Donald Trump has pandered to the most racist, backward sector of this country for the last few weeks. His eagerness to question the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate underscored that being a birther transcends class and education; some believe that birthers are just white and uneducated. The Donald was relentless in his challenge of the birth certificate and last week, President Obama requested that the Hawai’i Department of Health Services release the original-kept-in-a-vault document immediately. For the White House, it was putting an end to a distraction. For many fair-minded whites, it would serve as a muzzle for the embarrassment, outrage or disgust that Trump fanned up in their faces. But for most people of African descent, it was quite a different experience. It was watching Trump trying to turn President Obama into a Toby.

All who ever watched the ABC miniseries Roots remember the scene where a proud and stubborn Kunta Kinte was beaten into the obedient slave named Toby. Roots - both the book and the movie - was based upon writer Alex Haley’s genealogy. Although there were ultimate challenges to its credibility, black people knew the transformation of Kunta was real and alive. The public beating was not just for Kunta, it was as much for the other blacks who had similar notions of being free. That kind of humiliation is part of the pathology of white supremacy that black people, regardless of their status in life, have experienced directly or indirectly.

It was easier for non-blacks to view Trump’s antics and shrug them off as attention-seeking silliness. But for black folks, it was a vicarious experience that raised the kind of anger that resides in the deepest recesses of our ancient African souls. The Kunta Kinte Syndrome is now sewn into the fabric of most modern societies’ racial relationships. Black people periodically must be made to realize that they are second-class citizens and have no rights that white people will accept. This includes being born or having a legitimate birth certificate. It includes having a skill or a degree from a prestigious college. It is not the same as what white people have, even though on the surface it looks the same. For those whites who believe black people are innately inferior, white skin will always “Trump” the achievements of a black person. Once a black person internalizes this racial oppression, they are doomed to a treadmill of sub humanity and will never be equal to a white person no matter how fast they run on that treadmill.

Goldie Taylor, contributing editor for TheGrio.com, shared her personal connection to the racist history of identification papers for blacks in this country, She told a story close to home - in the City of St. Louis. In 1899, her great grandfather, Major Blackard, was accosted by a St. Louis cop who demanded that Blackard show him his identification papers. Blackard had forgotten them that day and was beaten to a bloody pulp, arrested and thrown in jail. Twenty-one days later, Blackard’s white employer had to come to the jail to prove his identity and to bond him out.

Racism is this country is no laughing matter. It should not be trivialized nor ignored. Having an open and honest discussion about racism continues to be a challenge in this country, no matter how blatant or subtle the manifestations. Sometimes you can take the educational approach, at others, you have to call perpetrators out.

Everywhere Donald Trump goes, he should be met with chants of “No More Tobies!” Those people who were happily rubbing elbows with him at the Correspondents Dinner should have left him sitting there all alone. He should be treated like a societal pariah. Since someone of his stature wants to flaunt his arrogant racism, he has to be taught a hard lesson of what is not acceptable by civil people.

Of course this is not just about President Obama; neither is it just about the birthers. It’s about racist legislation and policies that strip us our full citizenship rights. It’s about taking the country back - back to the times when white men ruled. In this next period, we will have to fight like hell just to retain the small gains made over the last century.

Progressive white people cannot sit on the sidelines while racist ideologues denigrate and de-legitimize the country’s first president of color. They must ratchet up their anti-racist tactics. President Obama should be criticized when he doesn’t live up to his promises or ideals not because he is the son of an African. Take him to the mat when he is on the wrong side of the issue, but not because his skin is black. History will judge his presidency. It will also judge us for accommodating the kind of society that says racial (or gender) equality will never be a reality in this country.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Jamala Rogers is the leader of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black Radical Congress National Organizer. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.