Make America Read Again
"Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?"
There’s a clip that’s been making the rounds over the last couple of days in which the POTUS praises the Liberian President Joseph Boakai for his impressive command of the English language. There’s the obvious insult and condescension on full display to be sitting across from another leader and president, attempting to compliment his ability to articulate himself when Trump himself can barely string two relevant thoughts together. However, for me what’s even more painful is that this is yet another example of how wholly unqualified this man is for the position that he holds and what that says about our country.
Liberia’s official language is English. The country was founded by Americans. The flag that is flown is a derivative of the American flag. The capital city is named after US President James Monroe, who supported the American Colonization Society’s efforts to resettle freed Blacks on the land in 1822. I don’t know what’s more offensive, the fact that all of these facts are just staring at the sitting president inviting him into the supportive world of context clues or that he has so blatantly displayed his ignorance for so long and realizing that perhaps the ignorance was the point the whole time. That voters didn’t just vote for the slashing, the banning, the walls as a means of defense or provision, but that the thing being protected this whole time was their right to ignorance.
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As someone who has traveled the world, the other part of this is just how unimpressive meeting someone who speaks English as a second language is, often times better than native speakers. I am actively learning Portuguese and the hardest part is actually finding people to speak with because of how fluent the Portuguese are in English. Wherever you travel, for the most part, English versions of menus, signs, announcements will meet you where you are. It is the global language and if you are a native English speaker, you will be accommodated, you will be understood. So even if English was Boakai’s second language, Trump’s amazement at how “beautifully” he spoke it speaks volumes of how small minded he is about the people of the world.
But, to be fair, Trump is full of gaffes so I want to give him the benefit of his gaffes and the way he tries to maneuver out of perhaps moments when his brain has gone blank, so let’s look at this from another perspective. A couple of months ago Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was at the White House and in a moment discussing the Italian commitment to NATO and European defense in the Ukrainian War, she responded first in Italian in which, before even comprehending what she communicated, Trump praised her elocution as, of course, beautiful.
But then, as Meloni grew visibly exasperated with her translator’s inadequate translation, she interrupted her aide with the English version of what she had initially communicated in her native tongue. Fluently. It no doubt left most of us with the question of why she even needed the translator in the first place, as what she said in English was clear and coherent. And did Trump commend her then? No, he just picked up where he had left off a few minutes prior, completely ignoring her statements and continued denigrating his “enemies” and bragging about his own “accomplishments” and abilities. You can watch the full exchange here between the 17 and 23 minute mark.
As a Liberian-American living abroad, Whatsapp has been buzzing with this clip. There’s much to be said as well about how the African leaders who were present chose to comport themselves; how they chose to approach this diplomatic meeting of shared interests with insincere platitudes and flattery instead of confronting the disrespect and calling it out in real time, but I’ll save that conversation for another day. The moment alone was enough fodder for social media where what seems a rather shallow exchange in which we can just send side-eye, clown, or laughing emojis but really there is a depth to the understanding of what isn’t being communicated with words anymore. And perhaps that’s the beauty in language we should be praising. That no matter how complex and elegant it is or how short and symbolic, it’s that we are responding to what’s being said and not just steamrolling through conversation with our own inner monologue. That we’re fully engaging with the people at the table, hearing them, understanding them, responding directly to what they’ve said and not just their ability to say it. What I wish more than anything for my country isn’t that we communicate greatness but that we become great communicators. And one of the keys to great communication is listening, understanding and not ignoring the content of someone’s speech because it presents a detour in our train of thought. Another key to great communication is consideration, being mindful of the full humanity and the history of everyone we meet no matter where they’ve come from in the world (especially when it’s so closely related to your place in the world). I can’t emphasize enough that the exchange between Trump and Boakai was offensive, but it’s been this blatant display of ignorance, without shame, that is even more hurtful. Unfortunately, the POTUS is a reflection of this commitment to this kind of one track thinking which only leads to one destination, and I’m afraid it isn’t bliss. If America is going to be great again it needs to reevaluate its allegiance to ignorance.
As always, thank you for reading and thank you for being here.
I thought of you when I first watched this exchange and about how hateful it was for all Liberians. The information about the language was in his daily briefing, though who knows if he took the time to sit through that (which I think has been reduced to one page because he has the attention span of a very young child). Personally I think this was intentional. Looking at his past interactions with the leaders of countries he perceives as "less than" it is obvious he likes to make them uncomfortable, to "put them in their place". He has already referred to the countries of Africa as shithole countries. This was his way of conveying his contempt without saying it outright. The fact he says it over and over again is evidence of that.