Trump wants credit for just allowing himself to be near black people
So Donald Trump is coming to Detroit this weekend for a pretty obvious reason — to try to prove that he’s not a racist, at least to white people.
To have any chance of being elected, Trump needs to do better than Mitt Romney did with white voters or minority voters. And the 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating from white nationalists for his blisteringly anti-immigrant speech in Arizona on Wednesday makes it pretty clear that Trump always bets on white.
It’s the world’s worst kept secret that the “black outreach” Trump has been engaging in — insulting black voters and asking them what they’ve got to lose in front of white crowds — is all about winning over the college educated white people who don’t want to think of themselves as voting for a bigot, even if they might.
But even Trump realizes that this charade of white-on-white black outreach can’t go on for too long without him having to actually visit a black community — hence Detroit.
It’s reported won’t be speaking directly to the congregation of Great Faith Ministries, which either proves he’s not stupid or he wants to get a lot of a credit if he does decide to rise to the pulpit.
But whatever he does, it won’t prove he’s not racist.
Being a white American is to be complicit, at least in some faint way, in crimes committed under the cover of white supremacism. None of us is perfect, but few of us are Donald Trump, whose entire identity as conservative politician is built on the vilest strains of racial resentment.
So if Trump wants to be seen reaching out to the African-American community, you don’t deserve any credit for just showing up. Not in Detroit. Not in 2016.
Here are some questions he should answer first:
- In the late 70s, Trump Management entered into a consent decree with the Justice Department over housing discrimination charges that included your employees putting a big letter “C” for “colored” on any application filed by a black apartment-seeker. Why do you feel the government targeted your organization for this investigation?
- Why did you feel the need to interject yourself in the case of The Central Park Five with a full-page ad calling for the death penalty of five black boys who were wrongly convicted? Do you have any regrets about your involvement? Did this case give you any second thoughts about the death penalty seeing first-hand how a rush to judgement could lead to a wrongful execution?
- Do you believe the president of the United States is a citizen? What evidence did you see that made you doubt Barack Obama’s citizenship? Do you believe Barack Obama’s mother was a citizen? Why did you feel the need to interject yourself into this “controversy?” Do you believe the president is a Christian? Why have you suggested he’s really Muslim but hides his true identity?
- Do you still believe that Mexico purposely sends rapists and murderers to America?
- You’ve recently campaigned on the assertion that the Democratic Party is the party of slavery and Jim Crow. Why do you think about 90 percent of the black community votes Democratic? Do you think black people are unaware of their history?
- You’ve recently attacked Hillary Clinton for the 1994 crime bill. What about the bill do you oppose? Are you against mandatory-minimum sentences? How would you prosecute the drug war differently than past administrations?
- Do you think groups like Black Lives Matter have any legitimate complaints against law enforcement? Are you for private prisons? Do you feel our prison population is too high? Do you have any criminal justice platform whatsoever?
What would you ask him?
[CC image credit: Gage Skidmore | Flickr]
