According to an Ipsos Poll conducted by the Washington Post between Jan. 2 and Jan. 8, on opinions from 1088 non-Hispanic black male voters, eight in 10 black Americans believe that Trump is a racist and nine in 10 disapprove of his job performance. Since his State of the Union Address on Feb. 5, Trump has amplified his outreach to black voters by highlighting policies aimed at providing jobs, education and opportunities for the black community.
In November, the president’s Senior Campaign Advisor, Katrina Pierson, an African American, told NPR in an interview that, despite pushback for his rhetoric, Trump has instituted policies that have lead to record-low black unemployment and that he has backed a law that cut prison sentences for thousands of people.
During the State of the Union, Trump announced that he has nominated Tony Lowden, a African American pastor from Georgia, to oversee his efforts to assist former prisoners adjusting to life after incarceration. Lowden is the pastor of former President Jimmy Carter’s church, Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.
Despite these claims and policies, many voters still do not favor Trump as a president. “In my opinion, I don’t really like Trump; he’s very unpresidential to me, very childish, but he has brought black unemployment rates fairly low, and, economically, he has made a positive impact on our nation,” Richard Montgomery senior Mac Diop said. “I don’t really respect him as a president, he is not somebody that I’d vote for personally, but in retrospect he has done his job.”
Trump’s efforts to connect with minority voters are led by his National Diversity Coalition and the group Black Voices for Trump, which held a meeting on Jan. 16 in North Philly. Discussions focused on Trump’s impact on the African American community and a volunteer training session to prepare for the campaign. In a report by Ally Miller from The Philly Voice, Black Voices for Trump boasted Trump’s decision to back the First Step Act, a law that reduced sentences for some drug offenses and significantly decreased disproportionate sentences of black offenders.
Since the law passed in late 2018, more than 5,500 prisoners have been released. This was the topic of a Super Bowl ad aired by the campaign that spotlighted Alice Marie Johnson, an African American woman whose life sentence was commuted by Trump.
However, a poll in January by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that the African Community is not accepting Trump’s spin, and 81 percent of African Americans think Trump has made things worse for people of color.
Among MCPS students, some share this opinion. “When Trump says he has done so much for black people and that we should all be grateful to him, it makes me laugh! He’s so confused. He says things like all Hatians have AIDS and all Nigerians should go back to their huts. Who talks that way?” Richard Montgomery sophomore Marley Forde said.
Others like Richard Montgomery junior Leule Yohannes were a little more open about giving Trump a chance. “I don’t know how I feel about Trump, he’s brought the black unemployment rate down to pretty low, but I don’t think he’s presidential at all, I think that he is childish,” Yohannes said. “But other than that, in terms of the economy, I think that he is doing pretty well. I don’t know if I love him, I don’t know if I hate him, it’s kinda in between.”
For the Trump campaign to expect support from African Americans, it appears that it will take more than his latest efforts. The references to what he has done for African Americans seem to revolve around reducing crime sentences and improving transition for prisoners being released, but many African American voters do not necessarily consider these issues their first priority or a be-all-end-all subject.
Article by J.P. King of Richard Montgomery High School
Graphic by Nicole Fang of Richard Montgomery High School