November 8th, 2016 will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. My mom excitedly ran into my bedroom that morning to tell me Donald Trump was now the 45th President of the United States of America. For some insane reason, she thought the former reality star would be fit to rule our country. When I stepped out into the world that November morning, it seemed different. TVs were being played so loud that the Donald’s voice could be heard echoing everywhere. I felt like I’d woken up in 1984, and he was now Big Brother. My gay Mexican friend said it was only a matter of time before she was deported.
President Trump has proven himself to be an incredibly divisive figure. Since he was sworn into office this January, he attempted to have the infamous “Muslim ban” put in place, banned transgender people from serving in the military, and tweeted a lot of extremely questionable statements.
It is no secret that President Trump has some controversial views on immigration, but until August 24th, 2017 he had not blatantly tweeted anything that could obviously be classed as “racist”. America is known as the great melting pot, and it’s unsettling to say the least that many citizens feel our leader is discriminating against someone based on the color of their skin.
On the subject of color, there is one hue that eclipses all others when it comes to being associated with President Trump, and his recent retweet about Obama is a testament to the fact that orange really is not the new black. But Twitter, true to form, was quick to jump to former President Obama’s defense
The solar eclipse on August 21st of this year was a talking point around the US, with tens of thousands of people stepping outside to see it. In fact, it was even dubbed, “the Great American Eclipse”, as it was not a total eclipse outside of America. Before it took place, NASA issued the following statement about the importance of wearing glasses: ”Looking directly at the sun is unsafe except during the brief total phase of a solar eclipse (‘totality’) when the moon entirely blocks the sun’s bright face, which will happen only within the narrow path of totality.” President Trump, however, believed that he was above the laws of science and physics and decided to look directly at the eclipse anyway.
The resulting footage went viral around the world, with many criticizing President Trump’s foolish decision to look at the eclipse. Fox News’ Shep Smith even joked that it represented a rare chance for the First Lady Melania to escape her husband. Whilst President Trump has not directly responded to the worldwide criticizm about his decision to look at the eclipse, he retweeted a deplorable meme about it that many believed confirmed once and for all that he is a racist. How? By implying that the light of his orange has outshone Obama’s black skin.
Now, many have questioned how on Earth the tweet could be regarded as racist, as there is no mention of skin color or races anywhere. But other Twitter users believe they have read between the lines, and know exactly what Trump is trying to say about a white person eclipsing a black person. Almost instantaneously, Twitter was quick to jump to the former president’s defence. This user of the popular social media website suggested what ”The Best Eclipse Ever” would actually look like with a different meme:
Others pointed out that in an eclipse, the moon blacks out the sun and plunges the world into darkness, and not the other way around. Therefore, President Trump had unknowingly said that Obama was a better leader than him.
Naturally, a meme was created to depict what so many Americans were thinking about the president’s controversial retweet: