The move comes as concerns about Trump’s racist language, and continuing appeal to racists across the country, continue to swell. Just a few days ago, Trump tweeted out an incendiary video of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), which many detractors perceived as both bigoted and racist toward a minority member of Congress.
The tweet also came a few weeks after Trump downplayed the threat of white nationalism yet again, and almost two years after he described the Charlottesville, Virginia, white nationalist rally as a march full of “very fine people, on both sides.” (The president, of course, jump-started his political career with the racist “birther” movement years ago.) The White House followed Trump’s comments by announcing in late 2018 that it would not renew funding programs designed to counter white nationalist violence in the U.S., even canceling outright a grant to Life After Hate, an organization dedicated solely to fighting white supremacist ideology.
The failure to renominate McDougall also comes amidst two years of Trump’s White House undercutting America’s role in international bodies and agreements. From walking away from the Paris Climate Accords to abandoning the Iran nuclear deal, to even withdrawing from the United Nations’ International Court of Justice and Human Rights Council, the Trump administration has steadily eroded American standing in multi-nation bodies.
And now, without a member nominated to the U.N.’s commission on combating racism, the most openly racist administration in decades has only further entrenched its policy preferences.
Article Appeared @https://thinkprogress.org/trump-blocks-u-s-from-nominating-anyone-to-u-n-racism-committee-27bfe17b7908/