Trump and the Flawed Definition of Racism

After President Donald Trump pointed out that the rodent-infested streets of Baltimore were rodent-infested, and criticized Rep. Elijah Cummings for his failure to improve the standard of living in many impoverished and dilapidated areas of Baltimore, the Democrats fell back on their one “foolproof” strategy. They accused Donald Trump of racism.

Senator Elizabeth Warren — who continues to be lauded by the supposedly anti-racist Left despite her decades of false claims of Native American heritage for career gain — defined Trump’s Tweets as “ugly and racist”:

Bernie Sanders, who himself decried the conditions in Baltimore while comparing the city to that of a “Third World Country,” criticized Trump for his “racism, bigotry and xenophobia”:

Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Sanders also described Trump as a “racist president who attacks people because they are African Americans.” Unintentionally or otherwise, Bernie Sanders summed up the Democrat’s logic when it comes to racism, and by doing so, highlighted the fact that their race-based ideology is completely flawed.

The most important word in Sanders’ brief sentence is “because.” The word “because” describes purpose; intent; motivation. An accusation of racism cannot be leveled against someone without evidence of racist intent. When we remove this requirement, any comment or action made against someone of a racial minority can be viewed as racist.

It is logically obvious that there is a clear difference between criticism of someone who happens to be African American, and criticism of someone because they are African American. This key difference is being intentionally ignored by the Democrats, who prefer to use accusations of racism as some form of political “cheat code”. Their goal is to immediately invalidate the arguments of their opponents by labeling them as bigots, conveniently bypassing the need for substantive evidence, objective debate, or logical counter arguments.

There are two fundamental flaws with their logic. […] 

This post originally appeared at Times of Israel. To continue reading please visit The Times of Israel here.