Come to the Savior, make no delay;
here in his Word he has shown us the way;
here in our midst he's standing today;
tenderly saying, Come!"
- "Come to the Savior, Make No Delay," George Root
Now that a certain candidate for President has realized that inclusion is a better electoral strategy, African-Americans and Hispanics - his description, not mine - have nothing to lose and thus an new electoral option. Our Savior is come.
Perhaps we should change religions.
That Mr. Trump is feigning concern is, to be kind, convenient, but, of course, his approach is telling: to paraphrase, "Your lives suck - you're poor, have no jobs or decent schools and you can be shot walking in the street* - so why not vote for me? I'll fix everything that's been ailing you for your hundreds of years in this country because I alone can do it." Or some ish like that.
There are many reasons why African-Americans and Latinos shouldn't support Mr. Trump - based on both his historical record and on this latest disingenuous political gambit - but I'd like to consider just three:
First, let's start with who Mr. Trump is and how he's related to Communities of Color (CoC) in his life. Lemme see, his campaign started with the defaming of Mexicans and the promise to build a wall to keep them out of 'our' country (which, apparently, Mexico will pay for out of sheer gratitude and its admiration for Mr. Trump). Before that there were the many lawsuits filed against his companies for their racial discrimination in refusing to rent to People of Color (PoC). And, of course, for those of us in the New York metropolitan area, there was his stunning performance during the horrific and sad Central Park Jogger case years ago during which he very publicly led the 'prosecution in the press' of five underage Youth of Color (YoC) - who, it turns out, were completely innocent and railroaded to jail - while calling for their punishment by death. Hmmm.
(That's really bad, right? Notice that I didn't even mention his leadership of the racist Birther Movement that disrespected our first African-American president a few years ago. Now let this sink in and then add it to your assessment of his character, temperament, judgment and fitness to be president.)
Next, let's move to the solutions he proposes that will alleviate and elevate. This will be the shortest section of this essay because, well, there haven't been any policy suggestions near as I can tell. Perhaps we can intuit that his recent comments suggesting that he'll restore "law and order" throughout the land by turning our protection over to "tough" cops might be one of his intended solutions. And we all know how well aggressive policing has been working for PoC (and especially unarmed African-Americans) of late....
Finally, let's look at how he has approached this "outreach" and divine its deeper meaning. Perhaps my perception is wrong, but my understanding is that Mr. Trump chose as the site of his outreach speeches overwhelmingly white enclaves - you know, the kind where over 90% of the residents are white - and then, not surprisingly, had virtually all-white audiences in attendance to hear his recommendations for their Neighbors of Color. It could just be me, but somehow I'm thinking that if he really wanted African-Americans to hear his message, he might have chosen a setting wherein they'd be more, uh, present (without having to be bused in and/or paid to participate, of course). Which then raises the question of why someone who wants to speak to Blacks and Latinos would go to a white neighborhood to do so? Can't help but think that one of the primary motivations - in addition to insuring that there wouldn't be a revolt after his condescension was uttered - was that he wanted his real audience to hear it and to agree with him that someone willing to pretend to be inclusive toward PoC couldn't be racist and thus, by supporting him, neither could they be so. I could be wrong about that, but, somehow, I seriously doubt it....
So, what do we have here? A new Savior for Black and Brown folks who preaches to them from places where they are not and offers them nothing new or substantive other than the opportunity to be his pawns. Yeah, I can see how that would be attractive to groups in which he's polling under 20% support in the best case (Latinos) and under 2% in the other case (African-Americans).
Am I really surprised that it's come to this/that Mr. Trump would stoop so low? No. After all, what in his behavior in the past year has suggested that there is any bottom below which he will not go? It's the rest of us - those of us who stubbornly cling to apparently outmoded things like morals, ethics and a sense of the commonweal/broader community - who have a problem, because it's quite clear that he cares not a whit for our standards of comportment, at least as they're supposed to apply to him. We need to move on because it's equally clear that Mr. Trump has no intention of changing authentically to acknowledge and value the humanity of all whom he would presume to govern.
So, perhaps his latest racist gambit - pretending to be inclusive to PoC while really trying to reassure and assuage the guilt of his largely white supporters - will work ... with white folks, because I'm quite confident that none of us Black and Brown folk are gonna be taken in by this latest craven chicanery. But Mr. Trump can still hope, as it's clear at this point that he needs every potential vote (and it's equally clear that he's literally willing to say anything necessary to win those votes, even when he has to contradict himself or "pivot" or "soften" as he is doing now with respect to his previously rabidly deportation-focused approach to illegal immigrants).
