"That's racist!" is not an acceptable response especially when Dave's quote didn't even mention a race.
This is the third time you've very, very liberally (and incorrectly) interpreted a criticism of Trump's attempts to pander to racist voters to mean nothing more than "That's racist/Trump's racist/You're racist." Within the very same sentence, you turn on pedant-mode and insist that Mexico/Mexican is technically not a race in and of itself and therefore any discussion of race and racism is irrelevant - not the first time you've done that, either. Setting the apparent hypocrisy of this aside, I'll respond to both claims:
Briefly addressing the latter point first, you're quibbling. You know perfectly well what's meant when people talk about race and racism in this context. Yes, technically, nationalities and ethnicities aren't races, but it's very common to colloquially refer to general bigotry and discrimination as racism. Nobody's trying to trick you, nobody's trying to twist the argument into being about something it's not, they're just using everyday language in a casual sense. I wouldn't use those terms in an academic paper or anything, but in an informal discussion like this, I really don't think it's unreasonable to just let it slide.
As for the racism charge, I'll drop the loaded phrasing and express my concerns seriously. Trump's language feels like it's intended to appeal first and foremost to the lowest common denominator, ignorant, prejudiced people who know very little about politics beyond a knee-jerk fear of the unknown. The way he talks about illegal immigration shows this most vividly. There are plenty of reasons to want to crack down on illegal immigration, such as the importance of the rule of law, the impact on the economy (a subject that Trump, given his background, should be very qualified to talk about), etc., but Trump's position seems to be based more than anything else on the more sensational threat of the Mexicans being out to get us. The immigrants are drug smugglers. They're killers. They're rapists. That last one I know because, well, who else could it be that's doing the raping? Oh, and the Mexican government is behind it all, they're deliberately sending us these people!
And his weird brand of nasty populism doesn't stop there. There was the time he
made up a story about seeing thousands of Muslims cheering in New Jersey after 9/11, which I would write off as him just mistaking some footage from Middle Eastern countries that were celebrating 9/11, if not for the fact that he doubled down on his claims when it was pointed out to him that both the media and police had no evidence of anything of the sort happening (and contrary to what certain websites have claimed, Trump has not been vindicated on this point, as discussed
here). He also championed the birther movement for a few years, and yes, I am absolutely calling the birthers racist to the core. As I mentioned earlier, he was even hesitant to fully disavow the nuts in Boston who beat up a homeless man in his name, instead just giving
a rambling response about how passionate and driven his followers are. And finally, there's his Twitter account, which is full of delightful messages like
this,
this, and
this.
That's what people are talking about when they mention Trump and racism. Nobody is accusing Trump of calling for a return to segregated schools, or declaring white people the master race. And personally, I don't think that he really believes all the garbage he says. What he is doing, however, is nudging and winking at the bigots out there that make up his base, hinting to them that he shares their concerns about
these people, while always leaving himself enough wiggle room to deny any racist intention if called out on it publicly. But I think any reasonable person can connect the dots and figure out what the subtext is.