler (D-NY), expected to be introduced now that Congress is back in session after the MLK holiday.

“The President’s bigoted fearmongering is not acceptable and his remarks completely warrant total condemnation and censure from Congress. American immigration policy cannot and should not be guided in any way, shape or form by racism,” Richmond and Nadler said in a joint statement last week.

Neither of Rep. Adams’ two Democratic colleagues from North Carolina – G. K. Butterfield (D-1-NC) or David Price (D-4-NC) issued statements weighing in on the controversy.

But here in North Carolina, criticism of the president’s acid remarks lingered at Martin Luther King Jr. Day marches and events, even with state lawmakers on Monday.

“The importance of the national celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday is more clear today than ever before,” Sen. Angela Bryant (D-Nash), chair of the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus, said in a statement from the caucus. “This annual call to action and remembrance to oppose racism and discrimination in all its forms is needed to expose and root out the deep-seated beliefs in group domination, superiority and oppression that are still prevalent from the highest governmental levels to the personal level of our day to day interactions.”

That sentiment was shared by the new president of the N.C. NAACP, Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman.

 “I really don’t mean to be trite here, but my mother, one of the most intelligent people I know, filled with mother-wit, would often use an economy of words to respond to such an inquiry that works quite well to sum up the derangement of the being who occupies the White House,” Rev. Spearman said. “My mother would say ‘An empty wagon makes a lot of noise.’ In choosing my battles, I am careful not to feed into him. I’d rather ignore #45’s ignorance.”