Minorities aren’t buying Trump’s bogus Kumbaya

Americans love to blame the media for bias, for presenting a slanted view of reality.

And in at least one case, I’ll concur: They have done a terrible job of representing to the broader public what life is like for black and brown America.

The inaccurate impressions created by “if it bleeds, it leads” news coverage were amply evident in Donald Trump’s recent “outreach” effort to African-American voters.

Trump is clearly ignorant of what life is like outside the bubble of wealth he has floated in all of his 70 years. So it’s no surprise that his appeal to black voters would be both naive and offensive.

But it’s worth considering how American news coverage has inspired and supported Trump’s assumption that African-Americans and Latinos are overwhelmingly mired in poverty, can’t get jobs, dodge bullets every day and struggle to graduate high school.

Trump is taking cues from headlines and breaking news bulletins. Last weekend’s murder tally, the latest poverty statistics, reports of public school systems struggling to educate poor urban children: those stories are familiar. They deserve attention.

But the usual news coverage does not tell the whole story of any community.

So when Trump addressed African-Americans from a white Michigan exurb to ask for their votes, he cited a litany of woes most black voters don’t face and asked, “What the hell do you have to lose?”

Now Trump is trying this shtick on Latinos.

To a crowd in Tampa he said, “To the Hispanic parent, you have a right to walk outside without being shot.”

Then he added: “What do you have to lose? I’ll fix it.”

Let’s be clear: Disproportionately, Latinos and African-Americans do fare worse than white households in many areas, such as employment, measures of health and educational attainment. They are disproportionately likely to be victims of violent crime. They have far less wealth and suffered much more in the housing crash and recession of the last eight years.

But that doesn’t mean that all members of these communities are in dire straits and in need of salvation by a politician making promises. The majority of black households, like white ones, are considered middle class. Many of the most pressing issues to black and Latino voters are — guess what! — the very ones that are pressing to white voters.