Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continued his attempt at Black outreach (making white people think he’s not racist) by visiting a Black church in Detroit on Saturday, September 3. Though Trump tried to portray the event as a victory, things did not go quite as planned.
Trump Inflates The Size Of Crowd
I’m sure Trump was hoping for a Black church, filled to bursting with all the Black people who supposedly support him. Perhaps if every Black person in the entire country who supports Trump flew to Detroit for the event, then maybe, MAYBE, the church would have been filled.
As it was …
Nowhere near a full crowd as Trump enters (far left) pic.twitter.com/kL1AlVukG4
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) September 3, 2016
Trump, of course, had a different take on things.
Great visit to Detroit church, fantastic reception, and all @CNN talks about is a small protest outside. Inside a large and wonderful crowd!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2016
Large crowd? Where?
CBS News reported:
“Protesters waited for Trump outside the church Saturday, where some tried to push through a barrier to the parking lot but were stopped by church security and police. A few hundred protesters chanted, waved placards, but the tone at the rally did not seem tense.”
So, a few hundred outside and a few hundred AT BEST inside (and that’s only if more showed up after that photo was taken). Not quite the coup you were expecting, was it, Mr. Trump?
Trump Condescension In Supposed Black Outreach
As my colleagues and I have written before on this site, Trump’s outreach is not to minority groups. It is to white people who have racist tendencies. He is condescending at every turn.
For instance, he said “a lot of people don’t realize” that Lincoln was a Republican.
.@realDonaldTrump: "A lot of people don't realize" Abraham Lincoln was a Republican https://t.co/q9Gu8G8cMw https://t.co/i4kQQ7cPF2
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 3, 2016
Yes, Mr. Trump. People DO know that. What the right-wing always tries to do, however, is pretend that history stopped there, and that the Republican party is still the “party of Lincoln.”
Lincoln was a radical progressive in many ways.
The Republican party of 1860 is not the same party as it is today. Over the years, the Republicans became Democrats and vice versa. That is the part that the Republicans always like to leave out. Rich Rubino wrote a great piece for the Huffington Post back in 2013 that outlined this change in detail.
Trump also said he was there:
“… To learn, so that we can together remedy injustice in any form. And so that we can also remedy economics so that the African-American community can benefit economically.”
.@realDonaldTrump in African-American church: "I'm here today to learn, so that we can together remedy injustice" https://t.co/dswRMGmLiW
— ABC News (@ABC) September 3, 2016
There he goes again with his “What do you have to lose?” shtick, cloaked in calmer words.
The Black community knows that they have a LOT to lose from a Trump presidency. They also know that Trump is supported by a variety of white supremacists for a reason. And that’s why his numbers among the Black community still stand in the single digits.
Perhaps most egregious is the fact that Trump made this speech just days after one of the most hateful, vile, racist speeches he’s ever made. A speech hailed as “almost perfect” by white nationalist publisher Jared Taylor.
The people are not that stupid, Mr. Trump.
Featured Image via Twitter video screen capture
