How Trump made race-bating the new normal

Even though many of us Lefties wept with joy when Obama won, he didn’t actually affect our lives in any meaningful way. Then came along Donald Trump. He didn’t so much  touch us, as grab us by the… My own career and psychology have been hugely shaped by this man-baby meets frat-boy meets political thug. As a broadcaster, I confess, Trump was good for business. TV stations needed hours of analysis. I was lucky enough to be snapped up by CNN International as a pundit and this led to me being booked on lots of other shows.  

But the nature of political debate changed almost instantly because one of the first things Trump did was the Muslim ban. Racism and bigotry were firmly on the agenda and the dog whistle woofed out around the world from the White House. Suddenly I was having these heated debates about whether all Muslims were terrorists and apologising for 9/11. Before you start, I was working that day. I was told, “But he’s only saying what ‘real folk’ are thinking Ayesha.” “It’s so refreshing to be allowed to say these things again.” Erm, not so much if you’re the brown one getting race-baited on national television.  

Over the Trump years, we debated policy, strategy and economics less and screamed more about topics I always assumed were no longer up for discussion — not because of cancel culture but because of human evolution and decency. Was Colin Kaepernick wrong to take the knee? Were there two sides to Charlottesville? And these debates were hardly nuanced cerebral jousts. They were micro versions of the culture wars he ignited which tore apart America. I had always been a mild-mannered person who would crack a joke to defuse tension, yet I turned into this snarling, flushed beast. And this was before the perimenopause. I would often come off set and be shaken. I love a feisty, spirited debate but this felt different. Race-baiting became the new normal on our airwaves. I know other broadcasters and producers of colour felt the same. Everything we had known had been ripped up.  

Call me a crazy Lefty, fine. Or a feminazi, if you must. But racially charged discussions which would leave you trembling and days of far-Right abuse online were the new meat and drink of clickbait “infotainment”, and they were horrible. Trump made racism great again on both sides of the Atlantic. Until he came along, I never even really felt like a proper Muslim woman — which my Sancerre habit will confirm — but his Islamophobia and racism changed all that. Ironically, he made me feel more Muslim than my parents or any Imam. He made politics about identity. His hate preaching and weapons-grade incompetence hasn’t just left America in tatters, it’s scarred so many individuals. I’ll be cheering the Bidens as they move into the White House. But I do hope they get the place deep-cleaned.  

Theresa May has written a blistering piece plunging her Russell and Bromley stiletto into Boris Johnson. I get her icy anger. He made her life hell and eventually nabbed her job. She criticises his threats to break international law in relation to Brexit and describes the decision to cut the international aid budget as “abandoning our position of global moral leadership.” Strong stuff which I agree with. But let’s not forget,  it was May who pushed the hostile environment which led to the Windrush scandal and breathlessly rushed to roll out the red carpet to Trump.