NYT: In Atlanta, Trump’s Efforts To Court Blacks Fall Flat
Late last week, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump ventured into new territory by making a specific appeal to African Americans. At his speech Friday in Dimondale Michigan, Trump asked blacks, “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?” If Trump’s purpose was to truly engage with the black community and earn its votes, that effort largely fell flat.
The New York Times came to Atlanta to get reaction to Trump’s outreach efforts, and its story today reports a largely negative reception.
“I hear him not talking to black people, but talking to white people about black people so they will think he cares about black people,” said Alexis Scott, a former publisher of The Atlanta Daily World, a black-owned newspaper. “The real thing that he’s trying to do is to try to protect some of the white vote by suggesting to them that he cares.”
Matthew Platt, a political scientist at Morehouse College, said that Trump’s approach was different from what Republican politicians typically do to earn minority votes.
[Platt] noted that Mr. Trump’s basic presentation to black voters was perhaps not altogether different from the one he has made to white voters.
“It seems to me that Trump’s argument is this: ‘Your life sucks. Try something new. I’m something new,’” he said. “That’s the argument he’s making to black voters and, more broadly, that’s the entire Trump campaign.”
Many political observers have said that if Trump really wants to earn the support of blacks and other minorities, he should spend time in their communities, speaking with them about their concerns. His unwillingness to do that, combined with polling that shows him losing support of suburban whites, has led to suggestions that Trump’s intent is to reassure whites that he cares about blacks.
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Jon Richards
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Trump may pick up a few votes but not a bunch – here is one historical explanation to fire some up:
https://www.facebook.com/DSouzaDinesh/videos/1453103188049665/
Well if a completely unbiased source like Alexis Scott speaks, then by all means it is official, black folks are being duped by Trump. What a joke.
Trump’s support among African-Americans is statistically indistinguishable from zero, and it’s not just because he’s making the wrong kind of last-minute appeal for their support.
Trump has a long, long history of racism that doesn’t even need to be magnified to be known by the black community … because, it’s Trump, who self-magnifies.
He took out full-page ads in 1989 in the New York papers calling for the death of five young black people — 14, 15, 16 years old — who we now know were falsely accused and wrongly convicted of a rape and murder. His response, when called out on that, was to call the payment of a settlement “a disgrace” and to question the character of the exonerated men. Again. In 2014.
This is one of many, many examples.
Consider that roughly one in ten black people in America live in metropolitan New York, where Trump was a slumlord with a long history of racism. One in ten black Americans have first-hand knowledge of how he conducts business. That is not going to be overcome with a rally.
I will take bets against the probability that Donald Trump actually underperforms John McCain with black voters this cycle. We loved Obama, but perhaps not quite as much as we loathe Trump.
First off those five could not have been convicted of murder because the victim did not die but yes, the convictions on the other charges were vacated. Its not known for sure what those five did that night in Central Park but it’s likely investigating officers got a pretty good idea. The civil suit was settled only because De Blasio made it a campaign promise. Bloomberg would not settle.
Central Park, the subway and all NYC was more dangerous in the eighties. Remember the Bernard Goetz incident? He was acquitted of attempted murder, assault and only convicted of weapons charges.
As for making unsubstantiated and irresponsible statements you may want to check Hilly’s record. In 2000 she called NYPD officers murderers prior to their trial in the Diello death. The officers were later acquitted by a biracial jury.
And by the way, I am not a Trumpet supporter.
Every major news organization covered the incident and Ed Koch called it “the crime of the century.” Were they also racist?
As for Hilly, I guess it was coincidental Diallo was black and officers were white. Its an old tactic she continues to use today.
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. – Maya Angelou
True words, wisely spoken.
And, Bart, there is also a saying about holes and digging…
If I was attempting to defend HRC, the holes and digging saying would apply. Pointing out the absurdity of Alexis Scott being a go to as judge and jury for a GOP candidate is appropriate in showing the bias of the NYT. Wonder if the they called on Ashley Bell to see what he thinks about Trump’s attempt at outreach?
Yeah, I agree. It’s pretty stupid to reach out to someone whose family has made a career of having their finger on the pulse of the black community in Atlanta and trying to serve them as best as possible.
Come on Ed, she didn’t even come up with an original thought. Just repeat the same as every single talking head on cable…’he’s not reaching out to blacks, he’s trying to appeal to white women…blah, blah, blah’. One of the more ridiculous attempts at disparaging Trump in a season full of absurd misinterpretations.
I don’t even know what to say to you.
Trump’s claim that he would get 95% of the black vote if re-elected is one of the more outlandish political statements he has made. I think the highest black percentage for a GOP presidential candidate, at least since World War 2, was in 1960 when Nixon is estimated to have gotten about a third of the black vote (of course the black electorate was much smaller back then, especially in the South before passage of the Voting Rights Act) Since then, at best it has been in the mid-teens for a GOP presidential candidate. Also find it ironic that he vows to bring “law and order” back—I though law enforcement was primarily a state and local responsibility (especially the latter). So I guess that is one area where he wants more federal involvement….
Perfect cue for another ancient history lesson….
Trump’s recent claim he’d get 95% black vote when running for re-election was necessary to top his last November tweet that “Whites killed by blacks — 81%”.
I suspect African Americans have tuned out Trump for the duration, given Trump appealed to and locked up the white racist vote in winning the nomination with his “Make America Great Again” theme.