In the 1978 film “Superman,” the hero performs many impossible feats, including traveling backward in time by flying around Earth at super speed. Donald Trump, who seems to fancy himself an all-powerful Super President, appears eager to go back in time as well in an effort to return America to “the good old days” of his youth.

Trump was born in 1946, eight years after Superman made his comic book debut. Discrimination based on race, sex and other characteristics was widespread and legal. Most schools taught children a whitewashed version of America’s story, glossing over racism and largely ignoring the achievements of people of color. Movies usually portrayed Black people as slaves, servants, cowards, criminals or buffoons.

Consequently, “the good old days” for Trump — born rich, white and male — were “the bad old days” for many people of color, women, LGBT individuals and those not born to wealth and privilege. Obstacles to advancement facing these Americans — among them my Black parents — were far greater than they are today.

Trump grew up at a time when white men dominated the ranks of most professions and elected offices far more than they do now. Only about 34 percent of women were in the workforce in 1950, compared with 57 percent today.

Key civil rights laws were not enacted until Trump was in his late teens and 20s. They include the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights........

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