Trump Pandering to Black Audiences Sparks Controversy

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Back in February while Trump was speaking to an audience of black conservatives in Columbia, South Carolina, he tried to pander or cater towards black Americans in a controversy. During the speaking event, Trump likens his indictment on 91 felony charges to historic discrimination against African Americans. In an article by The Washington Post, Trump says that he is liked by many black people because they have been so badly hurt and discriminated against, and how "they actually viewed me as I'm being discriminated against" 

It is incredibly odd to suggest that being indicted 91 times equates to historical discrimination, but I found it more jarring that he uses this as a reason for why black people like or respect him more than others. It was interesting that this was his method of catering to black people, which could be suggesting their relation or similarity is criminal history. This reflects negative stereotypes that black people are criminals.

I also found this to create an intersection between Trump's criticism of Harris' pandering towards black audiences, but she is much more authentic with her pandering. There's no doubt both candidates pander to black audiences, but the way in which they do it is entirely different. Many accuse Harris of pandering by adopting a "blaccent" or simply code-switching given the audience she's speaking to, or trying to downplay her race/ethnicity, however, these are much lighter of an offense than Trump determining black people liking him more because he has 91 indictments. 

References

Robinson, E (2024) "Donald Trump's con-man hustle for the Black vote is not going to work" The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/26/trump-black-voters-pitch-2024/

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 18, 2024 at 9:18 AM

    Personally, I do not think that it was ideal for former president Trump to compare his 91 felony counts with the black’s history of discrimination. But I think that he did it because that is how history has wrongly pictured the black community, as the one who normally have many felony counts, like you said as criminals, sadly but true.

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