Donald Trump, Your Message to Blacks is Insulting

In the last several days, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has made speeches before predominately White supporters asking African-American citizens to vote for him.  Not only did he paint with a broad brush, he also told people that Democrats are bad for Blacks.  He talked about the Republican party, the party of Lincoln, being the best choice for Black voters.

I am blessed to have been born to older parents, and 23 years after the first-born.  My dad was born in 1897.  He died when I was 16-years old and it’s as if I can hear him today talking about politics.  I wish that I could hear him today.  You see, one of the things my dad used to talk about was how colored people supported the Republican party, and how that would change with the 1960 presidential election.

Many black leaders, including Martin Luther King, Sr.,and Jackie Robinson, initially supported Nixon’s 1960 bid for the presidency.  Southern Whites were devastated.  They didn’t want to vote Democrat because Kennedy was Catholic, and they didn’t want to vote Republican because they believed Nixon was interested in giving voting and other civil rights to Blacks in the South.  Kennedy then reached out to southern democrats by selecting Lyndon Johnson from Texas as his running mate.

After the conventions, and in less than a month before the general election, on Oct. 19, 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia for leading a civil rights protest.  Coretta King was concerned that her husband might be killed in jail.  She contacted both candidates.  Kennedy returned her call on October 26, 1960 to offer help in securing her husband’s safe release.  Nixon was silent.

Kennedy was subsequently endorsed by Martin Luther King Sr., the father of the civil rights leader.

The 1960 presidential election is the election where Democrats in the southern states did not vote for Kennedy nor Nixon, but voted for Harry Byrd.  By doing that, they gave John Kennedy the White House.

I’m pretty sure that while Donald Trump’s family sat around the table and talked about his dad rallying with the KKK and being arrested, that minorities were also passing down their family history, and this nation’s history.

I’ve often been told that to get to the heart of a matter, the correct question should be asked.  The correct question IS NOT why the majority of minorities now vote Democrat but rather, WHY DID THE DEMOCRATIC SOUTH TURN RED?

Trump needs to get a handle on the answer so he can stop sounding like an ignorant fool.  In my opinion, his so-call appeal to Black voters is like a man begging a woman for sex by saying “You’ve had bad sex from the other guy, so what do you have to lose by letting me screw you?”

Another mistake that Trump has made is telling Blacks what they need, rather than asking them.