Shut Your Shh…

It is a hope universally cherished that a new year with all its promise of change will bring about new habits. Not for Donald Trump, it seems, as he made yet another attempt at breaking the internet on Thursday 11 January, causing furore on a global scale.

The latest in The Donald setting the bar lower than we could ever imagine came on Thursday 11 January when in rejection of a bipartisan deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants from being deported, allegedly asked “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” in reference specifically to immigrants from Haiti and Africa. 

“Shameless”, “shocking” and “racist” were the words UN used in response.

Shameless? Yes. Racist? Yes. But shocking? Come on.

After all, the 45th president of the USA has set a remarkable precedence of raising the bar so low, we have to start digging just to find it. Or if we are still faithful enough to stick to Michelle Obama’s parting shot, “When they go low, we go high” we’ve reached the stratosphere. The Donald gave us wings.
 
Never mind his bankruptcies, his presidential running of Divided States, the tangerine tyrant is a winner. A solid track record of vulgarities and offensive statements, half-baked truths and often complete lies, especially when it comes to issues of immigration and ethnic minorities.
 
This is the man who after all spent a whole eight years plus obsessively questioning his predecessor President Obama’s birth records. Also the man who thinks Nambia is a country in Africa.
 
This latest in a chain of racial slurs comes shortly after Donald Trump’s equally inflammatory statements – during a meeting with senior staff about levels of immigration in June – that Haitian immigrants “all have Aids” and Nigerian immigrants would “never go back to their huts”.

Nigerians, who in limited scope of Donald Trump’s understanding, are banished to mud huts, are listed among the eight social groups that have a “cultural edge” when it comes to succeeding and climbing the ranks in America, best-selling author Amy Chua, the “Tiger Mom,” argues in her new book, The Triple Package. According to the author, the ‘triple package’ constitutes: 1. A sense of superiority, 2. A sense of insecurity 3. Impulse control and delayed pleasure. Anyone who’s spent more than five minutes in the presence of an ambitious, passionate, swaggering Nigerian, laughing in the face of atrocity or competition, while racing their way to the top, would be able to see how this theory applies.

While only a theory, the argument is backed by 2006 census data which showed Nigerians surpass all other US ethnic groups when it comes to higher education. This is not just unique to Nigerians but other sub-Saharan immigrants in the US. As of 2013, 38 per cent of sub-Saharan African immigrants had a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to 28 per cent of all U.S. immigrants and 30 per cent of the U.S.-born population.
 
Likewise, according to a Pew Research Center study when compared to the total immigrant population in the US, sub-Saharan Africans were much more likely to be employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations (38 per cent) and much less likely to be employed in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (3 per cent).
 
It is safe to say Nigerians do not go back to their mud huts. They get BAs, MBAs, PhDs and head some of the biggest brands in America or go back home to their ten-bedroom mansions and air-conditioned C-suites on the Island.
 
Mud huts and mansions aside, Nigerian immigrants have made major contributions to America, as have others. Philip Emeagwali, Nigerian-born engineer, mathematician, computer scientist and geologist, considered one of the most intelligent people in the world, actor Uzo Aduba, rapper Wale, jeweller to the stars, Chris Aire are just some prominent Nigerians in the US.
 
And granted, alongside every shining beacon of immigrant hope, pride and achievement, there is, to quote Trump, a “bad hombre” or two. But this is also true for Americans. After all, for every Barack Obama, there is a Donald.
 
And thus, the shoddy presidency of a ‘very stable genius’ continues as America, once great, is slowly but surely turned into a giant sinkhole where any semblance of virtue, integrity, common sense, basic human decency is buried six feet under, under the presidency of a tweet-wielding, tantrum throwing, profanity spewing, pussy grabbing man child with thin skin, a fragile ego, and a chip on his shoulder the size of Mexico.
 
Racist? Yes. Shameless? Yes. Shocking? Not anymore. There is only one thing left to tell The Donald: Shut your shithole.