While President Donald Trump continues to make light of racism through such means as his incessant dismissal of the peaceful protests launched by concerned pro athletes, untold numbers of minority community members face the scourge every single day. One such individual is DeWayne Wren who — until recently — worked at a lube shop in Belleville, Illinois.
He first got his job at the car service establishment earlier this year. In the months following coming on board, though, he faced the ugly and continuing reality of owner Paul Beeler’s racism. At one point, for instance, Beeler was explaining a story about his days as a milk truck driver in part by comparing black children to monkeys — which has an ironic connection to the current national political climate.
Republican candidate for Florida governor Ron DeSantis introduced himself to the nation, in part, through admonishing voters not to “monkey this up” by electing his Democratic opponent, a black man named Andrew Gillum, in November. Although even Fox News, where he made the comment, distanced himself from his language, the Congressman turned Trump-backed gubernatorial hopeful has refused to concede that he did anything wrong — which says a lot.
Similarly, when confronted, Beeler refused to accept that he’d done anything wrong in using the language in question. He eventually directed his racist outbursts at Wren himself, exclaiming that he didn’t understand why black people “don’t like” to be called the n-word when they “when they wear their pants on their ass, because that is what they look like,” and at the time, Wren had been struggling with his clothes on a hot day. Beeler made clear that to him, Wren also looked deserving of the n-word.
After that incident, Wren and a few other, all white employees confronted Beeler and his wife, but they asserted the owner could say whatever he wanted — and fired Wren.
In protest, a number of other white employees quit, including Ethan Haas and Samuel Sargeant, the latter of whom told the owner’s wife:
‘This is the 21st century, you and Paul should be better than to be saying racial slurs towards, around, or behind anyone even more importantly my good friend DeWayne who I know is a hard worker. I do not stand for that and will not let it happen to my friends.’
Beeler, though, remains hardly alone in his commitment to racism. As the months — and years — pile on, stories of serious racist incidents continue to compound. In plenty of cases, the person being victimized has been in actual physical danger — or killed. Early last year, for instance, a racist attacker in Kansas shot an Indian man dead after shouting that he wanted him out of the country.
Even still, some people — from Beeler to President Trump — think it’s no big deal. Outside of some high profile very questionable — and racist — choices of language, Trump has substantively shown his commitment to racist ideals through such means as asserting that immigration is doing irreparable harm to Europe.
Going forward, there’s an opportunity in less than two months via the midterms to put a check on that racism — and in two years to kick it out of the White House.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