To sum it up, as People of Color, if Donald Trump is our new Savior, we need to change religions....
* And this coming from the candidate who bragged that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York City and his supporters would still be rabidly committed to him. To quote the great Seth Myers, really?!?
There are many reasons why African-Americans and Latinos shouldn't support Mr. Trump - based on both his historical record and on this latest disingenuous political gambit - but I'd like to consider just three:
First, let's start with who Mr. Trump is and how he's related to Communities of Color (CoC) in his life. Lemme see, his campaign started with the defaming of Mexicans and the promise to build a wall to keep them out of 'our' country (which, apparently, Mexico will pay for out of sheer gratitude and its admiration for Mr. Trump). Before that there were the many lawsuits filed against his companies for their racial discrimination in refusing to rent to People of Color (PoC). And, of course, for those of us in the New York metropolitan area, there was his stunning performance during the horrific and sad Central Park Jogger case years ago during which he very publicly led the 'prosecution in the press' of five underage Youth of Color (YoC) - who, it turns out, were completely innocent and railroaded to jail - while calling for their punishment by death. Hmmm.
(That's really bad, right? Notice that I didn't even mention his leadership of the racist Birther Movement that disrespected our first African-American president a few years ago. Now let this sink in and then add it to your assessment of his character, temperament, judgment and fitness to be president.)
Next, let's move to the solutions he proposes that will alleviate and elevate. This will be the shortest section of this essay because, well, there haven't been any policy suggestions near as I can tell. Perhaps we can intuit that his recent comments suggesting that he'll restore "law and order" throughout the land by turning our protection over to "tough" cops might be one of his intended solutions. And we all know how well aggressive policing has been working for PoC (and especially unarmed African-Americans) of late....
Finally, let's look at how he has approached this "outreach" and divine its deeper meaning. Perhaps my perception is wrong, but my understanding is that Mr. Trump chose as the site of his outreach speeches overwhelmingly white enclaves - you know, the kind where over 90% of the residents are white - and then, not surprisingly, had virtually all-white audiences in attendance to hear his recommendations for their Neighbors of Color. It could just be me, but somehow I'm thinking that if he really wanted African-Americans to hear his message, he might have chosen a setting wherein they'd be more, uh, present (without having to be bused in and/or paid to participate, of course). Which then raises the question of why someone who wants to speak to Blacks and Latinos would go to a white neighborhood to do so? Can't help but think that one of the primary motivations - in addition to insuring that there wouldn't be a revolt after his condescension was uttered - was that he wanted his real audience to hear it and to agree with him that someone willing to pretend to be inclusive toward PoC couldn't be racist and thus, by supporting him, neither could they be so. I could be wrong about that, but, somehow, I seriously doubt it....
So, what do we have here? A new Savior for Black and Brown folks who preaches to them from places where they are not and offers them nothing new or substantive other than the opportunity to be his pawns. Yeah, I can see how that would be attractive to groups in which he's polling under 20% support in the best case (Latinos) and under 2% in the other case (African-Americans).
Am I really surprised that it's come to this/that Mr. Trump would stoop so low? No. After all, what in his behavior in the past year has suggested that there is any bottom below which he will not go? It's the rest of us - those of us who stubbornly cling to apparently outmoded things like morals, ethics and a sense of the commonweal/broader community - who have a problem, because it's quite clear that he cares not a whit for our standards of comportment, at least as they're supposed to apply to him. We need to move on because it's equally clear that Mr. Trump has no intention of changing authentically to acknowledge and value the humanity of all whom he would presume to govern.
So, perhaps his latest racist gambit - pretending to be inclusive to PoC while really trying to reassure and assuage the guilt of his largely white supporters - will work ... with white folks, because I'm quite confident that none of us Black and Brown folk are gonna be taken in by this latest craven chicanery. But Mr. Trump can still hope, as it's clear at this point that he needs every potential vote (and it's equally clear that he's literally willing to say anything necessary to win those votes, even when he has to contradict himself or "pivot" or "soften" as he is doing now with respect to his previously rabidly deportation-focused approach to illegal immigrants).
To sum it up, as People of Color, if Donald Trump is our new Savior, we need to change religions....
* And this coming from the candidate who bragged that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York City and his supporters would still be rabidly committed to him. To quote the great Seth Myers, really?!?
Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing
but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
- Matthew 7:15 (NRSV)
(Blogger's note: Apologies that I didn't quote "Two Corinthians" just now, but this Scripture just seems more appropriate....)
