(ThyBlackMan.com)
I am a real American/fight for the rights of every man…
– Pro Wrestler Hulk Hogan, Theme Song
My president is a “real American,” just as the opening song of his remarks at the White Correspondent dinner suggest. His long form birth certificate confirms this fact of course. He was born in the United States – Hawaii, 1961. Indeed these facts are matters of public record. Nonetheless, Donald Trump and his fellow birthers doubted that a child born of an American woman and a Kenyan man – bearing a name that rhymes with Osama – could be a “real American.” When Trump boldly requested proof, he not only asked Obama to show those proverbial papers as many have noted. With this rather curious demand, Trump seemingly placed himself within a history that has 
sought to define and visualize the representative American: his looks, his religion, his gender, and his genealogy. Quiet as it’s kept in these “post-racial” United States, it’s a history of the club of good ol’ boys – a time when citizens were men; men were white; blacks were inferior; and women were of no political concern.
Though no one seems to have said it, the subtext of Trump’s request – namely, the question “who is an American” – seemingly addresses the central question raised by the Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Even though the formerly enslaved Scott sought to prove his freedom, Justice Taney cast aside this question of liberty in order to examine the very idea of American citizenship. Taney argues that Dred Scott, as well as all others of this “class of person,” is not a citizen of the United States. Backed by legal precedence Taney confirms what he deems obvious. The Founding Fathers – the celebrated Framers of the Constitution – did not have black men in mind when they employed the word “citizen.” By “citizen,” these educated men meant “white man,” not those an “inferior order” brought to American shores as property. Thus, Taney’s American, the propertied white man, did not have to respect to the rights of this un-American, inferior other. Trump, as the American, does not have to respect the presidential authority of Barack Obama, and historical precendent is on his side. More than a century and a half has passed since Taney wrote the words, “they had no rights which the white man is bound to respect.” Despite the ratification of 14th amendment, the Civil Rights movement, and the election of President Barack Obama, this question of citizenship has reentered popular discourse. The person in question is not a former slave turned free then re-enslaved man, but rather the president of the United States.
This unsettlingly discussion of citizenship and race was cast aside several days after President Obama confirmed his “real American” citizenship by his announcement that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. The president concluded his speech with the words, “justice has been done.” Mobs danced in the streets to celebrate justice and by implication the hopeful end of international terrorism. In the wake of these peculiar celebrations of death and American hubris, I couldn’t help but to return to the implications of Donald Trump’s request for the president’s long form birth certificate. I couldn’t help but to return to the history that was so quickly silenced and ignored as we, Americans honored “justice.”
In the wake of the so-called end of international terrorism, what do we make of a more domestic form of terrorism wherein our highest executive authority – the president – can have his American citizenship questioned by a wealthy laymen, such as Donald Trump? Trump’s actions are part of history that affords him the privilege to question the American-ness our “first” black president. His actions make clear that there is no post-racial America; there is no America separate of distinct from racism, sexism, classism, all of which might be properly named domestic terrorism. I wonder what will come next. If the president’s citizenship can be questioned, what about the average American walking down the street? Who will come to his or her aid when stopped by another and asked to show papers or proof of citizenship? The War on Terror is not over. Moreover, it cannot end abroad if we cannot confront it on our American shores at the hands of our own American citizens. But then, who is American?
Written by Dr. Tara Bynum
