Donald Trump has a long and muddy history with minorities and foreigners; a history that is documented even before he was elected president. Heck, on the same day he rode the escalator to announce his candidacy, he made reference to Mexicans as rapists. We can dig deeper and recall the discriminatory practices that occurred when Trump was a real estate developer. What should hit closer to home for most African Americans was the Central Park Five and how Donald Trump pushed for the conviction of those teenagers even before adequate DNA evidence was presented- even before they were given a fair trial. Trump is no stranger to racial insensitivity and flat-out racism, and he has mastered how he masks it. Some racists will just call you the N-word and let their position be known, while others like Trump will call you a dog and leave just enough ambiguity for the world to try to decipher his bigger picture.
There is a black following that Donald Trump has gained and individuals in the black community who agree with his practices and buy into his message that he is making America great again. We see these brothers and sisters at rallies, there are some that go out there and open up for him at those rallies and there are some that go out of their way to defend him on television (most notably being Paris Dennard, Candace Owens, Diamond, and Silk). Donald Trump loves his African Americans until he doesn’t. Recently, we witnessed the disparagement of Omarosa. During the campaign, Omarosa would be dispatched to quell the noise regarding his track record on race, she was his token black friend in a sense. “I'm not racist or sexist, Omarosa works for me”. She took pride in the position and she spoke passionately and advocated for Donald Trump.
She was fired from the White House earlier this year, which was something she did not take lightly to. Omarosa has recently written a book about the dysfunction in the White House and most importantly slammed the president in the book. Similar to any other time he reads something he doesn’t like, Trump logged on to Twitter and made sure that she and the rest of the world knew how he felt, going as far as to call her a “dog” and “crazed, crying lowlife”. The media quickly gravitated towards those keywords and punchlines, but what is more newsworthy than the hateful words is the notion that he “gave her a job”. This is a narrative that is all too familiar in this country. When people of color are hired to executive positions, suddenly we were "given” something, it is never something that we have earned.
Photo: Twitter
The president alludes to Omarosa being someone he gave a break to, clearly forgetting all of the countless hours she put on the campaign trail, all the media runs she made, all the heat she took from the media and from the black community. Yet she was given "a break". The mere implication that her job was not earned is already an insult, and to add salt to the wound she is called out of her name. All coming from someone who claims to care about black people.
Riddle me this: If Donald Trump cared so much for black Americans like he says he does, then why talk so lowly about someone he at one point considered a friend and colleague? If all this can be said about her, then how much less his African Americans that attend his rallies. I’m not here to tell black people where their political allegiance should reside, but I’m here to remind them that their political allegiance should reside somewhere in which their support is appreciated and valued.
