Jobs can’t fill Trump’s racial divide
To let most Republicans tell it, African Americans should be grateful for President Donald Trump and the policies he’s enacted that have stimulated job growth to unprecedented levels.
“The unemployment rate among black Americans is the lowest in recorded history,” the Republican National Committee trumpeted this week on its GOP.com web site.
“The economy is booming, and it’s been fueled by the pro-growth policies of the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress,” the committee added before, predictably, bashing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for lacking “a positive unifying message (and) trying to spin this economic progress as a negative.“
Indeed, the latest numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the black unemployment rate in May dipped to 5.9 percent, the lowest since the government started keeping tally in 1972. The May rate is down from another low of 6.6 percent for African Americans in April.
The overall rate in May was 3.8 percent, an 18-year low, although the Wall Street Journal reported that the decline reflects the fact that more Americans stopped looking for work last month. The Journal also said employers are seeking “underutilized pools of workers, including those without high school diplomas.” And that means significantly lower paying jobs.
Still, the recent economic news has been positive. And it’s not just diehard Republicans saying it. African-American billionaire Robert L. Johnson, creA ator of Black Entertainment Television and a Democrat, told CNBC in April that black Americans should be encouraged by the economic growth taking place under Trump, adding, “Something is going right.”
And yet, the overarching question is this: Should black Americans – and for that matter all Americans – view the current state of the economy as the sole determinant of whether Trump’s time in office so far has been a success? The answer quite clearly is no. Putting aside the constant lies and the specter of corruption, the president – in spite of himself – deserves some credit for the bright employment picture and its benefits for black Americans, but not all of it.
The facts are that black unemployment has been falling since it peaked at 16.8 percent in March 2010 – some 14 months after President Barack Obama took office. The rate for African Americans was at 7.8 percent in January 2017, Obama’s last month in office.
“Looking at the trend for blacks or African-Americans, it is very clear that their unemployment rate has fallen markedly over the past seven years,” Bureau of Labor Statistics economist Evan Cunningham told National Public Radio on June 1, the day that the May unemployment numbers were released. “The decline thus far in 2018 looks to be a continuation of this same trend.”
Most Republicans in general, and loyal Trump supporters in particular, would differ with Cunningham’s assessment. For them and for the president himself, it’s all about Trump.
Many of those same Republicans flatly refused to accept the fact that unemployment under Obama showed a steady decline for the last seven years of his presidency.
Bloomberg News poll taken in November 2015, showed that 34 percent of all Americans – and 53 percent of Republicans – incorrectly believed the unemployment rate, which was 5 percent at the time, was worse than it was when Obama first took office on the heels of the Great Recession.
All of which shows that perception often carries more weight than raw numbers. And the perception of many conservative Republicans was that Obama was a horrible president who ruined the economy and – get this – divided the country racially.
Today, most black Americans, as do many others, view Trump as an incessant liar who demeans people of color and traffics in racism. The president’s relentless attacks against black athletes and his refusal to even consider that racial injustice is at the heart of their concerns continue to widen a racial divide that good employment numbers cannot bridge.
Most legitimate polls currently show Trump with an approval rating among African Americans somewhere around 13 or 14 percent, which admittedly is higher than his single digit numbers in recent months.
Some of that increase is no doubt attributable to the economy, not Kanye West. But the fact is, Trump continually goes out of his way to insult, bully and marginalize black Americans and other people of color. He does it with impunity. And job or no job, people are pushing back.
Otis Sanford holds the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis. Contact him at 901-678-3669 or at o.sanford@memphis.edu. Follow him on Twitter @otissanford and watch his commentaries on WATN Local 24 News weekdays at 5 p.m.