Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign promises to eliminate terrorism, his interest seems to wane when the victims are people of color.
U.S. President Donald Trump has been accused of ignoring the murder and maiming of several citizens in a series of Texas bomb attacks because of their ethnicity.
On Monday morning, talented musician Draylen Mason, 17, was killed by a bomb which had been left on his doorstep. He carried it into the kitchen and unwrapped it, triggering a powerful explosive which sent shrapnel tearing through his body, killing him and injuring his mother.
Ten days earlier, a similar package was sent to the home of Anthony Stephan House, a 39-year-old African-American project manager. A sound like a "metal dumpster getting hit by a truck" brought his neighbor outside, where she found House "torn apart."
House was declared dead an hour later as police debated whether to declare it a homicide. Citing "suspicious" circumstances, it was ruled that the victim could have sent the package as a way to end his own life: authorities said it was "an isolated incident and that there is no continuing threat to the community."
Hours after the Mason family was attacked 10 days later, 75-year-old Esperanza Herrera opened such a package and was critically injured. Authorities say the explosive device was most likely intended not for Herrera, but for an acquaintance. So far, no one has been arrested.
Nelson Linder, local chapter president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said: "The intended target was another person who might be connected to the House and Mason families. They have a long history and go to the same church."
Throughout the attacks, Trump has remained silent. He's posted pictures of himself inspecting California's section of the Mexico-U.S. border wall; visits with foreign ministers; updates on trade deals; even prayers to the families of pilots, but not a word for the House, Mason or Herrera families.
Despite Trump's campaign promises to eliminate terrorism, his interest seems to wane when the victims are people of color.
"It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true: his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power," writes Ta Nehisi Coates in Atlantic essay 'The First White President.'
It's not the first time Trump has turned a blind eye towards such atrocities. Following the Charlottesville attack in 2017, he failed to condemn white supremacist groups, placing blame "on both sides" instead of with the right-wing extremists responsible.