Donald Trump may have saved his ire for others, but black people aren't fooled [View all]

[applegrove]

Donald Trump may have saved his ire for others, but black people aren't fooled

by Rebecca Carroll, the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/02/donald-trump-black-people-racism-latinos-muslims-campaign

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Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has been fairly straightforward regarding how he feels in general about black people in America – he failed to swiftly and effectively disavow former KKK grand wizard David Duke in May, referred to the Black Lives Matter movement as “trouble” last fall, and during the course of his campaign other things have surfaced, such as his idea to air a “white v black” season of The Apprentice.

Publicly, however, his most brazen racist remarks have been directed primarily at Muslims (a relatively small percentage of whom are black) and Mexicans. If it’s a backhanded political strategy to court the black vote (which he will ultimately need), he has underestimated the strength of our bond with other groups who have been marginalized and discriminated against.

Still, it’s oddly perplexing that in a country whose culture is so firmly rooted in systemic anti-black racism, Trump, who never hesitates to snatch the low hanging fruit of bigotry, hasn’t gone into hyper-drive about black people in America – all the standard black people tropes seem right in his wheelhouse. Of course, just as President Richard Nixon’s use of the term “silent majority” was widely understood as code for “white people”, Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” refers to a racially divided past. Alongside his marquee plan to build a border wall to keep immigrants out of the United States, it’s pretty clearly that what he means by that is Make America White Again. But black folks still don’t seem to really be on his radar – as either a problem or a target market.

Is it because the Latino population has become the largest minority group and will only continue to grow, whereas the black population is not expected to change to any great degree? Or does Trump feels like his biggest contingency – the white working class – might feel Latino immigrants are more direct competition when it comes to all the jobs Trump claims he will create? Is it because mass incarceration, the main repressive tactic used against black people in America, is ludicrously expensive and also losing political support among both Republicans and Democrats? But that would be strange given that Trump’s proposed “solution” to Latino immigration – mass deportation – would also cost millions.

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