Is It Racist to Wear a Trump Hat?

Here’s the Background Story:

Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hat took the nation by storm during and after the 2016 election. The slogan is a call to action for Americans to remember what made our country exceptional. However, remembering our former greatness isn’t all that’s required to improve on our current condition.

We need to look to simultaneously look at the future while reminding ourselves of what made America great, to begin with.

In a speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 2016, Trump asked Americans to dream about the future they want for their nation.

“I am asking the American people to dream big once again.”

Fast forward to now and there are rampant accusations claiming that the MAGA hat is a symbol of racism. How did we end up here?

Here Are the Contributing Factors:

After Trump’s inauguration, there had been some vague accusations regarding the apparent racism of the MAGA hat. Malcontents labeled their dissatisfaction with Trump’s immigration policies as “fighting” racism. Others believed that certain members of the president’s cabinet had ties to fringe, extremist elements of the far-right.

These types of claims made against the president and his staff could only be justified among his opponents through, at best, tangential means.

However, the “proof” they were looking for happened in early 2019.

A group of Covington Catholic High School students attended an anti-abortion protest while wearing MAGA hats. Shortly afterward, a group of Native American activists arrived to disrupt the protest by dancing, chanting and staring down the students. This created a big scene that journalists ru7shed to document.

As journalists covered the event, an infamous snapshot of Nick Sandmann, a Covington student, smirking at one of the Native Americans staring him down circulated in the media. In fact, this one picture alone was the source of untold controversy. This young white man wearing a Trump hat while smirking at the counter-protester suddenly turned into proof that the MAGA hat, by association, was a symbol of racism.

Trump’s hat morphed into a symbol of racially-motivated hatred over a single snapshot taken out of context. In fact, the entire event was taken out of context; the Native American, who was known for escalating protests that were already heated, deliberately got in the young man’s face before staring him down. Anti-Trumpers, on the other hand, state that the student instigated this confrontation.

The student was simply standing his ground as the activists interrupted a legitimate protest.

Ever since this event, there have been more occurrences of people calling the MAGA hat racist. A professor at Gonzaga University called MAGA hats an “undeniable symbol of white supremacy” after one of his students wore it to class. Somehow, the initial sentiment of dreaming big and remembering our former greatness became intertwined with racist intentions.