Are you seriously bringing up a white person from apartheid South Africa to try and call me out? Like that guy would have any clue about the nuances of race in the United States?
It was more than any other group, which sort of puts lie to the assertion that black people are particularly sensitive to this distinction.
No, you’re bringing it up. You said to ask any immigrant from Africa if they consider themselves African-American. I did.
They are not seen as “black” in the generic term by black descendants of US chattel slavery in the US that’s what I’ve been saying. Non mixed African Americans see themselves as black in the US, generically.
White people label mixed people with some African blood as “black” due to the one drop rule, in the US.
And you bring up some white guy from South Africa of all countries. Wow hope you feel good about that.
You tell any African-descended person outside of America that they’re not Black, and they’ll also laugh at you.
…it’ll be because news media have reverted to the “OMG LOOK WHAT HE SAID OMG LOOK WHAT HE SAID” coverage mode. Which then turns #3 into #2
The problem with an issue like this is that while it may drive a small percentage of people into Trump’s camp, it’s going to energize, if not outright enrage, a large number of Black, Asian, and mixed race voters, while not moving the needle one way or another with White voters.
I’ve heard political scientists say the object of negative campaigning is to depress the turnout of your opponent’s supporters. I’d be interested in seeing if it can actually piss them off so badly it increases turnout (or at least campaign contributions, which is almost as good.)
You can split hairs on words like vast or majority, fine. The bottom line is that this is an angle that Trump is focusing in on.
We are kidding ourselves to think there is going to be a landside for Harris, elections just don’t work like that now.
The margins mean everything and that cite says a majority of Americans say that no, Obama is not black.
That cite says that, when given a choice between “black”, “white”, and “mixed”, a minority say “black”. That’s not the same thing as asking “Is he black?”, and offering options of “yes” or “no”.
Ok well I don’t know if I agree with this, I mean the numbers are pretty much baked in. It’s going to be a close election coming down in a handful of swing states, and I don’t think Trump or his advisor’s goal is to win over black voters.
It’s really do depress the black vote, to say you’ve been voting for them all these years and they have done nothing for you. He then lies and says hes the greatest since Lincoln, or that he will restore “black job’s”
But we all know that people believe his lies. If he can get enough black people in the swing states to believe this then he wins.
I’m explain that a percentage is open to that message and he has polling to prove it. Thats why he keeps hitting this point.
You all don’t understand but I do.
The hardest part of this argument to believe is that trump grasps a single bit of these complexities.
He doesn’t know the full nuances, but he doesn’t need to. He has the points he keeps hitting.
You have a hypothesis on why he’s doing this, and it appears you have a hypothesis on whether it will be effective. But you’ve failed so far to offer anything to suggest this is more than you making a guess on both the why and whether it will work.
Well, I don’t know if it will work. I think it can work once it’s understood that he is not trying to win the black vote.
I don’t view it as critical for one to wholly endorse much of what @split_p_j is saying in order to believe that somebody in Trump’s campaign organization has identified this as a wedge issue that could possibly suppress turnout in the “of color” communities or shift a few votes at the margins.
He’s got big problems in urban areas, even in the swing states.
The demagoguery and the race baiting that have supported Trump’s campaign strategies have seemingly relied on rather keen analytics and analysts who are as craven and evil as they are smart.
So … a play to affect votes at the margins and to try to co-opt a news cycle in which he’s flailing? I could easily see it being both.
I loved how Trump couldn’t be arsed to say that Vance would be ready to be President on Day One – more that VPs really don’t move the election needle much at all.
Fair enough. But you’re just guessing as to why he’s doing it. Maybe that’s it – or maybe Trump is a buffoon when it comes to discussing race and racism, and he’s just being his typical buffoonish self.
HA! I have a close friend who is a white Brit but born and raised in Kenya. He insists that he’s an African American (he’s a US citizen now).
I would think that, but he is trying to line up with all the FBA talking points. The clear misogyny is a part of it and appeals to some black men as putting the uppity women in their place.
He is well advised on this, and it could be a problem.
Would you accept the son of an immigrant from Africa?