How do you explain insults to children when they come from the president?
Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett Price joined Boston Public Radio to wrestle with that question after President Donald Trump took to Twitter to attack NBA star LeBron James and CNN anchor Don Lemon. Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, and Price is a professor and founding executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
"I'm constantly having to debrief with my children what's going on, and with other children and young adults who are losing hope and losing their faith in the aspirations of this democracy we call the United States of America," Price said.
Monroe said Trump's insults follow a familiar pattern of insulting the intelligence of high-profile African Americans. Trump previously suggested Rep. Maxine Waters had a "low IQ."
"What bothers me tremendously is he really does run this racist trope of black inferiority. He's always talking about IQ, and it's not just black folks, but he does it with a very pounding kind of resonance when he's talking about African Americans," Monroe said.
Monroe pointed to a recent study in The Boston Globe on the resegregation of Boston Public Schools. She said young children of color are being sent a message — from racial disparities in the education system, the use of force by police, and the president's comments — that society doesn't value them.
"Our children, our grandchildren are listening to this, and they feel like we've got a president that don't support them, we have a police system that doesn't support them, we now have a school system," she said.
