The Poetry of Arthur Vaso

Old Man Trump - Woody Guthrie

11/21/2018

18 Comments

 
There is enough said about Donald Trump, he is a Traitor for one, a self centered, narcissist son of a bitch to be blunt. He has the education of cockroach with a lobotomy, on crack. Ask me how I really feel? He is also without any doubt a criminal, who has robbed and defrauded many, he just hasn't been convicted yet. A conman without any doubt. However his racism, his abuse of women, his abuse of the weak and his abuse of veterans and mentally handicapped is beyond the pail. Not to mention his anti-gay gender views.

How does a man become the man he is? The age old debate, of environment verses genetics. Whatever the answer, lets take a peek into his fathers history.
 
Now this is never an excuse, but once you read, is it no wonder the dummy turned out as he did?

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Although this was photo shopped, it was about Donald Trump giving the KKK special permissions to hold a rally.
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Here are exerts from an article by Marie Loveland
 
 
Trump’s Dad Was So Racist, Woody Guthrie Wrote A Song About It
In 1950, Woody Guthrie signed a lease for an apartment in Brooklyn; his landlord was Fred C. Trump
By Mariel Loveland
 
In 2015, future President Donald Trump issued a seemingly innocuous-but increasingly portentous when put into context-statement: “My legacy has roots in my father’s legacy.” But it might be more than business acumen that has trickled down from the top of the gold-encrusted Trump family tree. Trump’s dad Fred had an unexpected occupant in one of his New York properties in the early 1950s: American singer-songwriter and social justice warrior Woody Guthrie. And guess what? Guthrie was no fan of “Old Man Trump.”
 
While contemporary musicians like Adele, Miley Cyrus, and Waka Flocka Flame have all taken to social media in order to criticize Donald Trump’s ideals, this was merely round two of musicians coming for the Trumps. Over 60 years ago, Guthrie was feverishly penning tunes lambasting Fred Trump for racist behavior. “Old Man Trump,” Guthrie’s song about Fred, exposed a dark world where the landlord and rumored KKK affiliate profited from an apartment complex that housed only white families. It included the scathing lines, “I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate/He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts/When he drawed that color line.”

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FRED TRUMP ARRESTED AT KKK RALLY
 
In May of 1927, a 21-year-old Fred Trump was arrested in the melee surrounding a Klan rally in Jamaica, Queens. A New York Times article from the incident describes the scene as “1,000 Klansmen and 100 policemen [staging] a free-for-all.” For his part, Donald Trump vehemently denied that his father was ever arrested at a Klan rally, and he urged New York Times reporter Jason Horowitz to drop the subject in an interview, stating, “It shouldn’t be written because it never happened, number one. And number two, there was nobody charged.”
 
Trump did get one thing right: his father was never charged. Out of the seven people arrested, Trump’s father was the only one who got off completely free. According to a clipping from the now defunct Daily Star, four of those arrested were expected to go to court, and two were paroled. One, Fred Trump, was not held on charges. However, this doesn’t negate his standing as a member of the Klan. According to newspaper clip obtained by VICE, all the people arrested were wearing Klan attire, which VICE contends likely would have included Fred Trump.
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Guthrie’s lyrics went as follows:
 
I suppose
Old Man Trump knows
Just how much
Racial Hate
he stirred up
In the bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed
That color line
Here at his
Eighteen hundred family project.

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What Guthrie didn’t know was that the FHA had specific racial guidelines
 
 
Fred Trump wasn’t acting on his own when he refused to rent property to people of color. In the 1950s, the FHA, which fronted the bill for some of Trump’s housing projects, had a set of guidelines for avoiding “inharmonious uses of housing.” According to Trump biographer Gwenda Blair, this was, “a code phrase for selling homes in white areas to blacks.” The practice of refusing to rent people of color homes in traditionally white areas was rather common among FHA projects. It only took a year for Guthrie to find out the truth.

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Woody Guthrie was honored on a postage stamp, please let us hope we never see Trump on one.
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And finally lets end on a positive note and just enjoy some of his music!
18 Comments

    Arthur Vaso

    Hi there, the blog has been running for almost a year, and as you can see I try to keep up a few posts a month. More about poetry and fellow poets, but also about current events, social issues as well as art and music. I look forward to any suggestions from readers and fellow poets!

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  • ARTGallery
  • Music
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