Happy Trump History Month: The Blacks Edition!

[Syt]

Happy Black History Month!

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/frederick-douglass-trump/515292/

Donald Trump's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Marking Black History Month, the president made some strange observations about Douglass and Martin Luther King, but mostly talked about himself.

Does Donald Trump actually know who Frederick Douglass was? The president mentioned the great abolitionist, former slave, and suffrage campaigner during a Black History Month event Wednesday morning, but there's little to indicate that Trump knows anything about his subject, based on the rambling, vacuous commentary he offered:

"I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things, Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact." Within moments, he was off-topic, talking about some of his favorite subjects: CNN, himself, and his feud with CNN.

Trump's comments about King were less transparently empty but maybe even stranger. "Last month we celebrated the life Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., whose incredible example is unique in American history," Trump said, employing a favorite meaningless adjective. But this wasn't really about King. It was about Trump: "You read all about Martin Luther King when somebody said I took a statue out of my office. And it turned out that that was fake news. The statue is cherished. It's one of the favorite things—and we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson, and we have Dr. Martin Luther King."

Even beyond the strange aside about Douglass and the digression from King, Trump's comments point to the superficiality of his engagement with African American culture. He named perhaps the four most famous figures in black history with no meaningful elaboration. (Trump was reading from a sheet, but at least he was able to name Tubman, unlike his vanquished rival Gary Johnson.)

In a way, Trump isn't totally wrong about Douglass "getting recognized more and more," though one is left to scratch one's head at where precisely he noticed that. Douglass's heyday of influence was in the mid to late 19th century, but he may be better known than ever among the broadest swath of the American public thanks to his ascension into the Pantheon of black history figures taught in schools since the United States established Black History Month in 1976.

It is a real and praiseworthy accomplishment for Douglass's name to keep spreading. But the frequent, and often valid, critique of Black History Month is that it encourages a tokenist approach to African American culture, leading everyone from national leaders to elementary-school teachers to recite a catechism of well-known figures, producing both shallow engagement and privileging a passé Great Man (and Woman) theory of history. Hardly any politician is immune to this; faced with the necessity of holding an event to mark the month, they too recite the list. But even by that standard, Trump's comments are laughably vacuous.

George W. Bush, for example, recalled in 2002 how February was "the month in which Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass were born, two men, very different, who together ended slavery." Bill Clinton exhorted audiences to visit Douglass's home in Washington's Anacostia neighborhood, at a time when that was well-off the beaten tourist path. George H.W. Bush admired Jacob Lawrence's depiction of Douglass. Ronald Reagan repeatedly quoted Douglass in his own remarks, and was fond of boasting that Douglass was a fellow Republican.


The gulf between Trump and his predecessors is particularly poignant, of course, in the wake of the presidency of Barack Obama, a man who by virtue of his own skin color never had to resort to the detached tributes of white presidents. When the museum Trump cited opened, Obama spoke, saying as only he could have:

Yes, African Americans have felt the cold weight of shackles and the stinging lash of the field whip. But we've also dared to run north and sing songs from Harriet Tubman's hymnal. We've buttoned up our Union Blues to join the fight for our freedom. We've railed against injustice for decade upon decade, a lifetime of struggle and progress and enlightenment that we see etched in Frederick Douglass's mighty, leonine gaze.

Trump, by contrast, has long spoken of the black community in fundamentally instrumental terms, from his business career to his political one. African Americans were a monolithic demographic to be won or lost, depending on the occasion. The young real-estate developer first made headlines when the Trump Organization was accused of working to keep blacks out of its real-estate developments; the company eventually settled with the Justice Department without admitting guilt. The question in that case was not the personal prejudices (absent or present) of Trump and his father Fred. Instead, the company appeared to have decided that blacks were bad for business and would drive out white tenants, so the Trumps allegedly opted to keep them out.

[CountDeMoney]

Happy Black History Month!

  "He's just getting started."

And it's all month long.  Oh, what delights await!

[Valmy]

Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more

Fredrick Douglass did an amazing job. Best newspaper editor ever.  He edited all the best articles. All the other newspapers failed. The dough-faces tried to shut him down. Couldn't do it. Total scumbags.

[garbon]

Happy Black History Month!

  "He's just getting started."

And it's all month long.  Oh, what delights await!

I'm confused. Is this the opening salvo to how he's going to help black people now that America took a chance on him?

