Presidential candidate Donald Trump, a business man turned politician, has stirred up a large amount of controversy throughout his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has garnered some conservative sentiment through his emphasis on stifling American involvement with other countries through a revision of the American intervention policies, echoing the voices of many Americans.

Some genuinely feel like Trump’s policies may actually be beneficial to the United States, the most noteworthy thing Trump has brought to the forefront of American consciousness is the fact that, despite saying many hateful, misogynistic, racist things, people are still considering Trump a viable candidate.  America is a country that takes pride in being a “melting pot” of  different cultures and people, and a man who may represent the exact thing we as Americans have been fighting to stop for years is not the right person for the job. The fact that Trump’s massive character flaws are overlooked due to what some perceive as decent policies is simply a massive problem for America’s social and political progress.

Many Americans are willing to overlook the bigotry that Donald Trump has said, which speaks to the true climate of social issues in the United States. Despite the things which have clearly been highlighted by news outlets throughout the world (and hidden by those who may favor him), there are sadly many acts of racism which can be connected to him throughout his business and political career. The Huffington Post reported that in 1973, while heading the Trump Management Corporation, Donald Trump was sued by the Justice Department for inherent mistreatment of black tenants through the altering of prices and conditions. He was accused of making the prices higher and adding a different set of terms and conditions in comparison to what the white tenants received. African Americans who wanted to potentially rent apartments from Trump Management Corporation were often told there were none available, which was simply not true. The Trump Corporation was allegedly outraged by the “false” claims, and countersued for $100 million dollars in damages. Just a couple of years later however, the case mysteriously went away, as it was settled outside of court, only after Trump promised to ensure that no more racist acts would be committed. He was also made to promise that he would send weekly reports to the New York Urban League (a civil rights group) regarding the empty apartments that were available, to ensure that no more discrimination would occur.

This one event speaks volumes to the fact that Americans are either not completely politically informed regarding potential candidates for the presidency, or that they do not feel that voting for a potential racist is going to become a problem for a the United States. As an extremely diverse country with so many differing people of all colors and backgrounds, how can we vote for a man who only favors one of those groups? While Trump very well may have “calmed down” regarding his previously blatant racism, at the end of the day, that is irrelevant.

Donald Trump could have been the greatest president of all time and it would not matter; the United States of America, a country which is founded on the promise of equality, can not have a president which has denied that very equality from non-white Americans in the past. The candidates are either so pathetically bad that America thinks a racist is better than the alternatives, or America is not quite as free from racism as we once thought.