Open Letter to Trump From a Black Person



Dear Donald Trump:

In a recent speech to a predominantly white crowd, you portrayed the black community as one of complete devastation before asking African American voters “what the hell have you got to lose” in voting for you. It’s the perfect question posed by a casino operator to people who want nothing to do with the casino. As an African American person, let me assure you that as the polls reflect, “the Blacks” (as you called us until recently) are not interested in your scheme.

To bolster your case, you bellowed “No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton’s policies than African Americans. No group. No group.” Maybe that’s the way you see it. It is not the way black people see it. Black voters cast their support in terms of record and action, just like everyone else. I will show you just what black people see on a ballot with you going head-to-head with Hillary Clinton. I will break down your records and actions as it is known by people in and out of politics.

Hillary Clinton is known for her service. Childhood incarceration, school desegregation, legal access for women, education standards, and building functional communities are some of the issues Hillary Clinton has successfully confronted or written about. While a young Hillary Clinton was doing undercover work fighting against racial discrimination, you were employing racial discrimination as a business practice. You were successfully sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to rent to non-whites whom you broadly referred to as “welfare recipients.” Hillary Clinton has seen injustice as something to fight against. You have seen injustice as something from which to profit.

And then you have the unmitigated gall to claim the Democratic party takes black voters for granted. That is an insult to dedicated public servants such as John Lewis, Elijah Cummings, Yvette Clarke, and my own representative in Congress Karen Bass. In some instances they have risked their lives fighting for social justice and civil rights, but no one expects you to know that. After all, your new campaign CEO was most recently the Executive Chairman of Breitbart.com, a website that is critical and derisive to the aforementioned people and the issues they champion on behalf of their constituents. These issues include voter suppression, racial profiling, wrongful death of black males at the hands of police, sentencing disparity based on race, and gun sale regulations.

Claiming the Democratic party takes black voters for granted is also an age-old Republican insult to black voters. It implies we lack the capacity to act in our own best interest. It's like you think you are talking to the "welfare recipients" to whom you refused leases. Telling African Americans that the party whose platform most coincides with their concerns is taking their votes for granted has got to be THE worst sales pitch ever. Ever. Ever. 

As far as the issues that are important to us go, this is what we African Americans know. We know that Hillary Clinton is not responsible for lax gun sale laws or voter suppression, etc. We also know the standard Republican rebuttal to our arguments. We know your answer to gun violence is easier access to guns. We know that you want to equate early voting with voter fraud and so on. But we are not interested in wasting time debating these things with you because we already have a candidate who, for the most part supports our views and that candidate is not you. It is Hillary Clinton. 
Meanwhile you scream your angry pitch to black voters in front of white crowds who adore you and agree with the content they read at Breitbart.com. You are their man, with emphasis on the word “their.” To everyone else, we get that your pitch is a total con. We don’t believe anything you have to say. What the hell do we have to lose? Our question to you is “what the hell do you have to offer?”

Sincerely,

Chip Dornell and almost every black voter in America
p.s. It seems your business flourished in spite of you having to rent to "welfare recipients."

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