Professor: MAGA Hats Will Someday Be Viewed the Same Way as KKK Hoods

Anti-Trump demonstrator set a 'Make America Great Again' hat on fire in Washingt
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images

An associate professor at the University of New Brunswick claims that the “Make America Great Again” hat will one day be viewed the same way the Ku Klux Klan hood is viewed today, and that Trump supporters elected the president because they are upset that “black people have too many rights” and that there are “too many women in the workplace.”

In an interview with Salon, associate professor Matthew Sears claimed that “Make America Great Again” hats will one day be looked down upon, similarly to the way society today looks down upon the Ku Klux Klan hood.

After being asked if he believes the MAGA hat will one day be seen as the “equivalent of someone in this moment discovering their relatives’ Nazi paraphernalia,” Sears responded, stating that believes the outcome will be “similar.”

“I think it’s similar,” said the professor, according to Salon, “But I think a better analogy would be like finding a Ku Klux Klan hood or robe. I’ve made the comparison before.”

“Every time I watch a documentary about the civil rights movement and all the hateful violence they faced,” continued Sears, “I wonder what the white people who were doing those horrible things were thinking.”

“In a few generations from now, finding a MAGA hat in your grandparents’ closet would be like seeing your grandfather’s or grandmother’s face in one of those lunch counter photos, harassing the black people who are trying to fight Jim Crow and win their equal human rights,” added the professor.

The professor went on to argue that “people who support Donald Trump need to be held morally accountable,” and that those who “wear Trump’s clothing” know about “all the harm he is doing.”

Sears did not elaborate on which of the president’s implemented policies, specifically, have proven harmful to others, but the professor did make note of a “Muslim ban,” despite a Muslim ban never having existed.

Additionally, Sears implied that a harmful policy — or slogan — is President’s Trump’s call for “building the wall,” a call synonymous with the president’s request to secure the southern border, as well as for stopping illegal immigration, drug cartels, and human trafficking.

“America for Trump and his supporters is no longer great because black people have too many rights or there are too many women in the workplace,” continued the professor.

“Was America great when there was racial segregation?” asked Sears, bizarrely suggesting that the president desires to return, specifically, to the Jim Crow era in which the decisions made by Democrat state and local legislatures dominated the South.

“I am part of a public debate and fight over keeping or getting rid of ‘traditional’ ideas of Western civilization and arguments and beliefs such as ‘The West is Best,'” added the professor, who then went on to claim that Dr. Jordan Peterson is an “anti-intellectual.”

“He’s arguing for very traditional conservative ideas,” said Sears, “For example, traditional ideas about the family and gender relations and power dynamics.”

Matthew Sears is an associate professor teaching “Classics and Ancient History” at the University of New Brunswick, according to the school’s website.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.

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