In yet another mean-spirited attempt to woo African American voters, Donald Trump visited Jackson, Mississippi, last week. Jackson is my hometown and a landmark community for the Civil Rights Movement, where the history of struggle will not soon be forgotten. No wealthy white man of his mind and attitude from New York can minimize the harm he has done with one speech. But it is the responsibility of African Americans not just to denounce Trump, but to warn white voters not to be hoodwinked by his unyielding opportunism.
Trump may be the worst possible candidate for President, but he'd be an even more dismal history teacher. His assertion that Republican policies have historically been better for African Americans is absurd. In history only two measures evolved from the ranks of republicans, the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, and the stumbling of Richard Nixon into the halls of respectability, with his signing of the Philadelphia Plan-Affirmative action. It did much to help blacks catch up but was destroyed by the reactionary republicans.
Not even CNN has adequately defined that Democrats have been the main drivers of African American progress.
In 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, issued an executive order creating the Fair Employment Practice Committee to support African American rights. In 1964, President. Lyndon B. Johnson, also a Democrat, signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. But republicans have been involved in every effort to carry out measures to block voter suppression and the destruction of voting rights act.
So with far less significance, take for a grain of salt Trump's outrageous claim that Hillary Clinton is "a bigot who sees people of color only as votes." The fact is, Hillary Clinton is carrying the mantel of a political party that has provided voting rights but far too many republicans have been involved in efforts to suppress the black vote and destroy the voting rights act. It is the Democrats who remain in our lives, who continue to hear us even after the polling stations close every four years.
This happens in America's classrooms. While Trump touts policies that strip schools of funding, Hillary Clinton and Democrats fight to retain quality teachers with quality salaries, and battle back Republican attempts to strip school lunches from poor children whose access to nutrition and education are their only portals to a better life.
Trump is what he has shown himself to be. It is time for us to wake up and be sensible and to not to be moved by emotion or fear mongering. We have to look at the facts. He's a salesman selling snake oil. Like a cold call, Trump stormed into Jackson, Mississippi, one of the poorest states, to sell a lie.
Don't buy it my fellow Americans. Take it from me, take it from the vast majority of African Americans across the country, who simply want access to an education and a career. Trump has nothing to his credit in response to our issues. In fact, he wants to dim the lights on the issues that are important to us. Let's keep leadership in the White House, so that the conversation about how to lift up our people can continue in the light and on the road to empowerment and self-fulfillment.