Op-Ed

The Unpleasant Truth About Africa And Haiti Trumps Liberal Lies And Hypocrisy

Haiti Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla

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We live in an era of perpetual outrage because outrage distracts people from focusing on more important issues (like the fact that American workers’ real wages have been stagnant for decades thanks to deindustrialization and illegal immigration policies favored by globalists). Because some elites benefit by keeping the public distracted, the liberal media constantly bombards us with “outrageous scandals” like the story about the hunter who killed Cecil the Lion or the clothing company that marketed a sweater bearing the phrase “coolest monkey in the jungle” with a cute black child model—which sparked “outrage” until the boy’s mother shut it down.

The most recent outrage cycle involves Trump’s alleged statements that Haiti, El Salvador and some African nations are “shithole” countries. Predictably enough, liberals like Democratic senator Dick Durbin and Joan Walsh (author of “What’s the Matter With White People?), pounced upon the President’s putative comments as an opportunity to virtue-signal. Supposedly, they are better than the President because they would never, ever say something so “horrible” and “racist.” But their sanctimonious prattle is annoying and disingenuous.

Every liberal elite loudly condemning the President knows that the countries he allegedly commented on are in a deplorable state—so bad that thousands of their citizens risk death to flee from them. This is why their hypocrisy burns, particularly when liberals like Walsh dishonestly claim they “don’t know” whether they’d prefer to live in Norway or Haiti, as if this presents a close question—much like being asked whether you’d rather live in the hood in Baltimore or in the mostly white affluent enclaves where most liberals choose to reside.

Liberals’ dishonesty is grating because even African and Haitian commentators have acknowledged the sad straits their countries are in. Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma, the recipient of an NAACP Image Award, has admitted that, “There Are No Successful Black Nations.” He notes that, “Nigeria, the most populous black nation on Earth, is on the brink of collapse. Obioma also observes (as many Africans have) that:

A culture of incompetence, endemic corruption, dignified ineptitude, and, chief among all, destructive selfishness and greed has played a major role in its unravelling. The same, sadly, can be said for most other African nations. States like Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea are farcical democracies ruled by men who exclusively cater to their interests and those of their clipped circles.

As Obioma explains, because of “chaos, senseless wars, corrupted religiosity, violence, and economic collapse — African and Caribbean people leave home en masse. They beg on the streets of Greece, prostitute in the red-light zones of the Netherlands, and make up 40 percent of the migrants flocking to Europe.”

Do liberals think that Obioma is “racist” for acknowledging these unpleasant truths?

Similarly, a West African sociologist recently admitted that, “President Donald Trump is absolutely right” because “When you have heads of state who mess with the constitutions to perpetuate their power. When you have rebel factions that kill children, disembowel women as saints, who mutilate innocent civilians,” that, unfortunately, qualifies as a shitty situation.

So, if, as liberals claim, Trump made some undiplomatic statements, their own hypocrisy is far more outrageous than his words (which many Africans agree with). Liberals know these countries they are now “heroically” defending are tragic places — much like they know Baltimore, Chicago and Detroit and other cities that they have run for five or more decades are filled with crime, urban squalor and academic mediocrity. But they have done nothing to solve the problem. Indeed, they have fueled the problem. For them to now expect a pat on the back because they are too “polished” and politically-correct to acknowledge (in public, at least) unpleasant truths is a farce. As Obioma noted, for successful African nations to exist in real life (and not just in Hollywood films) black elites will have to “allow for self-criticism and soul-searching.” That type of self-introspection will never occur, however, as long as liberals continue to coddle blacks by pretending that failed countries and failed communities aren’t really failing. The truth hurts, but, if you listen to it, can also set you free. Unlike the lies that “progressive” liberals keep peddling to black folks.

The fact is that the people of Haiti, Africa and other underdeveloped nations deserve better governments so that they don’t have to flee to other countries. But that will never happen as long as Democrats keep shoveling out foreign aid that props up and fattens corrupt regimes. So, if Durbin and liberals in the media really want to help migrants from these unfortunate countries, why don’t they use their power and platform to express outrage at the ineffective leadership that destroys the life prospects of people living in underdeveloped countries and our foreign aid policies perpetuating this problem instead of just bashing the President?

Nick James is the nom de plume of a trial attorney in the D.C. area who formerly worked for the United States Department of Justice as an award-winning federal prosecutor.


The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.