Radio personality Charlamagne tha God couldn’t contain his laughter when Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump incredulously insisted her unhinged father-in-law harbored no racist tendencies during Monday’s episode of Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club”—despite a mountain of evidence, dating back to the Seventies, stating story to the contrary.
“Donald Trump was really beneficial to the Black community when he was in the White House. I will say I’ve never seen this man say a racist thing,” Trump declared, prompting audible chuckles from Charlamagne. When pressed about her reaction to his laughter, he responded, “It’s hysterical because people act like there’s no such thing as Google, or we don’t have TV or radio.”
The exchange grew tenser when Trump attempted to deflect criticism by citing Donald Trump’s past associations, i.e., the inane ‘he’s got a Black friends’ argument. “This is a man who was beloved by so many people in this country, and he was friends with everybody. Jesse Jackson, by the way…” she began before co-host Jess Hilarious dutifully cut in: “Please don’t do that, ‘He had Black friends.’ That’s not going to work out.”
Trump’s pattern of racial antagonism stretches back five decades, from the 1973 Justice Department lawsuit—which can be found as a starting point in The Apprentice biopic—over housing discrimination to his recent characterizations of Vice President Kamala Harris as “mentally unfit” and “a low-IQ person”—coded language with historical references that play into time-worn, racist tropes about Black intelligence.
Charlamagne challenged Trump directly about the impact of her father-in-law’s rhetoric: “How do you ask Mexicans and Muslims to ignore a lot of the rhetoric, Haitians to ignore a lot of the rhetoric that he said about them that is dangerous, that has villainized them, that has demonized them?”
The former president’s relationship with the Black community has historically been wholly transactional, observers note. While Trump touts easy-win chievements like the First Step Act and his extremely lightweight HBCU funding, his political messaging frequently employs racist dog whistles, such as questioning Obama’s birthplace. This is a man who paid for full-page ads in New York City newspapers to publically call for the death penalty for the later-exonerated Central Park Five—a nasty position he maintains at present despite their complete vindication.
To make it plain, the idea that having Black associates or implementing certain policies negates a long, charged history of violently racist behavior fundamentally misunderstands how racism operates. A person can benefit from or even maintain superficial relationships with people of color while still perpetuating harmful racist ideologies and policies.
The heated interview follows a recent town hall Charlamagne hosted with Vice President Harris, who has been working to strengthen her messaging to voters of color. Despite previous criticism of the Democratic ticket, the radio personality and author has shifted his support behind Harris since she became the nominee.
Published: Oct 23, 2024 02:37 am