Donald Trump’s Description of Black America Is Offending Those Living in It
Dogged by suggestions that he is running a racist campaign, Mr. Trump has been speaking about and expressing concern for black voters more in the past week than at any other point in his presidential run.
But he has been doing so in front of nearly all-white audiences.
.. some African-Americans who have been listening say the picture Mr. Trump has been painting of black America — a nightmare of poverty, death and danger, brought about by failed Democratic policies and leadership — is unrecognizable.
.. “You could go to war zones in countries that we’re fighting, and it’s safer than living in some of our inner cities,” Mr. Trump said in Akron.
.. His sales pitch can also sound bluntly dismissive.
“What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?” he asked a crowd in Virginia on Saturday. “You’re living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?”
.. His credibility problems with blacks stem in part from his role in leading the so-called birther movement that questioned President Obama’s birthplace, an attempt to delegitimize Mr. Obama’s presidency that offended great numbers of African-Americans.
.. Mr. Morial, of the Urban League, noted that the group had invited Mr. Trump to attend briefings on its policy concerns, but that he had declined.