Eric Frazier is a columnist for the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. He wrote a column that was reposted with permission at Raw Story, titled An actual African-American sets Trump straight after he bellows away about black despair. He answer the question asked by Trump of why African-American voters keep voting D, what do they have to lose by voting for Trump. As Frazier writes
That's a good, fair question. Too bad the guy asking it ranks as the most racially inflammatory presidential candidate since arch-segregationist George Wallace. Instead of making his black-voter sales pitch by talking to us, he's doing it by talking about us to white audiences.
That tells me a hell of a lot more than the words on his Teleprompter do.
And he is just starting.
He takes apart — as others have done — Trump’s inaccurate “statistics” — yes 26% of Blacks are poor compared to 10% of whites, but that still means 74% are above the poverty line.
As to why Democrats get the votes of Blacks? Lots of reasons. They are not trying to keep Blacks from voting — Frazier cites the head of the NC Republican party who wants to shut down Sunday voting and limit the hours of early voting (remember, Sunday is when “Souls to the Polls” takes place). And to those who say they are just keeping Democrats from voting, he reminds themBlacks vote Democrat today because Democrats fought for their votes. The party that once welcomed cross-burning Klansmen did an about-face on civil rights and earned the black vote.
Are you fighting to get those votes back? Nope.
The path to do so is clear, if you're interested. Embrace affirmative action — and let racist base voters walk. Pass criminal justice reform. Champion black entrepreneurship and the rebuilding of the inner cities. Reach out to churchgoing black families; their traditionalist social values mirror yours.
Frazier takes apart the charge of “fraud” pretty thoroughly.
He also points out that Bernie Sanders didn’t get Black votes because he didn’t work for them the way Hillary Clinton did (and I would add to this two things: 1) using Cornel West who had dissed Obama as a surrogate was stupid and 2) Clinton had a long and strong record on issues that mattered to African-Americans, particularly older African-American women).
And Frazier’s conclusion is short, and to the point:
Concerned about black votes this November, GOP?
Quit whining. Stop provoking. Start competing.
But don’t worry folks. With Donald Trump as the candidate, that is NOT about to happen, not when if he seriously sought Black votes he would lose half of his base.