By RAYNARD JACKSON

A few years ago, I wrote one of the most difficult, most personal columns I have ever written. I was totally terrified about going public with that particular column, because I didn’t know how strangers, my family, or my friends would respond to it.

In 2013, I came out of the closet and out of the shadows. I publicly admitted that I was heterosexual. Wow. I tell you, once I came out of the closet, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. The outpouring of support was massive, though I never received a call from President Obama or a tweet from Kobe Bryant; nonetheless, it felt good to be out of the closet.

I find myself in that same predicament years later.

During the past few months it has come to my attention that I, like most Trump supporters, am a White nationalist. This is not to be confused with a White supremacist. White supremacists believe that Whites are superior to other races or groups of people, simply because of their skin color, nothing more.

That’s all I will say on that issue for now.

But, White nationalists or nationalists of any color and background simply believe that our politicians and other leaders should put the interest of America and Americans first. End of story.

Liberals and liberal media outlets often call Trump supporters White nationalists. But what about Blacks who believe in putting America and Americans first? Are we, by extension, White nationalists, too?

Let me be clear: if you are in this country illegally, you gotta go. I don’t want America’s sovereignty to be subjugated to international organizations like the United Nations. I don’t want our economy to be dictated to by global organizations, the European Union or by onerous trade deals that would devastate our economy like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). White Nationalist America can’t continue to be the dumping ground for all refugees fleeing all manner of conflicts and other human tragedy throughout the world. We have military veterans coming back from wars and sleeping under bridges. We have American citizens who are homeless and have mental health issues. I can’t find it in me to be overly concerned with non-citizens and refugees, when my own family is hurting.

At many universities, if you’re an American citizen and you don’t live in the state where you want to attend college, in most cases, you have to pay out-of-state tuition. Yet, if you are in the country illegally, you can pay in-state tuition in more than a dozen states.

Can anyone explain to me how can there be even one instance of an illegal qualifying for a benefit an American citizen is not eligible for?

My graduate thesis from George Mason University was on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). I wrote that I was a huge proponent of NAFTA’s passage. Now, when I reflect back on that agreement, some twenty years later, I would be opposed to it, because I can now see how the agreement depressed the wages of American workers, among other things.

My ideological default has always been free trade, but in my economic maturity I have come to understand that there is no such thing as free trade; only fair trade.

Let me ask a question.

What parent would sacrifice the well-being of his family to help another family in need, who they have no relationship with? Who would criticize this parent for feeding his children, even though he sees news footage of families starving in India? The answer is absolutely no one.

One of the major omissions in our public discourse is that journalists never, ever make their guests define their terms. If journalists are going to label someone a White nationalist, they should at least define what that word means.

If a White nationalist is someone who puts his own country and its citizens before another country and their citizens, then, by that definition, I am a White nationalist, too.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party.