Following the rhetorics of the United States President-elect, Mr Donald Trump, during the campaign for the election, Aamer Madhani, the Chicago correspondent for USA TODAY has done some findings.
Madhani reported that in the aftermath of the Republican’s victory, callers and hosts on black talk radio have lamented what the future could hold for African-Americans under Trump, who in his rhetoric on the stump would awkwardly refer to African-Americans as “the blacks” while suggesting they have nothing to lose in voting for him, at the helm.
“He’s not only opposed to the Affordable Care Act,” said civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton on his nationally syndicated radio show. “He’s opposed to criminal justice reform, he’s opposed to dealing with police reform, he’s opposed to dealing with stop-and-frisk, he’s opposed to the Voting Rights Act… He’s trying to bring us back to the days that we fought to get away from.”
Rashad Robinson, a spokesman for the Color of Change PAC, which over the summer successfully lobbied several corporations to withdraw sponsorship of the Republican National Convention, was even more blunt, calling Trump’s election victory “a devastating blow to black communities and the safety and civil rights of all Americans.”Color of Change PAC, which over the summer successfully lobbied several corporations to withdraw sponsorship of the Republican National Convention, was even more blunt, calling Trump’s election victory “a devastating blow to black communities and the safety and civil rights of all Americans.”
“All across the country, people awoke this morning to the election of a racist demagogue as our 45th president and the reality that extreme, right-wing political forces now control all three branches of the United States government,” Robinson said Wednesday.
The embrace by the American electorate of Trump, coming on the heels of twice electing the nation’s first African-American president, only exacerbated concerns among some leaders in the black community that the nation could be taking a step backwards on race relations.
In an emotional moment on CNN as the election results rolled in, political analyst Van Jones, a former adviser to Obama, even mourned that voters turn to Trump was the result of “white-lash,” a racially-tinged rejection of Obama.
The rise of Trump, who vowed to be a “law and order” president, also comes in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, the grassroots push that was birthed following the 2013 acquittal of a neighbourhood watch volunteer for the fatal shooting of African-American teen Trayvon Martin in Florida.
The movement, which put the spotlight on the fractious relationship between African-Americans and law enforcement in many communities throughout the country, has only grown after high-profile police shooting incidents in Baton Rouge, La., Chicago, Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere.
Both Trump and Hillary Clinton faced criticism from BLM throughout the campaign. Some activists declined to support the Democratic nominee, citing rising incarceration rates, and changes in welfare rules during her husband, President Bill Clinton’s time in the White House that negatively impacted black families.
“Because I was not comfortable with either candidate, I made the choice to abstain from voting for either candidate,” said Jomo Kenyatta, an activist with Black Lives Matter Savannah. “My conscience would not allow me to vote for either.”candidate I made the choice to abstain from voting for either candidate,” said Jomo Kenyatta, an activist with Black Lives Matter Savannah. “My conscience would not allow me to vote for either.”candidate I made the choice to abstain from voting for either candidate,” said Jomo Kenyatta, an activist with Black Lives Matter Savannah. “My conscience would not allow me to vote for either.”
After it became clear that Trump had defeated Hillary Clinton earlier Wednesday, former KKK imperial wizard David Duke took to Twitter to boast “our people have played a HUGE role in electing Trump!” Duke, who made a failed run for Senate in Louisiana, also celebrated Trump’s victory with a post on social media showing a group of people waving Confederate flags with one holding a sign that read “Southern Lives Matter.”
Gregory Seal Livingston, a civil rights activist in Chicago, said he wasn’t surprised by Trump’s victory.
“I always felt like Trump was making private conversations public,” Livingston said. “For the Millenial generation, this moment is going to be a real education.”
In response to the election results, NAACP President, Cornell William Brooks raised his concern that “the 2016 campaign has regularised racism, standardised anti-Semitism, de-exceptionalised xenophobia and mainstreamed misogyny.”Cornell William Brooks raised his concern that “the 2016 campaign has regularised racism, standardised anti-Semitism, de-exceptionalised xenophobia and mainstreamed misogyny.”
“During this critical period of transition, we are now calling upon the next president to speak and act with the moral clarity necessary to silence the dog-whistle racial politics that have characterized recent months and have left many of our fellow citizens snarling at one another in anger and even whimpering in fear,” Brooks said in a statement.
Larry Davis, the founder and director of the Center on Race and Social Problems at the University of Pittsburgh, said he remained shocked by the election results and was grappling to understand the long-term impact that Trump’s rise could have on the country.
“I’ve been trying to put it in historical perspective, and I keep coming back to the end of Reconstruction after (federal) troops left the South and what blacks then must have thought of that,” Davis said. “I try to put myself in their place and what it must have been like to know that the group that was looking after you is no longer looking after you. It’s stunning for the country.”
