WAshington – Donald Trump warned during his debate with Joe Biden and again at a rally on Friday that migrants were taking “black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” from Americans, angering critics who called it a racist and insulting attempt to expand its appeal beyond its white conservative base.
While President Joe Biden’s faltering debate performance on Thursday night sparked widespread concerns among his fellow Democrats about his readinessTrump also repeatedly made false claims and repeated conspiracy theories that he had long promoted during his campaign.
Trump suggested without evidence that Democrats want migrants to replace Americans as voters, and described the state of the nation under Biden as worse than during the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia. Trump has often downplayed the march’s racist connotationsonce saying that there were “good people on both sides”.
Trump’s depiction of a country on the brink, besieged by rampant migration and wracked by racial strife and economic chaos echoed his longstanding rhetoric about the state of the US. pessimistic view This has long appealed to the Republican Party’s largely white, far-right base, but it has also alienated other Americans, especially black voters.
“The fact is that his greatest death against black people is the millions of people he allowed to cross the border. They’re taking jobs from black people now,” Trump said during the CNN debate. “They are taking black and Hispanic jobs. And you haven’t seen it yet, but you will see something that will be the worst in our history”, he warned, without specifying the danger.
However, Trump and his allies believe that such rhetoric may have greater appeal among black and Hispanic communities this year dissatisfied with Biden’s performance in office. Trump repeated the comments during a rally Friday in Virginia.
The phrase “black jobs” was widely condemned by Democrats and black leaders as vague and insulting.
“I’m still wondering what a ‘black job’ is,” joked Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, on Friday during a press conference with former Democratic candidate for Georgia governor Stacey Abrams in Atlanta . Other prominent Biden allies, including Rep. Jasmine CrockettD-Tx., Rep. Bennie ThompsonD-Miss., and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., also condemned Trump’s words after the debate.
“There are no jobs for black people. This misinformed characterization is a denial of the ubiquity of black talent. We are doctors, lawyers, teachers, police officers and firefighters. The list goes on,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. “A ‘black job’ is an American job. It is worrying that a presidential candidate seeks to make a non-existent distinction. But the divisive nature of this comment is not surprising to Donald Trump.”
Trump’s allies dismissed the criticism as missing the president’s broader message.
“He was referring to black jobs. And we’ve been using that term for some time,” said Diante Johnson, president of the Black Conservative Federation. “It’s any job. Instead of black people having unlimited access to all types of jobs, illegal immigrants are taking their jobs.”
Much economic research shows that immigration has helped increase employment, with an article from 2024 by economists Alessandro Caiumi and Giovanni Peri finding that immigration between 2000 and 2019 had a positive effect on the wages of lower-skilled workers born in the United States. Yet, separate search suggested that greater immigration may have hurt the wages of less-educated black men, although it was one of several factors.
Asked to clarify what Trump meant when he described a “black job” during an interview with NBC News, Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is black and is being considered as Trump’s vice presidential nominee, avoided the issue rather than discussing veteran homelessness.
Some black adults think there is a possibility that immigration will affect job opportunities for workers already here. About 4 in 10 Black adults say it is a “great risk” that the number of jobs available to American workers will be reduced when immigrants arrive in the U.S. — whether they arrive legally or illegally — according to an AP-NORC poll of March. But the survey also found that about 3 in 10 black adults think it’s a great benefit for immigrants to take jobs that Americans don’t want.
In some communities like Chicago, growing numbers of migrants have generated greater economic anxiety and concern that government resources are not allocated fairly. However, black and Hispanic Americans are, on average, more supportive of immigration than other demographic groups, and in cities like Chicago, Denver, and New York, racial justice groups have been at the forefront of mitigating potential conflicts between communities. of color and undocumented people on issues such as employment. .
For some black activists, the comments changed little about the state of the presidential race.
Michael Blake, founder and CEO of the Kairos Democracy Project, said, “It’s hard for anyone to believe that (Trump) means he’s taking quality jobs.”
“It is our responsibility to tell the story of the benefits of diversity, rather than the fears of it. And the notion that these people are taking from you is a message of fear, rather than asking: how will we all win?,” Blake added. “When you embrace all races, we all win. We must not allow the fear of the past to replace the prosperity of the future, because we can all win.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
