Two months after the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) requested a meeting with Donald Trump, they finally get their chance to share their concerns about the state of black America under a Trump presidency. On Wednesday afternoon, Trump will meet with members of the CBC after nearly a year of campaign promises in which he told blacks that they had nothing to lose by voting for him.
Of course, you may remember the lead up to this meeting was nothing short of a disaster when Trump insulted April Ryan by asking her, a veteran White House reporter, to set up a meeting with the CBC and if they were friends of hers (because according to Trump, all black people know each other). This all took place during what was likely the most inept Black History Month a president has presided over in the last 20 years. Afterward, the CBC reminded Trump that they had requested a meeting with him on January 19 and the White House soon scrambled to set something up, all of which apparently took his lame bunch two months to organize.
Wednesday's meeting will be considerably smaller than initially announced. Last week, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that the entire 49-person caucus was invited. But a spokeswoman for the caucus says that just six members, all officers on the CBC's leadership team, will meet with the president.
Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the chair of the caucus, says that the small group size is a strategic move that differentiates this discussion from some of the larger listening sessions that have occurred at the White House in recent weeks. "This will be a serious meeting, not a photo opportunity," Richmond said in a statement on Tuesday.
A serious meeting? Not likely with this administration, but one can hope. So what does the CBC hope to address with the president? There’s a range of things from his destructive comments about the black community to mass incarceration, the proposed budget, immigration, and economic justice. You know, actual policy matters—stuff Trump has proven an inability to comprehend intellectually.
"The CBC sees this as an opportunity to both express concerns about things the President has said in his remarks about the Black community, but also a time to see if there are areas of agreement where there are real solutions that can be put forward," [Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), a CBC vice chair said in an emailed statement].
In a separate statement, the CBC said it would "talk about the issues affecting the African-American community, including proposed budget cuts, the ACA repeal and replace bill, education, including HBCUs, criminal justice reform, infrastructure, and economic opportunity for urban and rural communities," during the Wednesday meeting.
If this meeting is anything like Trump’s meeting last month with the presidents of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, it will be nothing but another opportunity to see the Trump bunch prove how incredibly uncomfortable they are with black people. We already know that this administration has no real plan for black America. And with Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller in the White House, we’ll be lucky if the CBC members aren’t greeted at the door by burning crosses and men wearing hooded robes.