Mr. Donald Trump claims he’ll capture the black vote en masse though the concerns of black voters appear to be of no consequence to him.
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Days before Mr. Donald Trump’s really bad week – which included his campaign manager, Mr. Corey Lewandowski, being charged with simple battery and Mr. Trump himself giving an answer on abortion that angered the public – the New York City real-estate mogul, who’s trailing Mr. Ted Cruz in Wisconsin, where a primary will be held tomorrow, gave an awful answer to an important question posed by a Washington Post reporter during a meeting with the paper’s editorial board, though the pathetic response wasn’t covered nearly as much as when Mr. Trump last week said women who have abortions should be punished if abortions were made to be illegal.
When asked by Ms. Karen Attiah on March 21st whether there were racial disparities in the how laws are enforced, Mr. Trump – whose campaign pledged to win 100% the black vote though Fox News’ Mr. Geraldo Rivera recently predicted the New York City billionaire may acquire only up to 25% – said he had “no opinion.” Though it’s an egregious response from a presidential candidate, considering the racial strife in America, it isn’t surprising to those voters who’ve paid attention to how Mr. Trump, who’s been accused of being a racist, has talked in the past about the intersection of race and policing.
Last July, following the violent arrest and mysterious death of Ms. Sandra Bland outside of Houston, Texas, Mr. Trump was asked on CNN by Mr. Anderson Cooper whether he thinks African-Americans are treated differently, and more aggressively, by police. Mr. Trump responded: “I hope not.” In August of 2015, when discussing the #BlackLivesMatter movement on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ Mr. Trump said though there’s turmoil in our country, the police need to be given more power to deal with crime. And on January 14th, during a Republican Presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, Mr. Trump responded to an inquiry of how he would improve police-community relations by suggesting that law enforcement officers are the most mistreated people in America.
A lot of Mr. Trump’s gaffes have been attributed to him transitioning from reality-television star to a politician worthy of the highest office in the land. But it’s been nearly a year now since announcing his candidacy and Mr. Trump, on the issue of race and policing, still sounds like a novice who shows no signs of comprehension, let alone improvement. That fact, coupled with his inflammatory remarks on everything ranging from Muslims and Mexicans to President Barack Obama, may explain why 80% of African-Americans in a new Washington Post poll view Mr. Trump unfavorably. Also contributing to those bad numbers could be the narrow way in which Mr. Trump views the concerns of African-Americans: economics.
Mr. Trump and his supporters believe he will be good for African-Americans because of his focus on the economy and his ability to create jobs. But a sizable portion of African-Americans nationwide aren’t solely concerned about unemployment, though it ranks among the top three concerns of most. The other two most uttered worries are the inherently racist criminal justice system and the state of public education, including the conditioning of school buildings. Mr. Trump has no plan for criminal justice reform and his only narrative for fixing education is to eliminate the Department of Education so that schooling is under local control.
Mr. Trump, despite his few black surrogates, doesn’t appear to understand the dimensions of African-Americans; views the race largely as a monolith and stands no chance at obtaining 100 percent, nor 25%, of their vote. Whether Mr. Trump is a racist is debatable, but him being racially ignorant is an assertion proven by his own words.
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