Surveying The Slightly Insulted

Lots of people, myself included, have called Donald Trump racist. I think that's reasonable, given his statements on Mexicans and policy statements about Muslims. Though to be honest, I'm not sure he himself is racist. More accurately, he doesn't mind saying racist things if it makes him popular. I really doubt he believes in anything but himself.

But on the race issue, I've been interested in how non-whites have reacted when they aren't the ones in the crosshairs. For instance, Asian-Americans are one of the few minorities that Trump hasn't insulted, but they are largely Democrat and getting more so, with a particularly poor opinion of Trump.

Jewish-Americans have been solidly against Trump, despite never being directly targeted. One person online explained that Jews never get behind such movements because they know that even if anti-Semitism isn't mentioned at first, it will be along soon enough. Essentially, it's principle of the First They Came... poem. And indeed, although Trump himself doesn't do it, a number of his supporters have targeted Jews.

And then there are African-Americans. There have been lots of stories marveling at their lack of support for Trump. He's scored literally zero among blacks in some state polls, and some national polls have him in fourth, with the meager support of Jill Stein and Gary Johnson edging-out Trump. And yet, Trump hasn't really attacked them. I mentioned once that he'd be in trouble if he overtly attacked them, and he has indeed avoided it. His you-have-no-hope-might-as-well-vote-for-me plea was pedantic, but groups have forgiven him for more than that. Although I've heard no one spell out the philosphy of Blacks on this, I'm guessing they see it the same way as Jewish Americans: when someone stakes their career on satisfying White America's worst impulses, they know where that's heading.

So that explains why Trump's attempts at outreach to the African-American community have fallen flat, even if they are about as sincere as he gets. I've seen many people online explain that Trump's appearances at Black churches is done for the benefit of Whites: to win the election, Trump needs the support of not just hard-core racists, but also hypocrites who like his fearful message but don't want to think of themselves as racist. So seeing Trump palling around with Blacks at a church will convince them he isn't so bad, and thus you can vote for him and not be racist. And this was underlined recently when Trump visited a Black church on Sunday, then called for nationwide stop-and-frisk the next day, thus nuking any African-American support he might have built up. So this strategy of tiptoeing around racism may win over more whites, but it isn't convincing anyone else.