"Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has been fairly straightforward regarding how he feels in general about black people in America – he failed to swiftly and effectively disavow former KKK grand wizard David Duke in May, referred to the Black Lives Matter movement as “trouble” last fall, and during the course of his campaign other things have surfaced, such as his idea to air a “white v black” season of The Apprentice.
Publicly, however, his most brazen racist remarks have been directed primarily at Muslims (a relatively small percentage of whom are black) and Mexicans. If it’s a backhanded political strategy to court the black vote (which he will ultimately need), he has underestimated the strength of our bond with other groups who have been marginalized and discriminated against.
Still, it’s oddly perplexing that in a country whose culture is so firmly rooted in systemic anti-black racism, Trump, who never hesitates to snatch the low hanging fruit of bigotry, hasn’t gone into hyper-drive about black people in America – all the standard black people tropes seem right in his wheelhouse. Of course, just as President Richard Nixon’s use of the term “silent majority” was widely understood as code for “white people”, Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” refers to a racially divided past. Alongside his marquee plan to build a border wall to keep immigrants out of the United States, it’s pretty clearly that what he means by that is Make America White Again. But black folks still don’t seem to really be on his radar – as either a problem or a target market."
Donald Trump may have saved his ire for others, but black people aren't fooled | Rebecca Carroll | Opinion | The Guardian
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