By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
A/k/a: An open letter to African American/Black/Negro/Colored Voters (take your pick).
If you have been casually watching some of the recent television footage of Donald Trump at the South Carolina convention of Black Republicans, you invariably noticed that Trump was doing what he does best…he loves to pimp out voters of color.
Using wild tall tales that cannot be factually corroborated, Trump used a litany of fabrications to tell those Black Repubs that Trump is their guy and always has been their go-to-person.
One of the most outlandish statements was trying to mesh with Black voters by stating that his $399.00 gold colored sneaker is a huge hit with Black youths since sneakers and Black folks go together like French fries and ketchup.
Trump reasons that if he can promote a gaudy and hugely over-expensive sneaker shoe to DeMarcus and Leon, his name will be gold in the Black community because, as we all know, if you put an athletic shoe in a group of Black men, all common sense leaves the room, and the overwhelming power of the sneaker shoe will prevail.
Yes, that is how low Trump thinks of some Black consumers. We go “ga-ga” over shoes, any shoes regardless of the cost because buying expensive shoes is an indication of purchasing status in some communities where status is everything.
Or, Trump is now using the ruse that the flood of illegal immigrants (yes, something must be done at the southern border…no pass here for Joe Biden) is tantamount to those “others” taking union jobs from Black people.
Totally false that immigrants can go directly to union hiring halls and get skilled trade jobs without a host of prerequisite requirements being fulfilled.
Another scare tactic of, “they are coming to get your jobs!”
Lest you forget, this is the man that excoriated Colin Kaepernick when he took a knee at a pro football game; and Trump called those protesters sons of b*tches, a/k/a: calling Black women, dogs.
And surely your memory can recollect when he accused Barack Hussein Obama of being a Muslim and not being an American citizen? At speeches before White audiences, Trump would purposely draw out the word, Hussein, to imply that he is, “not one of us.”
Is all of this simply forgotten and hushed up by Black “Republicans?”
Trump vocally championed racist Nazis during their rally in Charlottesville when he said that there were “good people” on both sides of the rally.
If you were in New York City, back in the day, you would remember that Trump was cited for housing discrimination and was forced to change his rental policies because he did not want people of color living in his rental units.
How many of you have had family members either serving in the military or you suffered the loss of family member in any of the conflicts that the U.S. Military has been engaged in since the Civil War?
Well, for those who served or gave their lives in those conflicts, Trump says they were “losers and suckers!” A great guy to serve as commander in chief of the military forces!
In the final analysis, neither political party has always been a close friend to people of color but in present day America, the Trump brand of the GOP is toxic to the aspirations of people who still possess only one tenth of the wealth of White Americans.
Can you name any Trump specific economic programs that Trump fought for Black Americans to receive that were not part of the overall economic agenda that benefitted everyone anyway?
Trump has never and will go never to the ramparts on behalf of Black Americans because his rogue base of alienated and bitter White voters has told him and the feckless GOP in Congress, that people of color are no longer victims of systemic racism but rather White Americans now bear that burden! Go figure.
So, it amazes me that people like Ben Carson, Byron Donalds (Florida rep), Ye, Candace Owens, Clarence Thomas, Tim Scott (S.C. senator); and a host of others, still pledged undying fidelity to a man who has repeatedly expressed contempt or scorn for Black people.
So, when I hear that some Black voters are seriously considering voting for a con man, a fraudster, a convicted rapist (as declared by the trial judge), among a host of other anti-social acts, you gotta wonder, what is in it for them?
Character counts, or it should be; and Donald Trump has repeatedly and explicitly shown and demonstrated that he is totally void of anything remotely resembling a moral compass or having empathy (he could not even give condolences to the widow of the slain Russian freedom fighter, Alexei Navalny!) that should attract any voter.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com