E. Faye Williams

If you accept television pundit opinions, Hillary Clinton did a very bad thing. She called a portion of Donald J. Trump supporters “deplorables.”

More accurately, she said, “To be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’ Right? The racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it ...” 

She went on to add, “And unfortunately, there are people like that and he (Donald Trump) has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.”

Trump supporters also participated in their own criticism of Mrs. Clinton’s statement through staged and unscripted protests.

Certainly, before her statement, Mrs. Clinton knew it would be met with disagreement and controversy — especially from those who fit the description. Unlike her critics, I find little upsetting. I would find it objectionable if it were based on falsehoods instead of truth. With examination of facts, her statement can be justified.

Mrs. Clinton’s statement presents a well-needed wake-up call to all who are ambivalent about the Nov. 8 presidential election or who cling to “The Bern,” former Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, over all others. 

I am situated so that, short of a nuclear holocaust or African-American genocide, I could probably endure a Trump administration. My concern is for millions of people of color who cling precariously to survival. Beyond Mr. Trump’s threat to abolish the federal minimum wage, whether he wins or loses, the social unrest generated by his campaign foreshadows racial unrest beyond Election Day.

The racist elements of Trump’s supporters and campaign are indisputable. Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana U.S. Senate candidate David Duke has endorsed Mr. Trump’s candidacy and admonished white people that voting for someone other than Mr. Trump “is really treason to (their) heritage.”

 A Klan member in Richmond, Va., identified only as “Imperial Wizard,” stated, “The reason a lot of Klan members like Donald Trump is because a lot of what he believes in, we believe in.”

Richard Spencer, president of the white nationalist think tank National Policy Institute, Peter Brimelow of the anti-immigrant site VDARE and Jared Taylor, eugenicist and editor of the white supremacist site American Renaissance, held a press conference at the Willard Hotel in Washington praising Mr. Trump for providing them a platform for national exposure. 

Indisputable is that Mr. Trump’s campaign has motivated/instigated/given “voice” and exposure to all manner of hatred and intolerance.

But I digress. This is about “The Deplorables” who believe in Mr. Trump and that which motivates their thinking:

• 31 percent “strongly agree” that “social policies, such as affirmative action, discriminate unfairly against white people.”

• 32 percent placed white people closer to the top level of “intelligence” than black people.

• 65 percent believe President Obama is a Muslim.

• 59 percent believe President Obama was not born in the United States.

• 31 percent support banning Muslims from entering the United States.

• 62 percent support establishing a Muslim database.

• 33 percent think practicing Islam should be illegal.

• 40 percent support shutting down all mosques in the United States.

• A March through June 2016 Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll determined Trump supporters are more likely to describe African-Americans as “criminal,” “unintelligent,” “lazy” and “violent” than supporters of Mrs. Clinton.

In his article published in Salon, writer Chauncey DeVega sums it up, “Trump is not an outlier ... he perfectly embodies the racist attitudes and beliefs of the Republican Party in the post civil rights era ... Trump’s supporters have enthusiastically embraced the Republican Party’s racism towards people of color, in general, and against black Americans, in particular.”

It’s deplorable for a presidential candidate to foment the vitriol of the Trump candidacy. It’s deplorable for large numbers of Americans to be possessed of the hatred and intolerance demonstrated by Trump followers.

Restating Forrest Gump, “Deplorable is what deplorables do.”

The writer is national president of the National Congress of Black Women.