Photo Credit: by Tameka Jackson
By: Greis Torres and Brittany Scott
The lights were dim, and music played in the background. Mychel Namphy, English Professor, was organizing chairs to form a semicircle in the African American Resource Center where he sometimes teaches. He sat down and with a calmed voice said, “Hillary is just a nicer side of the same pie.”
“She comes from a traditional moderate part of the Democratic Party that does get most of the black vote but, I don’t think she is any different than Trump,” said Namphy.
According to a McClatchy/Marist Poll released on Sept. 20, Hillary has 93% of the African American vote while Trump has only 3%, and 74% of Latinos are supporting Hillary Clinton while only 16% of Latinos are supporting Donald Trump.
“What people of color do in the National Election is to vote for the candidate that gives them more room to work. Hillary Clinton gives us more room to work than Donald Trump,” said Namphy.
According to a Pew Research Center poll, Trump is getting 45% of registered white voters to support him. The numbers are higher among those who have had some college experience or less. Clinton is behind Trump with only 33% of registered white voters supporting her. The majority of her white supporters are postgraduates and college graduates.
Trump visited Great Faith Ministries, an African American Church in Detroit. He gave a speech about the importance of black churches and faith as an attempt to reach out to the African American community.
“Trump visiting a black church was a nice thing to do, but what he said earlier about Muslims was not nice,” said Cindy Abreu, freshman, 18, Childhood Education major at CUNY York College.
In 1989, The Central Park Jogger Case featured five young black men accused of raping a 28-year-old woman in Central Park. Donald Trump paid for full-page advertisement in three major New York newspapers stating that the five young black men should be executed. Trump suggested the return of the death penalty.
“I don’t think too many black folks are going to forget that,” said Associate Professor of History, George White.
Trump started the “Birther Movement” trying to prove that Obama was not a U.S. Citizen. “His whole birth campaign it’s another form of racism. I think he can go and visit 100 black churches, it’s not going to make him any difference,” said White.
“He has really started his political activity based on this racist lie that our first black President was not an American citizen,” said Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, during the Presidential Debate in New York.
“There was absolutely no evidence for it, but he persisted year after year,” said Clinton.
Wayne E. Dupree, an African American Blogger and the Founder of WAARadio-We Are America Radio, is a Trump supporter. On his tweets he mainly uses hashtags showing his support for Trump. He tweeted a picture of a black woman holding a sign which read “The silent majority stands with Trump.”
In the past Presidential Debate, Clinton emphasized the need to address the systemic racism in the criminal justice system towards African Americans. However in 1994 when she was First Lady of the United States, she gave a speech supporting tough on crime policies. In her speech, she called the urban youth involved in gangs “Super-predators,” and then she added “We have to bring them to heel.”
In February, Clinton was interrupted during a small fundraiser in South Carolina by Ashley Williams, an activist who was holding a sign that read “We have to bring them to heel.” Williams wanted Clinton to apologize for what her tough on crime policies did to the African American community.
“Hillary is not indicating she is going to do our work. Neither party is the champion for poor people or people of color,” said Namphy.
Yeny Almonte, 18, Biology major said she thinks that Hillary Clinton would do better than Trump. She added that Clinton has a bad reputation because of the emails she sent with classified information in the past.
Abreu, an Early Childhood Education major, her parents are Dominicans and they are Clinton supporters. “Hillary would be a better choice. My parents are always saying ‘Trump is not going to help but Hillary would.’ I’m going to vote for Hillary,” said Abreu.
“Blacks and Latinos would have to continue organizing and protesting. The Dreamers are going to have to keep protesting, people who want Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are going to have to keep protesting, Black Lives Matter are still going to have to protest even if Hillary wins,” said White.
1 Comment
The “rigged” political process has reached a level of uncomfortableness. First the elite media took issue with Donald Trump’s use of the word “inner-city.” Now they want to magnify and gussy up his use of the term ghetto. Their embellishment is nothing more than “gilt-edged” semantics and immaculate “bubbles of gas” emanating from their ass.
But, this is precisely the reason there is no longer a blind partisanship link between the black community and the Democratic Party. The black community owes the Democratic Party NOTHING. It’s the Democratic Party’s continued facetiously, disturbing and arrogant attitude. We turned out and backed the Democratic Party for more than 50 years. In exchange for our blind loyalty we got nothing.
Donald Trump has called for a “NEW DEAL” and has pledged to listen to African-Americans. He said “I fully understand the African-American community has suffered from discrimination,” Mr. Trump has specifically referenced disparities in education, employment and public safety, and promised to bring “prosperity” to the black communities that Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and black political leaders now refused to admit is troubled.
Those who control the black community “block of votes” are upset. They realize Mr. Trump is a threat to the monopoly they have operated for decades at the expense of the lives of black boys and girls dying each day in our INNER-CITY STREETS. They need to “miss us already” with that bullsh*t that we no longer live in the hood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dieNd5h_qpw