“African-Americans want jobs” – Donald Trump
Donald Trump, the reality-television-star-turned-presumptive-Republican presidential nominee, has barely mentioned Black people during his bizarre 11-month bid for the White House.
But on Tuesday, after Trump won Indiana and forced his main rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, to drop out of the race, Trump uttered these words: “African-Americans want jobs.” He listed African-Americans with Latinos, who, Trump said, wants jobs, too.
I can’t recall too many times when Trump has mentioned African-Americans during his rambling speeches at raucous rallies. He doesn’t talk much about civil rights, or voting rights, or criminal justice reform, or police misconduct, or affordable housing, or racial discrimination.
And he probably won’t talk much about these critical issues during the next six months leading up to the November election, likely against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
So when Trump talks loudly using his signature refrain — “Let’s make America great again,” where are African-Americans and Hispanics in Trump’s grand vision for the country?
Trump has called Mexicans “rapists,” a Black man was kicked, punched and called the N-word by racist Whites at a Trump rally last year, and Trump proudly boasts that he can do more for Black folks than President Barack Obama.
He was accused of making racial slurs against Black people in book written in 1991 by John R. O’Donnell, former president of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, called Trumped!
In the book, O’Donnell wrote that Trump once said, in reference to a Black accountant at Trump Plaza, “Laziness is a trait in Blacks.” He also said: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.”
And in 1989, after the rape of a White female jogger in Central Park, Trump took out full-page newspaper ads in four New York newspapers calling for the death penalty for the African-American teenage suspects — who were all exonerated. Trump’s actions infuriated New York’s Black community.
Last year, Trump said his plans to improve the economy is why he is leading in the polls with black voters.
“I lead with almost every group, including with the African-American groups,” Trump told reporters at an event in Greenville, South Carolina. “I have tremendous support.”
Can Donald Trump Win The White House Without Black Support? was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
