07/10/2025
Let’s talk about what happened yesterday.
President Trump reportedly asked Liberian President Joseph Boakai, “Where did you learn to speak good English? Did you go to school in Liberia?”
As a Black person and a professor who teaches about race and bias in professional spaces, I can tell you — this wasn’t just a rude question. It was a microaggression. A subtle, but harmful comment that suggests someone who is African couldn’t possibly be fluent or well-educated unless they were “trained” by the West.
Let’s be clear: Liberia’s official language is English. It was founded by freed African Americans. President Boakai is not an anomaly — he represents generations of educated, capable, visionary African leadership.
The problem here isn’t ignorance — it’s assumption. These kinds of remarks reveal the ongoing impact of implicit bias and the dangerous stereotype that Blackness and brilliance are mutually exclusive.
Whether in politics, corporate America, or our everyday lives — we need to check these biases, challenge these comments, and stop giving racism a polite disguise.
