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US President Trump’s visit to Kenosha has shown that the city and the country are increasingly divided. While some protest against police violence, others see racism as a left wing fantasy.
By Sebastian Hesse, ARD-Studio Washington, currently. Kenosha
“This is not about Donald Trump,” says Calena Roberts. The black trade unionist came to Kenosha from Milwaukee, north, to attend a neighborhood festival organized by the Jacob Blake family as a counterprogram to Trump’s visit. At the crime scene, exactly where the 29-year-old black man was shot seven times in the back by a white policeman, there is a barbecue and a street party.
“I’m extremely optimistic,” says Anthony Herring, who announces at the street festival that visitors are registering on the electoral roll. Never before, not even in the days of the civil rights movement, had the problem of systemic racism received so much attention.
Painful yet familiar images
Jim thinks so too. She is one of the few white people at the festival. Since Trump took office, racism has become socially acceptable again, he complains. Hence the idea of the street festival: Turn your back on the president by offering him an alternative program in a residential area. Hundreds came, including civil rights legend Jesse Jackson. It was painful to see the footage from the Jacob Blake shoot, Jackson says, but sadly they are also familiar images.
Meanwhile, onlookers and Trump fans have gathered downtown, hoping to at least get a quick look at the president. Megan drove two hours with her two children and flies a huge Trump flag. “Trump, his supporters and the Republicans just want the country to be one,” he says. Racism has not existed since the 1980s and now only the left has pulled it out of the moth to divide the country.
“It’s really exciting that I’m here.”
Very few people in Kenosha would go that far. But the fact that Trump has dispatched the National Guard to stop looting and rioting is welcomed by many, including Cynthia Rayners: “I think it’s really exciting that I’m here,” she says. Trump really has a heart for the police and the common people. He feared for his children during the riots. Since there has been a nightly curfew in Kenosha, it has remained silent, but of course that is not a permanent solution.
Trump eventually brought in a million dollars for Kenosha police and four million dollars for the injured businessmen. He felt welcome on his short visit: The president said he could feel the “love on the streets” of Wisconsin.
