It’s reassuring to know that if you have brown skin and happen to be dead, it’s no longer OK to be a suspected pedophile.
I only wish the same were true for those who are white and living.
The lesson we learned from the news that broke this week in The New York Times is that Cesar Chavez, for decades hailed as a Latino civil rights champion and farm labor icon, had instantly plummeted from grace with a sickening thud. The extraordinary Times investigation featured interviews with dozens of sources and uncovered multiple victims of rape, sexual abuse, and grooming of teen and preteen girls — including fellow labor leader Delores Huerta (still with us at 95).
With his name suddenly toxic, momentum quickly built to erase Chavez’s name from schools, streets, and parks as well as change the handle of Cesar Chavez Day (March 31 annually) in California to Farmworkers Day, and essentially expunge him from history.
Heartbreaking though it is, these rapid steps are entirely justified. We can’t just go around venerating presumed sexual criminals no matter their other accomplishments for the greater good – even if they were somehow to become, say, President of the United States.
Chavez never bragged that he could get away with walking up and grabbing women by the genitalia. He didn’t live long enough to be named in the Epstein Files. But the charges by women – two of whom were still young girls when Chavez allegedly raped or molested them – have a sufficient ring of truth to demolish his legacy despite his having been deceased for more than 30 years.
You see, women don’t typically come forward with serious accusations of sexual assault absent legitimacy. This is not to say they never make it up, but it’s exceedingly rare.
In the case of Chavez, the accusers had nothing to gain by coming forward and much to lose in terms of peace of mind and life harmony. No doubt they’ve been threatened since the story broke, likely multiple times. Their moral compass demanded that they speak up in the hope they finally would be believed after so many years.
So, let’s bag the fiction that these women are somehow cashing in, or are insane, or mere troublemakers. No, they are simply courageous beyond measure. Nothing more, nothing less.
Now that it’s been decided Chavez’s reputation should rightly be in tatters, it’s essential that we examine, by comparison, the ongoing aggrandizement of our president – a man accused of equal or perhaps even greater abuse by multiple women, many of whom were young girls at the time of the alleged crimes.
I’m just going to come right out and say this: the chances that these women are all somehow lying about what was done to them by Trump both inside and outside the Epstein universe are close to zero. This is a man, after all, who proves daily that he has not the thinnest acquaintance with the truth and has boasted openly about his fondness for casual sexual attacks.
Oh, and he’s also a convicted felon 34 times over. Plus, a jury in 2023 found him liable of sexually abusing a woman, and then defaming her.
In no universe should we be expected to believe him over them. The only thing separating him from the same fate as Chavez is a credulous cult of blindly loyal MAGA supporters and a craven/corrupt Republican Party.
The Associated Press identified more than 130 locations or objects in at least 19 states named after Chavez, including libraries, boulevards, community centers, and public parks. All are expected to be renamed, the process having already begun.
Trump, meanwhile, shamelessly moves forward with his campaign to plant his name and likeness all over the United States, like a pit bull marking its territory. There’s Trump Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, Trump Plaza, Trump National Golf Club, and President Donald J. Trump Boulevard in Palm Beach, FL.
More controversially, Trump attached his name to the Kennedy Center and the United States Institute of Peace – the latter a name desecration that grows more ironic by the day. And now there’s been approval to put Trump’s disgusting likeness on a 24-carat gold commemorative coin to tie in with America’s 250th anniversary. This is to say nothing of his proposed ballroom monstrosity.
The idea of ramping up Trump’s personalization and veneration while his sycophantic Department of Justice steadfastly shields him and his cronies from exposure in the Epstein Files remains a despicable stain on this country. Next time someone assures me no one is above the law, I’ll chuckle and ask them to prove it.
We all live in the hope that once Trump is gone – either out of office or dead – his name will be deleted like Chavez’s soon will be. The Trump Kennedy Center will go back to being the Kennedy Center. The ballroom project will be scrapped. The mere mention of Trump’s ubiquitous name will be seen as blasphemous, and it will disappear into oblivion.
There is precedent for this.
Return with me to Germany in 1945. Soon after the Nazi empire fell, the rush was on to systematically denazify the nation. Every monument, statue, and bust of Hitler was removed. Streets, plazas, squares, and institutions that bore his name were rechristened. Many Nazi buildings were demolished, while others were repurposed or destroyed.
The fact that everyone is moving so quickly on Chavez while there is an overall fear and reluctance to even properly investigate Trump for his alleged criminal behavior leaves me wondering how much racism comes into play here. You know the Republicans are positively gleeful in their takedown of a man long held up as a hero of the left, even if he was loudly opposed to illegal immigration.
Republicans continue to pretend, at least publicly, that Trump remains innocent of ever having forced himself on a woman, much less a child. But there’s no question in my mind that if we could hear their whispers in private, a far different story would be told. And sooner or later, it will.
Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.