Last night I had the opportunity to be reading the horrifically mesmerizing non-fictional account of American “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present” by Harriet A. Washington (can someone start a survey asking how many white Americans have ever read, or heard, of this book and get some responses to what they thought of it?).
I came to the section in which she speaks of P.T. Barnum (1810 — 1891) who, in Wikipedia, is referred to as “an American politician, showman, and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes.” Here I learned how Barnum, in 1835, made money off of Joice Heth, an African-American woman who he claimed suckled President George Washington at her breast. He also told his audiences that she was 161-years-old and, yes, many of the flock who paid money to see her believed his claim to be true. Many others, however, were a tad bit skeptical.
However, being the conning shyster and irrepressible asshole that he was, he shrewdly told the masses that, when Ms. Heth died, he would prove his claim of her age by having a public autopsy (which, reportedly, was viewed by about 1,500 people….think about that for a minute for when you die). Indeed, Dr. David L. Rogers, a New York City surgeon, reportedly performed this “scientific” autopsy following which he declared “THAT HETH WAS A FRAUD.” In his professional opinion, she was no more than about 80-years-old. But, never mind that. Barnum continued to make up stories that most of his followers continued to believe. SIGNIFICANTLY, New York newspapers wrote numerous articles regarding the veracity of Barnum’s BS—some on his side, some not buying his rather obvious nonsense. He even went so far as to say that Heth really wasn’t dead,
One hundred-ninety-years later Donald J. Trump, in an article published by the New York Daily News (“Donald Trump embraces comparisons to P.T. Barnum”), Jason Silverstein writes that Donald Trump “is happy to admit his campaign is a circus,” and that he “EAGERLY EMBRACED LONG-RUNNING COMPARISONS TO GRANDSTANDING SHOWMAN P.T. BARNUM—and said he even takes it as a compliment.”
Reportedly Trump stated, “We need P.T. Barnum, a little bit, because we have to build up the image of our country.”
To someone like me, that should be bad enough. But I’m going to take this a few steps further, from what I’ve heard and read. This is a man who had the audacity to say to African-Americans, “What do you have to lose?” if you vote for me? Well, for starters, how about any opportunity whatsoever to be ever thought of as “equal” to a “white” person? Won’t someone out there continue to explore this man’s ancestry, in all his glorified racist history? Am I wrong? Let me know.
For now, this country will be swearing in less than two weeks from now the biggest American politician, showman, and businessman since P.T. Barnum to take over the Oval Office. Wrap your brain around that for a minute.