‘You haven’t done nothin’ ’
President Donald Trump likes to say he is the best president in history for Black Americans with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln. As evidence, he points to the historically low Black unemployment rate prior to the pandemic. He also takes credit for rising incomes and reduced poverty rates among Black Americans, also prepandemic. The pandemic and the economic consequences of the pandemic will result in Black Americans being far worse off at the end of his administration than at the beginning.
While the prepandemic facts are on his side, his explanation for these positive economic factors are debatable. It is also a fact that these numbers were declining when he took office in 2017 during the Obama/Trump Expansion from 2010 to 2020. Separating out whether the positive economic statistics are attributable to Obama or Trump or both is something economic historians will have to decipher.
It is also a fact that President Trump is frustrated by the lack of support from Black voters given his self-perceived success in helping Blacks. Recent polls give Joe Biden a 75 percentage point lead over Trump among Black voters.
Before the 2016 election, Trump asked Black Americans, “What do you have to lose?” In his mind, he delivered, and had it not been for what he calls the “China Virus,” his value to Black Americans would be plain for all to see and only the most die-hard anti-Trumpers would not be solidly in his corner.
Now, just weeks before the election, President Trump has rolled out the Platinum Plan for Black Americans. The plan promises to make Juneteenth a national holiday. The plan also would designate the KKK and Antifa as terrorist organizations.
On the economic front, the plan promises to invest over $ 500 billion in capital and provide significantly more federal contract opportunities to support Black businesses, create 3 million new jobs for Black workers, invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Blackowned banks and in historically Black colleges and universities. Wow!
I would have to be a fool to say that these are policies that are not good for the Black community and America in general. These are plans Biden should consider. The problems are timing and history.
I am reminded of the Stevie Wonder song, “You Haven’t Done Nothin”:
Why do you keep on making us hear your song?
Telling us how you are changing right from wrong
Cause if you really want to hear our views
You haven’t done nothin’
Black Americans will not forget Trump’s behavior that runs counter to all the positive policies he is proposing just weeks before the election. Because of the lack of trust and his well-documented behavior, Black Americans cannot trust that there is any interest in following through with these plans. I was born at night, but not last night. This is simply a ploy to peel off some Black votes from Biden in key swing states. The Platinum Plan is a sign of political desperation, not commitment.
What Trump has done to Black Americans might be forgivable, but not forgettable. These things he cannot erase:
In the 1960s and 1970s Trump and his father discriminated against Black renters and homeowners in New York.
Trump took out a full-page ad calling for the death penalty of five innocent Black and Latino youths, the so-called Central Park 5. He never apologized to these young men once it was determined they could not have committed the crime.
Trump after the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville in 2017 opined that there were “very good people on both sides.”
Trump has shown disrespect for countless Black leaders, from Elijah Cummings, to John Lewis, to Ilhan Omar, not to mention former President Barack Obama, or his recent remarks calling vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris a “monster.”
Then there’s the almost total absence of Blacks in positions of power within his administration, and please do not tell me about Dr. Ben Carson. Is he even still in Washington?
Ironically, about the same time as the Platinum Plan was released, Trump also issued an executive order declaring that no federal agency or department could engage in diversity and inclusion training and that federal contractors that attempted to introduce such concepts could lose their contracts.
And for good measure, Trump’s embrace of militias and other violent white supremacy groups encouraging them to go to the polls to intimidate Black voters in this coming election is proof that he does not have Black American interest at heart.
The sad thing is, had Trump initiated the Platinum Plan in February 2017 instead of in September 2020, he might indeed have won the hearts and votes of a significant number of Black Americans. This late conversion without a hint of repentance for his past behavior rings hollow. Only the most gullible Blacks will fall for this. Because his Platinum Plan is contingent on his reelection and sticking to his promise, Stevie Wonder will be proven right again, “you haven’t done nothin.”