During the first night of the Republican National Convention, which officially coronated Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, there were clear attempts to center Black voices.
A host of Black Republicans delivered remarks, including Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, and Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., John James, R-Mich., and Wesley Hunt, R-Texas.
Amber Rose says Trump isn’t racist
The most trending topic from Monday night’s RNC kickoff came from Amber Rose, a hip-hop celebrity known best for her relationship with high-profile rappers.
During her speech, the model and TV personality shared that she once “believed the left-wing propaganda that Donald Trump was a racist.” But after researching Trump’s record to prove her pro-Trump father wrong, Rose said she found that “Donald Trump and his supporters don’t care if you’re Black, white, gay or straight – it’s all love.”
“The only research she could have possibly done is how to get a check for grifting for the GOP, because there’s absolutely no way any kind of research into Donald Trump’s racist history wouldn’t elicit results,” Reecie Colbert, a political commentator and host of Sirius XM’s “The Reecie Colbert Show,” told theGrio.
She continued, “Calling for the Exonerated Five to be put to death … his history of housing discrimination … the way he launched his campaign calling Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, the list goes on and on and on.”
Markus Batchelor, national political director at People For the American Way, similarly told theGrio that Rose “clearly didn’t check the right sources.”
“From decades of racial discrimination in his real estate ventures to … his ‘good people on both sides’ defense of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Donald Trump has given us every reason to believe he’s a racist,” said Batchelor. “And if he’s not, the racists sure think he is.”
Colbert dismissed Rose’s invitation to speak at the RNC as “theater” for Republicans to have the “appearance of being more diverse than they really are.”
“The sole reason that they picked a person who has a massive tattoo across their forehead, who has no accomplishments whatsoever to address the Republican National Convention in prime time, mind you, is because of her proximity and her being a culture vulture to Black people and to hip-hop,” said Colbert.
However, she did note Rose’s points about the economy and inflation as a moment of reflection for Democrats.
“As ridiculous and unserious as she is, I do think it’s important to not be totally dismissive of the economic argument that she’s making,” said Colbert. “Republicans don’t have a solution for it, but they don’t have to have a solution. They just have to point out the quantitative fact that things cost more now than they did when Trump was in office.”
Nina Turner, the former national co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, said that while Rose is entitled to believe what she believes, she should “line up [her] beliefs with the facts.”
“I don’t know what kind of research she was doing,” Turner told theGrio.
The former Ohio state senator noted that while Trump may have “done some things over the course of his life that may seem as though he is not necessarily racist,” like issuing pardons to some incarcerated Black Americans, his record as president and “how he wields his power” have “overwhelmingly not been on the side of Black people and not been on the side of justice.”
The Biden-Harris 2024 campaign issued a public statement countering Amber Rose’s praise for Trump and his policies.
“Rose said American families were better off when Trump was president – and if she’s talking about his billionaire donors, she’s right. But for Black communities, it’s the opposite story,” said senior spokesperson Sarafina Chitika.
“Black unemployment, Black uninsured rates, and crime rates skyrocketed under Trump’s leadership, because the truth is simple – Donald Trump doesn’t care about us, our lives, or our livelihoods.”
Sen. Tim Scott: “America is not a racist country”
After his RNC speech, Scott also drew strong condemnation for doubling down on his past declaration that “America is not a racist country” – a statement he made in 2021 when he delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
“I know this is going to offend the liberal elites. Every time I say it, it offends them,” Scott said. He added, “But if you were looking for racism today, you’d find it in cities run by Democrats.”
Batchelor slammed Scott for refusing to “acknowledge racial discrimination and the lasting impacts of America’s original sin,” and defending a party that “platforms the Great Replacement Theory and has played a direct hand in ending affirmative action, gutting the Voting Rights Act, and banning people of color from the country.”
He added, “It’s a tragic and shameful level of willful ignorance.”
Turner said she was “so disappointed” in Scott, particularly since he is a Black man born and raised in the South.
“It’s irrefutable that this country was founded on white supremacy and bigotry, and it is irrefutable that it is still in action – not in individuals, but in how power is used against African-Americans and other people of color,” the progressive activist explained. She said of Scott: “He knows this. He’s a smart man, so he’s playing to that base.”
However, Turner said she agreed with Scott’s critique on Democratic leaders, telling theGrio, “There are racist and anti-Black bigots on both sides of the ledger.” The former U.S. congressional candidate added, “I’ve experienced that type of racism from [Democrats].”
Turner noted that some Republicans “conflate” racism with Black people and the idea of “Black people being racist toward white people.”
“They take great comfort in pretending that Black people somehow control the levers of power in the United States of America in such a way that we collectively stop somebody else from pursuing life, liberty and happiness,” she ruminated. “It’s never been true in the United States of America, and I don’t see it being true anytime soon in the United States of America. So if they really want to talk about structural racism, that’s what we should be talking about.”
Chris Walton, a Biden delegate from Wisconsin, told theGrio that he found Scott’s remarks to be “a mess.”
“It was buffoonery at its best,” said Walton, who noted seeing an irony that after the senator said America wasn’t racist at Monday night’s convention, the camera “panned out into an all-white sea of faces.”
The former Milwaukee County Democratic Party chairman accused Republicans of “pandering” to Black voters with speakers like Rose and Scott.
“These are the people you think represent Black America? These are the people you want to fool Black voters with … These aren’t exactly the folks who are pulling Black voters out.”
Rep. John James: “If you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you ain’t Black”
Freshman Rep. John James, who is Black, indirectly took a dig at Biden during his RNC address, telling the audience, “If you don’t vote for Donald Trump, you ain’t Black.”
The Michigan lawmaker referenced a remark then-candidate Biden made in 2020 during an interview with Charlamagne Tha God, in which he told the urban radio personality, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”
“They playing in our face,” said Turner, who accused James of “trivializing” Black voters.
She added, “Why do we get to be the brunt of people’s jokes? I understand he was trying to poke fun at Biden, but it is at our expense.”
Colbert accused James and Republicans of “making a mockery of Black voters.”
“Republicans have convinced themselves that Black voters are brainwashed, that they’re on the plantation,” Colbert explained, “as opposed to doing a serious interrogation of their policies and how hostile they are to the Black community.”
When the votes are counted among Black Americans after Election Day in November, she predicted Republicans would “be in for a rude awakening when they see that the numbers that they’re expecting are not going to swing their way.”
