‘We have everything to lose’
What Blacks say they will lose if they vote for Donald Trump
BY CASH MICHAELS
FOR THE CHRONICLE
When celebrity businessman Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president in July 2015, he claimed Mexican illegal immigrants were “rapists … bringing drugs, bringing crime.”
Months later during the Republican primaries, Trump traveled the nation, telling enthusiastic supporters at rallies that if elected president, not only would he build a wall at the United States and Mexican border to keep the ‘illegals” out, but he would also impose a ban on Muslims entering the United States in an effort to combat terrorism.
By the time Republican presidential nominee Trump got around to addressing black people two weeks ago, he was already calling President Obama “the founder of ISIS.” African-Americans, already angry with Trump for claiming that the president was actually born in Kenya, not the United States, rewarded Trump with just 1 percent black support in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll. And yet, that didn’t stop Trump from uttering the following apparently to African-Americans:
“You’re living in poverty, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed,” Trump, talking to African-Americans, said to a mostly white rally in Michigan last week. “What the hell do you have to lose?”
Monday in Akron, Ohio, Trump continued with what many said was a condescending diatribe toward blacks: “You can go to war zones in countries that we’re fighting and it’s safer than living in some of our inner cities … I ask you this. Crime. All of the problems. To the African-Americans who I employ so many … so many people … What the hell do you have to lose? … You’ll be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Right now, you walk down the street. You get shot. What the hell do you have to lose?”
And just this week, the Associated Press reported that the personal social media accounts of several paid Trump campaign staffers revealed racist communications that included, “A graphic designer for Trump’s advance team approvingly posted video of a black man eating fried chicken and criticizing fellow blacks for ignorance, irresponsibility and having too many children.”
The angry reaction from blacks to the controversial Republican’s campaign has been unceasing, starting with U.S. rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-nC-1), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“Mr. Trump has shown little interest in earning the black community’s vote,” Butterfield said. “His comments made last week in Michigan are further proof that he is not fit to be president and is completely out of touch with the African-American community. Painting the picture that the entire African-American community is living in poverty with no jobs is completely irresponsible.
“Donald Trump asks what the black community has to lose by voting for him? The answer is simple: We have everything to lose,” Butterfield says.
North Carolina’s only other black congressional representative 12th District U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, also no fan of Donald Trump, is quoted as telling The Charlotte Observer several weeks ago that she was “scared” of the Republican presidential nominee.
State Rep. Cecil Brockman (D-Guilford) also had hard feelings about Trump.
“Donald Trump has no real interest in reaching out to black voters,” Brockman said. “Instead he wants to try and make Americans forget about his divisive, hateful, and racist rhetoric of the past. If he really cared about the issues that black people face, he would actually spend time in our communities and make a real, substantive outreach. Instead, he insults the very voters he claims to be courting with condescension and the echoing of stereotypes.”
In Facebook responses posted for this story, black voters from across North Carolina were uniformly dismissive of Trump’s overture.
“Voting for this idiot could cause more black lives taken,” posted Tee Huff, referring to Trump’s common mantra to white audiences of being a “law and order” candidate who would have no tolerance for the Black Lives Matter movement. Trump has been critical of President Obama’s efforts to build bridges between the police and the black community.
“[Trump] only wants to make America great again for the white man by keep-ing the black man down,” remarked anti-Trumpster Donna Spivey in a nod to Trump’s alleged white supremacist connections and support base.
Veronica Nwosa said, “Not only was he condescending and insulting to all black people, he clearly showed that he had no idea about the problems that black people face or the history of the struggle for civil rights for black people. He wasn’t particularly talking to black people as he was speaking from an audience that was over 90 percent white. He was giving permission to his followers to say that he has reached out to black people. When he loses, then he will blame black people for his loss. It is also a divide and conquer strategy to appeal to black people as he knows that his insults to Hispanics, Muslims, women, the disabled, etc. cannot be glossed over. He is toast.”
Borrowing Trump’s own question to African-Americans,” What do I have to lose by voting for Trump?” Greg “GBaby” Taylor, formerly of Charlotte, answered, “#MyDignity.” Angela Marie Grimes of Raleigh also answered the rhetorical question with, “My mind and my freedom.”
Most political observers agree that North Carolina is one of the key battleground states Donald Trump will need if he’s to have any chance of winning the presidency. But unless he can stop the black vote, which is 91 percent against him, he has little chance of winning.
