Former Executive at Trump Organization Recalls How “Racism Was, Like, Accepted” in Company Culture

By Clare Martin  |  March 1, 2019 | 10:45am
Photo by Jon Raedle/Getty
Politics News Donald Trump
Former Executive at Trump Organization Recalls How “Racism Was, Like, Accepted” in Company Culture

Donald Trump is racist. It’s not a difficult conclusion to reach. Whether it’s his consistent support of Islamophobic extremists on Twitter, or his comments about sh*thole countries, or his xenophobic wall, the president has made it clear that he is a racist.

In case you wanted more proof, though, Barbara Res, a former Trump Organization executive, spoke to CNN’s Brooke Baldwin Thursday about the casual racism thrown about at the president’s business. Baldwin asked Res about the veracity of Michael Cohen’s testimony calling Trump racist. Cohen cited the lack of black executives at the Trump Organization and comments the former business mogul made during Obama’s presidency in his claims.

Res responded with a line that should be remembered for just how often we may hear it in the coming years. It’s a statement made by people complicit in the awful behavior of others, the bystander’s credo: “It’s hard for me to say he’s a racist and then admit for him I worked for him all that time.”

How many GOP members are going to have to trot out that sentiment once they finally feel like copping to Trump’s horrific statements and policies?

Res continued, “I mean, it was a different period of time and words like the N-word we used frequently. They aren’t ever used now.”

While Res, who worked for Trump for 18 years, wasn’t sure she ever heard him use the N-word, she did recall the racist jokes tossed around around the office:

I remember hearing jokes, there were always black jokes going back and forth. And he told them, too. You know the expression ‘once you go black, you never go back’? The first time I ever heard it, it was Donald that said it, and in a joking way. So I mean there was certainly a lightheartedness about, not only black people, but Jews and things like that.

“So no one in the room, when Donald Trump or others would make these inappropriate jokes, would say, ‘Sir, not appropriate’?” Baldwin asked.

Res replied that this was simply the company culture at the time, and said the racist jokes “weren’t as mean intended back then”:

Everybody joked and, I’m gonna be honest about it, people laughed. This was 1981, ‘82, ‘83 and that’s almost 40 years ago. And people sort of laughed. They laughed at Polish jokes. And by the way, they weren’t as mean intended back then. It was more or less, kinda like racism was, like, accepted. It wasn’t like, “Oh, I hate black people.” It’s just, this is the way people are and this is the way we talk.

This is what Trump promised white people with “Make America Great Again.” He would bring back a country where “racism was, like, accepted.” Watch the video in full below:

 
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