Hey Republicans! I know you still insist that Donald Trump isn’t a bigot, and that you are not a bigot for voting for him. I also know that anything I write won’t change your mind. Nevertheless, I have to try.
 
Here’s what Donald Trump tweeted at 5:19 a.m. this morning: “Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”
 
Both you and I know what Donald Trump was really saying with his tweet: “Brown people are so lazy, they won’t even help themselves!” You can pretend all you want that that’s not what Trump meant, but deep down you know I’m right.
 
And since you would probably have a tough time pointing out Puerto Rico on a map, let me tell you a bit about its geography (I’ve been there and featured it in one of my books):
 
The island is roughly 100 miles long by 35 miles wide, and it has a population of 3.4 million people. Outside of the San Juan metropolitan area of 2.6 million people, it is rural and mountainous (the mountains are high enough to affect the climate). Even during perfect conditions, travel on the island is slow—mostly on winding two lane roads. And if a road becomes blocked due to a mudslide, or any other reason, an alternative route may not exist. In other words, people become trapped due to obstructions and lack a fuel. Basically, people living in certain areas outside of San Juan are screwed.
 
As president, it’s Donald Trump’s duty to understand Puerto Rico’s geography. And if he doesn’t understand it, he has advisers—“the best people”—to inform him. The residents of Puerto Rico aren’t lazy brown skinned people out of some old racist novel, sitting around eating watermelons. They are American citizens who have lost their homes and may be unable to access clean drinking water without a long hike that is beyond their physical ability.
 
Now that you know more about Puerto Rico and Trump’s belittling tweet, can you finally admit that you voted for a bigot?
 
Yeah . . . that’s what I thought. But I’ll keep trying.