Forbes has removed an article suggesting that black voters can identify with Donald Trump and are more likely to vote for him after the assassination attempt… probably for good reason.
The article was titled “Will Surviving a Gunshot Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal to Black Voters?” — and was written by USC professor and DEI expert Shaun Harper …who is black and was proposing this premise more as a hypothesis than as a statement of fact.
Still… his argument that Trump might try to use this moment — which he has yet to do — as a way to attract black voters was met with a lot of pushback… with many calling him a racist.
He wrote this in the now-deleted article, taking a potential stance from DT… “‘And black people, they love me because they know the scary sound of gunshots,’ isn’t that something Trump ‘really’ said? I hope he doesn’t. But it’s not that unthinkable.”
Harper also suggested that Trump could spin around and raise his fist in the air after being hit by the bullet as a “Black Power salute” – referring to the iconic moment from the 1968 Olympics and the recent George Floyd marches.
Other points made in the article included Trump’s past comments about black people embracing his mugshot. Essentially, Harper is saying that DT can use this moment to curry favor with the black community, and he even suggests that it might work… that’s the point.
As we noted, many say Harper’s suggestion that black people would naturally identify with Trump’s shooting plays into stereotypes… and it seems Forbes agrees.
07/13/24
It’s important to note that Harper makes it clear that he hopes none of what he suggested actually happens and thinks it’s unlikely that black voters will see Trump as one of them.
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Regardless of his intention… his whole theory was not well received on Twitter.