I've been thinking quite a bit recently about how the current state of the United States compares to other times in our history, and I came across this quote from a politician in the lead up to the Civil War discussing the virtues of black people and how they're fundamentally different from everyone else:

We can’t let our farmers not have anybody. You know, these are very these people, they’re you can’t replace them very easily. You know, people that live in the inner city are not doing that work. They’re just not doing that work. And they’ve tried, we’ve tried. Everybody tried. They don’t do it. These people do it naturally, naturally. I said, what happens if they get it to a farmer the other day, what happens if they get a bad back? He said, they don’t get a bad back, sir, because if they get a bad back, they die. I said that’s interesting, isn’t it? In many ways. They’re very, very special people.

That's pretty tough to read, right? This suggestion that black people are "naturally" gifted in doing farm work and that they simply don't feel pain like other people because if they did they would die? I mean, we've all gone to school and heard about the racism of that era and the concept of certain races of humans being "naturally" suited to do hard labor, but it's always pretty shocking to hear them say it out loud.

You may have guessed this by the inane rambling style, but of course this wasn't a quote from some random politician in the 1850s, it was the current President, Donald Trump, on CNBC this week. He wasn't talking about black people, he was of course talking about Mexicans who are "naturally" predisposed to do hard work on farms in a way other people simply aren't built for.

Photo by Win McNamee for Getty Images

Anyway, yesterday Apple CEO Tim Cook personally presented him a gold trophy. I understand the incentives here are tough for Cook, but it's an inditement of both the government which demands this sort of groveling and the executives who have amassed great wealth and power but are quick to bend the knee. We can only judge people by their actions, and based on his actions, it seems safe to say that Tim Cook adores Donald Trump and has nothing bad to say about him or his policies. If he doesn't or has misgivings about some things, he's made sure no one knows about them.