Seahawks’ Fil-Am star blames ‘class inequality’ for Trump win

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin. SEAHAWKS

SAN FRANCISCO — Seattle Seahawks Filipino American wide receiver Doug Baldwin told ESPN last week that he was “disheartened” by Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, and he blamed class division in America for it.

Later in a series of tweets, he blamed class inequality rather than racism for America’s problems, UK’s The Guardian reported.

“It goes far beyond racism in my eyes. Because if the slave owners were black and the slaves were white, we’d probably have the same issues. When you pull back the layers of inequality, it exposes classism. One class wants to oppress another class in order to maintain/gain power.

“Classism is the number one enemy to democracy. And in America it is destroying the American dream. But we the people allow it. We allow it by being uninformed. By being uneducated. And that is what the 1 percent of the 1 percent want us to be. Ignorant to the facts. The fact is that we are not currently living in a democracy. The fact is that the 1 percent of the 1 percent buy politicians and write policies.”

Doug Baldwin brings Fil-Am pride to the field.

Baldwin has a contract worth $46 million, but he said having been without wealth earlier in life had given him perspective.  “It’s scary to think that we are on a path to granting the wealthiest people in the world, the power to control the masses,” he added. “And maybe that is why so many people were willing to vote for a president that didn’t meet previous expectations for a president. The way of life of many Americans is being destroyed. Inequality is greater than it has ever been. And solidarity is nowhere to be found.”