US President Donald Trump’s alleged use of the word “shithole” to describe Latin American and African countries will harm US relations with those nations and underscores the racist attitudes of Trump and many whites in the US, an African American journalist in Detroit says.

“This latest statement…clearly, without a doubt, exposes him as a racist,” said Abayomi Azikiwe, editor at the Pan-African News Wire.

“This reflects the paranoia and fear of many whites inside the United States that the demographics of the country are shifting at a rapid rate,” Azikiwe said in a phone interview with Press TV on Friday.

“This is the greatest fear of many whites, particularly white racists, that they will lose political, economic and indeed cultural influence in the United States,” he added.

During a meeting at the White House on Thursday, Trump reportedly asked why “people from shithole countries come to” the United States.

His contemptuous comments, which were about immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti and African countries, have provoked severe criticism in the US and abroad.

The Trump administration has taken a tougher stance on immigration from Latin America, most notably with moves to expel hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti and El Salvador.

“How can the United States, under this leadership, have diplomatic relations with African Union member states, with Haiti, with other countries in the Caribbean?” Azikiwe asked.

“The people of the world must stand up against this, otherwise we’re facing a very, very bad future and this future will be characterized by war and acrimony if the good people of the world do not take a stand against this blatant racism,” he noted.