Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:13 pm
Donald Trump is now claiming that African-Americans are worse off under Obama than they were at any time in history, which includes slavery.
Video:
.@realDonaldTrump: African-American communities "in the worst shape that they’ve ever been in before, ever." https://t.co/9LBPglLJSo
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— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 20, 2016
Trump said, “We’re going to rebuild our inner cities because our African American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they’ve ever been in before. Ever, ever, ever.”
By adding the several evers to the statement, Trump is claiming that African-Americans are worse off under President Obama than they were when they were considered property and were enslaved.
The idea that African Americans had it good during slavery is one that gained prominence in far right/tea party circles during the Obama years.
Trump’s statement was loaded with racism on many levels. Donald Trump continues to suffer from the belief that all African-Americans are poor. Trump is also clinging to the racial stereotype that all African-Americans live in inner cities. This also is not true, but when a candidate claims that slavery was good for black people, questioning geographic inaccuracies begins to feel like quibbling.
Some in conservative media have been floating bogus stories about Trump making massive gains with African-American voters, but the truth is that statements like these are the reason why Trump will be lucky to break double digits with black voters.
Trump’s penchants for both exaggeration and racism have made ideas like African-Americans have never been worse off than they are under Obama the expected output from a bigoted and fatally flawed Republican nominee for president.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
