By DeeDee Garcia Blase
There are 18.5 million veterans living in the United States as of 2016, according to the Census Bureau. Of these, 1.6 million veterans are women. Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I to honor all American veterans – living and/or dead. However, as a Gulf War I veteran who is still alive with an opinion, I have no choice but to believe we are nowhere close to ending wars – instead, I believe we are on the brink of nuclear war.
I know I can’t be the only vet (out of the 18.5 million) anxious about Trump’s rhetoric that seems extremely unpresidential when it comes to diplomacy in general and regarding North Korea. A piece in the LA Times shed light from one veteran regarding his Korea concern and wrote: “When you juxtapose the awesome progress of the South with the despotism and economic failures of the North, you understand that our sacrifices there had value. It would be tragic to see all of that collapse in another outbreak of war. I hope President Trump has convinced the Chinese to “persuade” the North Koreans to cease their bellicosity. American kids should not have to fight and die again on that familiar terrain.”
What does my written Veterans Day opinion have to do with one of my favorite rappers of all time?
In October Eminem created the ultimate diss of Trump that touched on those who served our military. As I waited and watched the controversy fallout, I saw a lot of reaction from black artists, athletes and even Ellen Degeneres. But what I didn’t see a whole lot of is the reaction from brown artists even though Eminem mentions the immigrant situation and the wall.
As a brown woman, the below are excerpts I want to draw attention to from Eminem’s freestyle rap on Trump and what they mean to me:
But we better give Obama props ‘Cause what we got in office now’s a kamikaze That’ll prolly cause a nuclear holocaust And while the drama pops And he waits for shit to quiet down, he’ll just gas his plane up and fly around ‘til the bombin’ stops Intensities heightened, tensions are risin’ Trump, when it comes to givin’ a shit, you’re stingy as I am
I was surprised Eminem spit out what many are feeling regarding concerns of being on the brink of nuclear war. Many are in denial about these very real concerns, but the rapper exposes how the government will make every attempt to protect the President whether by plane flying around until the fallout settles, or some kind of other nuclear-proof bunker. Meanwhile, what happens to the approximate 30,000 military members serving in South Korea and the approximate 40,000 serving nearby in Japan? Eminem also confesses Trump may be as stingy as he is, however, Trump is the one who is the elected public servant official who is supposed to do what is in the best interest of Americans.
That’s why he keeps screamin’, “Drain the swamp!” ‘Cause he’s in quicksand It’s like we take a step forwards then backwards But this is his form of distraction Plus, he gets an enormous reaction When he attacks the NFL so we focus on that in— —stead of talkin’ Puerto Rico or gun reform for Nevada All these horrible tragedies and he’s bored and would rather Cause a Twitter storm with the Packers
Eminem nails it here. He sees what we see regarding the Russian collusion and investigation of many in his administration and it keeps sinking like they are in quicksand until #45 devises a strategy to divert attention to other matters. I’m thankful Eminem exposes the smoke and mirrors game to his millions of fans. How humiliating it would be for a President to go down in history with spending more time creating bitterness and chaos than taking part in being a solution to humanitarian tragedies.
Same shit that he tormented Hillary for and he slandered Then does it more From his endorsement of Bannon Support for the Klansmen Tiki torches in hand for the soldier that’s black And comes home from Iraq And is still told to go back to Africa Fork and a dagger in this racist 94-year-old grandpa Who keeps ignorin’ our past historical, deplorable factors
As a Hillary supporter, I’m glad Eminem exposed Trump’s hypocrisy and his slanderous nature against Hillary. According to the New York Times: “…Facebook officials said the fake accounts were created by a Russian company called the Internet Research Agency, which is known for using “troll” accounts to post on social media and comment on news websites. The disclosure adds to the evidence of the broad scope of the Russian influence campaign, which American intelligence agencies concluded was designed to damage Hillary Clinton and boost Donald J. Trump during the election.”
That said, the lyrical lines that addresses “the soldier that is black and comes from Iraq and is still told to go back to Africa” hit a vein with me. The soldiers who are men and women of color have more patriotism in the pinky finger than racist ignorant people who would have known had they served the Armed Forces themselves that the military trains on comradery and the only color that should be noted is the color of our battle dress uniform. In fact the deplorables may want to note that racial and ethnic minority groups made up 40% of Defense Department active-duty military in 2015, up from 25% in 1990, according to the PEW Research Center and 44% of all Americans ages 18 to 44 were racial or ethnic minorities in 2015.
Let that soak in a minute.
Almost half of our United States military consists of people of color even though the large majority of our United States are white alone not Hispanic or Latino. According to NEWSWEEK: “the white population grew by 0.5 percent to remain the largest racial group in America, with 256 million people…”
He says, “You’re spittin’ in the face of vets who fought for us, you bastards!” Unless you’re a POW who’s tortured and battered ‘Cause to him you’re zeros ‘Cause he don’t like his war heroes captured That’s not disrespectin’ the military
A good part and one where Eminem exposes Trump’s inability to say ANYTHING about veterans when he is the very one who attacks them! Trump indeed attacked a Prisoner Of War (POW) and I for one was glad Sen. John McCain, in an interview about the Vietnam War, appeared to take a swipe at President Donald Trump when he criticized people from “the highest income level” who avoided the draft by finding a doctor who “would say that they had a bone spur.”
In my view, Trump lost complete credibility with me as he tries to seem as if he cares about people who served. He already disrespected us.
And any fan of mine who’s a supporter of his I’m drawing in the sand a line, you’re either for or against And if you can’t decide who you like more and you’re split On who you should stand beside, I’ll do it for you with this: F*** You
This above was the best part of the whole diss. Eminem shows he refuses to compromise with racism and I applaud him for that. People of color know the inner racism that has been revealed with this administration and I am glad to see Eminem put his head on the chopping block with angry whites by drawing that line in that sand.
Eminem gets it. He understands we must have zero tolerance for the intolerant. He empathizes with people of color and knows we were born that way and we cannot hide it.
I’ll close with this …
It feels like we are going backwards from all the progress we have made. It’s unfortunate we have such a divisive President as Commander-In-Chief when our very military leaders try to show on the battle field there is no color – just the color of our battle dress uniforms. Eminem has done more with his concert for valor thanking and boosting military morale than Trump will have done in his entire life. And as such, I want to thank all who have served as we march forward during uncertain times.
