White Americans or Afro-Americans – living in America side by side

by Samvel Z. Harutyunyan

When Columbus first landed in Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1492-93, he and his crew were met and surrounded by the happy and ecstatic Indians, who consisted the absolute majority of the American continent’s population. I did not find a single Indian on the island back in 1975, though there were lots of the monuments of both Indian men and women in Guama (Matanzas), a well-known Indian village in Cuba. When I, then a 14-year-old youngster, who was full of impressions from those books and westerns, where the chiefs like Chingachgook and Geronimo were the heroes, same as their opponents, the white-faced brave cowboys, asked our guide, if I could see any Native Cuban)) alive here in Cuba, he after feeling very uneasy and hesitating, looking from me to my dad and back, said that all Indians were exterminated by Spaniards very soon, in the 16th century …. A cruel reality, which is almost unbelievable, when you realize, that the majority of the local population was exterminated by the newly arriving European minority, well-armed, equipped, greedy and cruel. So sad, but this is already a history.
It was really late, when the Europeans have realized, that they cannot manage with the heavy physical work and the tropical climate – they needed a help, and they began to transport slaves from their African colonies to their American colonies, where the Indians were already not the majority, but the minority of population. In the United States of America, white Americans consist of 77.5 percents of the entire population of the country. The Afro-Americans consist of 12.7% of the total U.S. population (2015), according to Wikipedia. Everything is clear with the statistics here, same as the groups in a country, where the racism was officially remaining until the second half of the 1960s, when the white / black marriages’ bans were finally invalidated. But there are many questions about this problem in the U.S. until today. We are not going to talk about this in this article, as there is nothing new to say about this.
Things have changed after Donald Trump became the President of the United States, after the first non-white President Barack H. Obama has left the Oval Cabinet, serving to his country for two terms. Donald Trump, I think, was the most unexpected pretender from all the candidates that we know, and Hillary Clinton was the most expected. While from the very beginning of the Clinton-Trump opposition, the Clinton command was creating the unreal image of its opponent, which was sometimes confirmed by Trump’s unusual behavior for a politician – in general they could be explained with his political clumsiness and simplicity. I think this was exactly what has helped him to win. The ordinary Americans have chosen him, especially after Bernie Sanders has made his fatal mistake and quit the elections, leaving Clinton face-to-face with Trump. During this period, both sides were exchanging with the critical comments, sometimes passing to an uncovered abuse and mutual insults. Thus, at this very moment the team, which opposed D. Trump, has created his false political and moral image, which, unfortunately for him and most of the Americans (as D. Trump is now their President, regardless of their views and wishes), is being used by his opposition until today. One of the things he has been blamed for, was his “racism”. To say frankly, I doubt this very much, as before becoming the President he was a prosperous businessman, who has dealt with the different people and partners, made friendship with people, no matter what was their racial or religious affiliation. The previous President, Barack Obama, as a Democrat supported Hillary Clinton, as if underlining, that “she is our candidate” (read “our man”), and when she failed, that has made Trump automatically “racist”. And someone liked very much to keep Trump guilty all the time, accusing him of all American sins, as if it was him who’s been in power all these past 10 years.
Trump has condemned the Charlottesville events, saying that the both confronting sides have to be blamed equally. He also signed the Congressional resolution, condemning white supremacists. Pay attention to one thing – when Trump condemned the white supremacists, he automatically condemned racism in general. It’s not a secret, that the racism and dislike in its multiple manifestations has no principal difference, especially when the dominating “white supremacy” is removed. When a specific group is being banned or removed, this makes everyone equal before the law. Nice move, Mr. Trump. Really, it looks wild and strange to speak about any “supremacy” in the 21st century. Just say, can you imagine America without Martin Luther King or Jesse Jackson, Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, Stevie Wonder or Luther Vandross, Whoopee Goldberg or Danny Glover? Sure, you can’t. And can you imagine America without JFK or Jimmy Carter, Larry Bird or Tom Chambers, Janice Joplin or the “Lynyrd Skynyrd”, Robert Redford, Kevin Spacey or Robin Wright? Definitely not, dear fellow Americans. You’re sentenced to live together. And forever.