[CountDeMoney]

Just had to split this one off.  It's going to be a month, you know.

McSweeney's posted the entire transcript of this morning's event verbatim--
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/my-very-good-black-history-month-tribute-to-some-of-the-most-tremendous-black-people

February 1, 2017
Short Imagined Monologues
My Very Good Black History Month Tribute to Some of the Most Tremendous Black People
DONALD J. TRUMP

Well, the election, it came out really well. Next time we'll triple the number or quadruple it. We want to get it over 51, right? At least 51.

Well this is Black History Month, so this is our little breakfast, our little get-together. Hi Lynn, how are you? Just a few notes. During this month, we honor the tremendous history of African-Americans throughout our country. Throughout the world, if you really think about it, right? And their story is one of unimaginable sacrifice, hard work, and faith in America. I've gotten a real glimpse — during the campaign, I'd go around with Ben to a lot of different places I wasn't so familiar with. They're incredible people. And I want to thank Ben Carson, who's gonna be heading up HUD. That's a big job. That's a job that's not only housing, but it's mind and spirit. Right, Ben? And you understand, nobody's gonna be better than Ben.

Last month, we celebrated the life of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., whose incredible example is unique in American history. You read all about Dr. Martin Luther King a week ago when somebody said I took the statue out of my office. It turned out that that was fake news. Fake news. The statue is cherished, it's one of the favorite things in the — and we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson, and we have Dr. Martin Luther King. But they said the statue, the bust of Martin Luther King, was taken out of the office. And it was never even touched. So I think it was a disgrace, but that's the way the press is. Very unfortunate.

I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things. Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I noticed. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact.

I'm proud to honor this heritage and will be honoring it more and more. The folks at the table in almost all cases have been great friends and supporters. Darrell — I met Darrell when he was defending me on television. And the people that were on the other side of the argument didn't have a chance, right? And Paris has done an amazing job in a very hostile CNN community. He's all by himself. You'll have seven people, and Paris. And I'll take Paris over the seven. But I don't watch CNN, so I don't get to see you as much as I used to. I don't like watching fake news. But Fox has treated me very nice. Wherever Fox is, thank you.

We're gonna need better schools and we need them soon. We need more jobs, we need better wages, a lot better wages. We're gonna work very hard on the inner city. Ben is gonna be doing that, big league. That's one of the big things that you're gonna be looking at. We need safer communities and we're going to do that with law enforcement. We're gonna make it safe. We're gonna make it much better than it is right now. Right now it's terrible, and I saw you talking about it the other night, Paris, on something else that was really — you did a fantastic job the other night on a very unrelated show.

I'm ready to do my part, and I will say this: We're gonna work together. This is a great group, this is a group that's been so special to me. You really helped me a lot. If you remember I wasn't going to do well with the African-American community, and after they heard me speaking and talking about the inner city and lots of other things, we ended up getting — and I won't go into details — but we ended up getting substantially more than other candidates who had run in the past years. And now we're gonna take that to new levels. I want to thank my television star over here — Omarosa's actually a very nice person, nobody knows that. I don't want to destroy her reputation but she's a very good person, and she's been helpful right from the beginning of the campaign, and I appreciate it. I really do. Very special.

So I want to thank everybody for being here.

[Valmy]

Last year I did lots of Haitian revolution stuff. Any particular part of black history we should discuss this year?

[CountDeMoney]

Last year I did lots of Haitian revolution stuff. Any particular part of black history we should discuss this year?

Oh no, no, no...this thread is dedicated to Donald Trump's interpretation of Black History Month.  You don't seriously think he was done with it today, do you?

[grumbler]

While we are waiting for Trump to entertain us, Valmy can cover the history of blacks in the Louisiana Purchase and later Louisiana.  I've never had time to go into that whole era and area.

[Valmy]

Sounds fun

[CountDeMoney]

Creoles.  Real spicy-like.

[HVC]

How long until trump recognizes the real heros.

[derspiess]

Is Trump gonna pose thumbs-up with some chicken and waffles?

[CountDeMoney]

I give you Even Stevens he tweets something about Black History Month sometime during the Super Bowl. 

[LaCroix]

I don't think trump minds black people, I just don't think he's been around them very much and isn't quite sure what to do with them

[CountDeMoney]

I don't think trump minds black people, I just don't think he's been around them very much and isn't quite sure what to do with them

He sees them on TV.