It’s easy to know when liberals are beginning to worry about a Republican’s political message resonating with the people. If you are black they call you an “Uncle Tom” and if white a “Racist.”
And so it is with Donald Trump and his message on illegal immigration. It — and not-so subtle liberal elitist anti-south bigotry — was on full display last week in media reports on his appearance before a campaign record crowd of 30,000 in Mobile, Alabama.
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked a reporter how many blacks were there and a Politico article referred to the appearance as “Donald Trump, Alabama and the ghost of George Wallace.”
It compared Trump to segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace — the last third party candidate to get electoral votes — because some have condemned his immigration stance as racist.
Matthews and Politico won’t tell you, but many blacks have been praising Trump’s message.
First was the family of black 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw Jr. who was slain by an illegal immigrant in Los Angeles. His father said on behalf of the family: “We love Mr. Trump. We’re happy, because we know he spoke up and he said something."
Recently a black woman, Chanell Temple, castigated the Huntington Park, California city commission for appointing two illegal aliens as advisers. Temple said she supports Trump’s immigration position “a hundred per cent” and went on to say: “My people commit a crime they go to jail. Their people commit a crime, they get amnesty."
She later told Charles Payne on Fox News, “Trump is right for bringing up this issue.”
More revealing was her comment that she was fired from her job because she did not speak Spanish to which Payne responded: “you mean in your own country?”
Trump highlighting the issue strikes a chord among blacks many of whom feel, like Shaw and Temple, that they have been thrown under the immigration and amnesty political correctness bus in favor of present and potential Hispanic voters.
Thus we have the dirty little secret that the media and Democrats have all but ignored — the undercurrent against illegal immigration and amnesty in the black community.
Talk candidly to blacks in Florida and other states with significant or growing Hispanic populations, you hear: “I was told I needed to speak Spanish if I wanted the job,” “we want people who are bilingual” or “I was not promoted because I did not speak Spanish.”
Of course black students should be encouraged to learn Spanish, but, for those of a different generation who don’t, is it really fair for them to be punished by termination, lack of promotion, or even not being hired because they do not speak the language of a growing immigrant population?
As Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said during the early-bird GOP debate, “immigration without assimilation is an invasion.” He later said, there is a difference between allowing people into the country who want to embrace the culture as opposed to those who want to “establish a separate culture within.”
And then there is the criminal justice system which many blacks see giving preferential sanctuary city treatment to illegal aliens who commit murders, rapes and other crimes.
What cities tell blacks and illegal Hispanic citizens to “come to our city and we will protect you from the feds?”
There is a vast silent majority of black voters — Republicans, Democrats and Independent — who are angry at how illegal immigrants and their American born “anchor baby” children are America’s “new protected privileged” class.
So who speaks for them? Certainly not Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and black or white Democratic elected officials. They don’t dare raise the issue of the social impact of illegal immigration on the plight of black Americans.
As A.J. Delgado wrote in National Review last month: “Democrats are chucking aside black voters in their rush to lock in the Latino vote.”
Thus far, to the best of my knowledge, no candidates of either party, not even Trump, have discussed the negative impact of illegal immigration or various forms of amnesty not only on black Americans, but also on legal Hispanic immigrants and citizens.
Democrats don’t dare discuss it and Republicans — as Trump is showing — have an opportunity. They would not be alone.
When Obama gave virtual amnesty to 5 million undocumented immigrants last year, leaders of Project 21, a black conservative leadership network, were very critical and quoted a U. S Civil Rights Commission finding that “ illegal immigrants depress both wages and employment rates for low-skilled American citizens, a disproportionate number of whom are black men.”
Will Trump focus in on this aspect of illegal immigration? Will his GOP colleagues? If so, black history is on their side.
As far back as 1853, black journalist and former slave Frederick Douglas wrote: "Every hour sees the black man elbowed out of employment by some newly arrived immigrant, whose hunger and whose color are thought to give him a better title to the place.”
Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in the Reagan administration as well as in the Reagan presidential campaigns and has appeared on many national and local media outlets. Read more reports from Clarence V. McKee — Click Here Now.
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