By The GOP party is rushing to make amends after an audio clip of Donald Trump, originally released by The Washington Post, revealed the candidate boasting about aggressively kissing, groping, and making unwanted sexual advances toward women in lewd terms that bordered on sexual assault.
It’s 2005. Donald Trump and Billy Bush, then from “Access of Hollywood” and now a host on the “Today Show”, seem to notice Arianne Zucker, a white actress in the soap opera “Days of Our Lives” who was waiting to escort them to the set.
“I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them,” Trump says on the clip. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”
When you’re a star, he says, “You can do anything. Grab them by the pu***– You can do anything.”
Fast forward to October 2016, 15 months into the 2016 presidential race and just 72 hours before the second presidential debate, where the same Donald Trump will be competing against Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.
The American public is in an outrage.
Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, and additional Republican congress members are withdrawing their support.
Democrats are violently condemning the candidate’s acts, and secretly celebrating their near-win as his already-scarce votes of white, college-graduate women slip from his grip.
But the uproar in the past twenty-four hours brings to attention much more than Trump’s power play and his clear unpreparedness for the Oval Office—it brings to light the divide between white women and women of color when it comes to the their rights in the face of sexual impropriety of the opposite gender.
When the reputation of a white woman is attacked, however, the GOP party is in shambles.
For the entirety of the 2016 electoral race, Trump’s history and recurring habits of sexual misconduct (see: Alicia Machado), sexism (see: Melania, his wife), oppression (see: Ghazala Khan), and misogyny (see: everyone) aimed at minority women have trickled into occasional conversation. They have failed, however, to take center stage and break headlines.
When the reputation of a white woman is attacked, however, the GOP party is in shambles. The uproar caused in the past twenty-four hours is far greater than the commotion caused by Trump’s continuously demeaning comments made against women who are neither white nor pretty made in the past fifteen months altogether.
The events of the past 24 hours may be a major setback for the GOP, and a ticket to the White House for the Democrats that will end after November 8th, but it marks a life-long struggle for minority women whose honor, respect, and safety are devalued because of the color of their skin.
Following the incident, Senate Majority Leader announced urged Trump to release an apology for his comments. “Trump needs to apologize directly to women and girls everywhere,” he said.
Others are concerned, saying they “have a wife and a daughter and a mother.”
Clearly, it takes the stripped honor of a white woman for Republicans to finally feel the gravity of their candidate’s words.
When it takes a direct and explicit insult to a pretty white woman to catch the attention of the American public and its leaders, the problem cannot be limited to, nor is it embedded in, the questionable character of only one man—it is a concern that is deeply rooted racism.
The events of the past 24 hours may be a major setback for the GOP, and a ticket to the White House for the Democrats that will end after November 8th, but it marks a life-long struggle for minority women whose honor, respect, and safety are devalued because of the color of their skin.