Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
It was really painful to read the New York Times’ new roundtable with 11 Black men who like Donald Trump. I almost never hear Black Trump supporters give reasons for supporting him that make sense in the real world. It’s like they live on a planet where up is down. I went into this roundtable expecting more of that.
Any time I see a Black Trump supporter, I want to vomit because racism, white supremacy and white victimhood are critical to Trump’s brand. Somehow I suppressed my gag reflex throughout this roundtable. We started on a bad foot — when asked to describe Trump in one word, one of them said, “Courageous.” Oh lord. Here we go with the deification of Trump and the fake vision of him as a tough guy. Another said, “Respected.” LOL. Someone also said, “Knowledgeable.” That proves that we’re talking about a Bizarro World Trump and not real Trump.
None of these people will ever again set foot at the cookout.
For many of them, Trump’s funding for HBCUs was critical. HBCUs came up repeatedly, perhaps more than any other issue, and to them, it stood as proof that he’s not racist. This is like saying that being racist means you must hate Black people with all of your heart, and you cannot be friends with even one of them and you have to try to hurt them at every turn. This is a childish vision of racism. Today’s racists tend to be more subtle than the old Boss Hoggs were. Some might do something small to make you think they’re not racist, like HBCU funding, or they might cloak a racist appeal in anti-racist language like arguing that affirmative action actually hurts Black people. It’s true that federal funding for HBCUs increased under Trump, but the program predates his presidency by decades and funding is appropriated by Congress. Fact-checkers say it’s inaccurate to say Trump saved HBCUs.
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But politically, it’s clear that HBCU funding and saying “I saved HBCUs” has helped Trump build a bridge to some Black voters who are gullible. One man actually said “Trump isn’t racist,” which is more Bizzaro World Trump.
One of the men said the most important issue in this election is the border. This man lives in Georgia, and he cited something that happened in Philadelphia as proof that the border was a big national issue. What happened in Philly? He said a local private school where his cousin is a schoolteacher opted to house some unknown number of immigrants who he said, “Came from the border.” He did not actually know if they were undocumented, which is a critical fact, but he said either way, “It was a safety concern.” Why was it a safety concern? Also, according to him, nothing actually happened. No one was hurt. No Black jobs were lost. He just felt concerned. Oh.
The leadership of the right has done an amazing job over the last few decades of turning the border and immigration into an emotionally triggering issue that has scared the hell out of many Americans, motivated Republican voters and fooled people into thinking this is an issue that impacts them no matter where they live. In reality, immigrants commit less crime than native-born citizens — immigrants have never, over the past 150 years, been incarcerated at a higher rate than citizens — and they aren’t taking away Black jobs, but for many Americans, just hearing a phrase like “illegal alien” is enough to turn their blood hot and spark visions of losing our country, whatever that means. Trump’s success is the product of a long-term wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that has been manufactured by the right.
One of the men crowed about the stimulus checks and how helpful they were. He did not talk about why he was getting stimulus checks — because Trump mismanaged the response to COVID so badly that we had to just give people money to survive. Of course, the stimulus checks were a Democratic congressional concept that they had to fight Republicans to get passed but don’t let complicated political reality get in the way of supporting your vision of Trump.
One man said he liked Obama but “What happened?” as if Obama’s inability to fix all of the country’s problems meant he should vote for Trump.
Perhaps the strangest moment to me was this: When asked what do Republicans understand the least about Black people, one man said “I would say opportunity. They have this mind-set of up by the bootstraps. And that’s definitely true in some ways. We can make things happen for ourselves. But I have a lot of friends that were born with a house already. They didn’t have to do anything, and they already have a house. That doesn’t happen in our world a lot.”
He’s referring to intergenerational white privilege and the way that many white families have some sort of inheritance that they can pass down to their kids. It could be a whole house or a business, it could be the ability to help with a down payment or a business loan. Yes, there are plenty of white people who don’t have this, but fewer Black people have this option, so this man is noticing that Republicans don’t understand intergenerational white privilege. They say “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” in a world where many white people are, in his words, “born with a house.” So how can this party help you when they don’t even understand the basic challenge of being Black in America? So why are you riding with them and their racist nominee?
I still have yet to hear Black Trumpers give reasons for supporting Trump that actually make sense.
Toure is a host and writer at TheGrio. He hosts the TheGrio TV show “Masters of the Game,” and he created the award-winning podcast “Being Black: The ’80s” and its upcoming sequel “Being Black: The ’70s.” He is also the creator of “Star Stories” and the author of eight books, including “Nothing Compares 2 U an oral history of Prince.” He also hosts a podcast called “Toure Show.” He is also a husband and a father of two.
