Yesterday, I tuned into the daily podcast of sports talkers Tim & Sid on sportsnet.ca. After fastforwarding past a discussion of the Toronto Blue Jays, I settled in to listen to an interview with Harnarayan Singh.
Born in Alberta, Canada, Singh was a hockey freak from his schoolyard days. His great desire wasn’t like many a Canadian youth to be a player but to become a hockey broadcaster. He has achieved his dream, but if you look at him, Singh doesn’t fit the image of a typical hockey announcer. Bearded, be-spectacled, and be-turbaned, Singh is a Sikh—and he broadcasts National Hockey League games in Punjabi.
In another interview today on sportsnet.ca,(1) Singh said of Canada, “We’re so lucky to be in a country where these opportunities are available to us.”
It should be noted that the podcast interview was conducted by Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro, the former of Maltese descent and the latter of Portuguese.
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After listening to Tim & Sid, I clicked onto Yahoo News to get my daily ration of angst and agita. The president of the United States supplied it. In Pennsylvania (but not in the City of Brotherly Love), Trump railed (once again) against Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. “She’s telling us how to run our country,” Trump complained.(2) As if a naturalized American citizen is not a member of “our” country. I wonder if Trump, after the swearing-in of newly naturalized citizens which was shown during the Republican convention (another Trumpian precedent-breaking mixing of the governmental and political), bothered to inform them that they were not really going to be part of Trump’s country.(3)
Who are the members of Trump’s country?
In another speech—this one in Bemidji, Minnesota—Trump told a fawning, nearly all-white crowd:
"You have good genes, you know that, right? . . .You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it, don't you believe? . . . You think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota."(4)
I must confess that for the first time in my life I have to congratulate Trump on his restraint; he did not utter the words that were crying out to be spoken: “Master Race.” Still, the words that were spoken sent a chill up my spine. As Carin Mrotz, the executive director of Jewish Community Action, stated:
"For Minnesota Jews, it's chilling to hear this language, which echoes the 'race science' used by the Nazis to justify the extermination of so many of our ancestors."
Trump is no stranger to direct anti-semitism. In a recent report, he is alleged to have complained that Jews “ ‘are only in it for themselves’ and ‘stick together’ in an ethnic allegiance that exceeds other loyalties.”(5)
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Trump has come for Latins generally and Mexicans specifically; for Africans generally and Somalians specifically; and now there’s a miasma of gas as he (together with the “good people” who are white Christian nationalists) comes for the Jews.(6)
Jared Jewboy, what would it take to rattle your gilded cage?
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(1) https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/qa-harnarayan-singh-new-book-importance-representation-hockey2/
(2) https://news.yahoo.com/where-came-trump-echoes-racist-001407470.html
(3) After a friend of mine, a native of South Africa, was sworn in as a naturalized American citizen, one of the first words out of his mouth was “we.”
(4) https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/22/politics/donald-trump-genes-historical-context-eugenics/index.html
(6) One is reminded of the words of Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
In an email comment today my old grad school buddy Len Fleischer stated that the GOP shouldn't be spoken of as Trump's "enablers," rather they are Trump's "enforcers." That's a brilliant and vital distinction.
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