Mumia Abu-jamal's Radio Essays

Trump: And the Politics of Resentment[col. writ. 7/31/15] © ’15 Mumia Abu-JamalWhen New York billionaire and GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump launched into his anti-immigrant tirade against Mexicans crossing the border, he was using a long known political technique of plugging into the live wire of American resentment of the other.Today, it’s Latinos, of course; more precisely, those from the Southern borders: Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and the like.But, since the 19th century, politicians have used these currents of fear to fuel movements against those who came from abroad. In these days though, the targets of nativist’s ire were the Irish, Russian Jews, Italians and other European sites.These forces gave birth to the American Party, a fierce anti-immigrant group that became known popularly as the Know Nothings. They formed a third party during the 1850s, and ran former U.S. President Millard Fillmore as their unsuccessful candidate.U.S. historian Richard Hofstadter (1910-70), in h