“The pattern is clear … Historically anytime there’s been access to the ballot box extended to Black voters, there’s always been a backlash and effort to curtail that. That’s the American tradition at this point. Those who have been at the forefront of the pursuit of racial justice and equity have been regarded as a threat to the country when what they really are, what their direct access to the ballot box is really a direct threat to white supremacy.
“Trump’s laser focus (challenging the election) on predominantly Black cities is not the only evidence that the tradition continues. Even the language used to describe the demands for selective inquiries into voting in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Milwaukee echo the language of Jim Crow-era segregationists."
– John Cusick, a litigation fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who focuses much of his work on voting rights
In each of the states where the Trump team has challenged the election outcome or Republican members of boards of election have hesitated to certify results, there has been a consistent theme: The problem areas, the places where they have expressed nonspecific wrongdoing and fraud, without clear evidence, have significant Black populations.
(Janell Ross and Janelle Griffith. “How Trump's legal battles to overturn the election undermine the Black vote.” NBC News. November 24, 2020.)
Janell Ross, reporter for NBC BLK, and Janelle Griffith, national reporter for NBC News report …
“Philadelphia is 42.3 percent Black, Detroit is 78.6 percent Black and nearly 52 percent of Atlanta residents are Black. The challenges to these votes tap a rich and productive vein of voter suppression. Now, as Trump and his supporters continue to lob unsupported claims of voting irregularities and fraud, they appear to be reviving a tradition of Black voter exclusion in the United States.”
First, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and suggested Georgia toss out any ballot from an area with a high rate of nonmatching signatures, Graham said, according to Raffensperger and others on the call.
Black voters have long been more likely than others to see their ballots rejected. Had Georgia followed Graham’s request and refused to count any ballot from an area with an unusual number of signature match problems, the move would almost certainly have nullified votes cast in areas with large numbers of Black and Latino voters or new citizens, groups which Trump did not carry.
Then, at a Washington press conference last week, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, claimed the president’s campaign had identified 300,000 “illegitimate ballots” cast in Michigan. He offered no evidence supporting his claims but suggested Trump would be the victor there, if the results in Wayne County, which includes Detroit and about half the state’s Black population, were just excluded.
Trump operatives also claimed massive fraud shaped the outcomes in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and the area around Madison, Wisconsin. Each of those cities are in key swing states. Most also have larger-than-average Black populations.
“Really the themes that we see, that persist, are this: Black people are corrupt, Black people are incompetent and Black people can’t be trusted.”
– Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel after the Trump campaign filed its lawsuit against Wayne County.
Such a plainly racist strategy to contest the election erodes Black voters’ trust in elections. Fears persist that Trump’s allies will undermine democracy and disenfranchise Black Americans and other voters of color.
Hypocritical for a president who claims he has “done more for the black community than any other president besides Abraham Lincoln”? Consider his real view of people of color.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump turned his attention to Black Americans at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, a Lansing suburb, Trump delivered this assessment of how he views the Black electorate:
“What do you (African Americans) have to lose by trying something new, like Trump? You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good. You have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?"
Apparently, a lot.
About 87% of Black voters nationwide chose Biden over Trump, according to preliminary national exit polling. Those early exit polls show that 19% of Black men voted for Trump, as did 9% of Black women.
An Associated Press VoteCast survey showed overall larger Black support for Biden – 90%. According to the AP survey, 12% of Black men voted for Trump, while only 6% of Black women supported him.
Suzette Hackney of USA TODAY explains how Trump has completely lost the votes and confidence of Blacks …
“Trump's lack of leadership and incompetence allowed the deadly coronavirus to run rampant, disproportionately affecting Black people. Trump has attacked Black athletes, Black journalists and Black female members of Congress. He has called African countries "s---holes." He has aligned himself with white nationalists, called Black Lives Matter a symbol of hate, and answered cries for freedom during racial justice protests this summer with a "law and order" rhetoric.”
(Suzette Hackney. “Black voters steer America toward moral clarity in presidential race.” USA TODAY. November 12, 2020.)
Led by Trump, White Nationalist American has a new “twist.” They no longer block Blacks from voting; instead, these right-wingers allow Blacks to vote but do not want their votes to count.
According to Trump, these votes were illegitimate by dint of where they were cast. In his own words …
“Detroit and Philadelphia are known as two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country – easily. They cannot be responsible for engineering the outcome of a presidential race.”
-- Donald Trump, November 05, 2020
The danger in raising the specter of voter fraud is that it suggests that Black and brown voters are dangerous and should be distrusted. That danger is of no concern to Donald Trump. His only desire is to secure the presidency for another four years … a desire he plans to execute by hook or by crook. His obvious attempt to manipulate and control the minority vote defines his racism.
Besides, the narcissist must always have someone to blame for his own failures.
"I think it’s obvious that it's because of Black people in Milwaukee and Hispanic people in Milwaukee who overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden. I think we are an easy scapegoat for President Trump's loss."
– Reggie Jackson, a local historian and head griot of America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 11/18/2020)
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