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OPINION

4 Ways Trump Has Done More for African Americans Than Barack Obama

4 Ways Trump Has Done More for African Americans Than Barack Obama
U.S. President Donald Trump walks off Marine One at the White House on June 30, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Jack Brewer By Friday, 12 July 2019 10:48 AM EDT Current | Bio | Archive

I remember the move when I donated my entire office and all of the furniture and equipment to the Obama campaign to launch the Minnesota Headquarters in 2007.

I proudly created and ran the “NFL Players for Obama” in 2008. I remember being able to recite the “Yes We Can” speech line by line. And I vividly remember watching eight years of focusing on countless core issues that had no real effect on blacks in America.

Yet I remained faithful and hopeful that the second term would bear more fruits for the poorest, sickest, and most uneducated segment of the U.S. population, our African Americans.

The Obama administration chose to pour food stamps on our most underserved with few effective programs to incentivize our impoverished to go to work. Obama ironically boasted about giving out more food stamps than any other president in U.S. history. You can’t make this up.

Obamacare was a noble effort, but the blatant lies told in order to pass it have been the catalyst which is leading to its demise today. Remember it was sold as a plan which would not increase your healthcare bill or limit your access.

I’m all for equal rights for gays and lesbians, but I think the large campaign donations hypnotized Obama to prioritize gay marriage over bringing quality education and criminal justice reform to the ancestors of our ailing former slave population. I’m sure both were important issues to him at some level, but in politics you have to prioritize as all presidents know they are on a short timeline.

The debate is still out there as to whether the Obama years brought the country farther from our Christian foundation.

I applaud President Obama for openly saying Jesus and quoting powerful scripture on many occasions. I was just a little bothered by his policies, which too often went against the word of God.

Obama stuck to his commitment to the LGBTQ community when he backed unprecedented legislation that expanded the sacred biblical “marriage” characterization to gay and transgender couples. I just think we could have given all Americans their deserved equal rights without challenging the biblical definition of marriage. Now homosexuality is on super speed in the black community where you see a surge in gay black males particularly in urban communities like Atlanta, LA, and throughout the south.

The CDC recently reported that 50% of black gay men will contract HIV, which is scary given the growing gay lifestyle promotion as a result of the Pride movement. Despite being only 12% of the population, blacks make up 43% of those infected with HIV in America. This epidemic can’t be ignored and we can’t deny the results of a culture that promotes sex and homosexuality as things that are publicly glorified.

The Trump administration wasted no time in enforcing other religious freedoms by reversing many of Obama policies which challenge Christian beliefs.

Under the Obama administration, HHS required employers pay for their employees’ contraception and abortion-inducing drugs, even if this violates the conscience of employers. The Obama administration exempted houses of worship, but religious-affiliated groups that objected still had to allow a third-party administrator to handle the contraception coverage. This has particularly hit the urban black community where fathers are too often missing and many youth are left to praise and idolize their favorite hip hop artist who too often promote behaviors not necessarily in line with “In God We Trust.”

As we witness liberals in America take a harder and harder stand that conservatism translates to racism, it’s so ironic to me that none of them have the courage to hold Obama accountable for long-standing racism displayed by his top two executives which he chose to accept.

His beloved VP Joe Biden was decimated in a recent 2020 Democratic Presidential debate by Senator Kamala Harris for his participation in busing during school segregation.

Not to mention, Biden was one of the authors and main advocates for the 1994 crime bill which decimated the black father by locking up young black men in droves for nonviolent crimes over the last 25 years.

Barack’s number three, Hillary Clinton, has an even sketchier past on race as she championed her husband to push the same evil crime bill that Joe Biden worked on. To make matters worst, Hillary and Bill worked together in Haiti during one of the most egregious misappropriations in modern history. As a result, the poorest black population in the Western Hemisphere fell deeper into extreme poverty despite an estimated $12 billion being pledged to the country, almost twice its annual GDP at the time.

Now I have to mention that the biggest eyesore of the Trump presidency was him appointing the lifelong racist Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Thank God he canned him as soon as he could, paving the way for the First Step Act.

First Step Act

I would have never imagined seeing Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in the White House discussing criminal justice policy.

Just like I would have never imagined seeing Alice Johnson given clemency and the long awaited Jack Johnson legacy receiving a presidential pardon.

These highly publicized cases were both denied by the Obama Administration over two consecutive terms as president. In less than two years in the Oval Office, President Trump continued his push for criminal justice reform by passing the First Step Act which targeted many shackled by the unfair and unjust sentencing laws which were instituted by the Bill Clinton 1994 Crime Bill.

It’s hard to imagine that President Trump, not Barack Obama, would pass the most comprehensive criminal justice reform bill in decades. Despite Barack Obama having Democratic control of all branches of government for his first two years, the priority just never seemed to be put on addressing the issues that were the most oppressive for underserved Blacks in America.

If you are wonder where you can find an influx of our black fathers, look no further than our jails and prisons. Though blacks make up a little over 12 percent of the U.S. population, blacks make up over 40 percent of those incarcerated. In a very short period of time, President Donald J. Trump took action against this injustice. As a result of the First Step Act, thousands of inmates across America have been released and had their sentences reduced.

Out of all of the beneficiaries of the First Step Act, 91% of the total inmates released have been Black Americans! Unfortunately you don’t see this headline on liberal media outlets as much as we should.

Funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities

“Established by visionary leaders, America’s HBCUs have long played an integral role in our Nation’s history, providing Black Americans opportunities to learn and achieve their dreams.” –President Donald J. Trump

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) have been at the backbone of educating blacks since the end of slavery.

During times when blacks were oppressed the most in America, brave African Americans risked their lives to establish institutions for blacks to receive a higher education. To my surprise, Trump appointed his Presidential Advisory Board on HBCU’s and signed an executive order to push funding in programs, passing HBCU legislation faster than any other President in American history. This included pushing to increase the annual budgets by 25% as well as supporting much needed work study programs for HBCU’s.

I have long called for “Reparations through Education” as a way to help bridge the gap caused by slavery.

In my opinion no black person in America who is an ancestor of the former slave population should have to pay for a state college or university in this country. It’s the least we can do.

Though this bill didn’t address the issue of reparations, it is a step in the right direction for the higher education of Blacks in America. And yes, the Trump Administration has done significantly more in his time as president for HBCU’s compared to the Obama Administration.

Jobs

Many forget that the primary focus of the Martin Luther King Jr. led civil rights marches was for “Jobs and Freedom.”

Since the end of slavery and throughout Jim Crow, blacks across America have fought for the right to earn a decent living. Nearly 50 years after MLK’s push for Jobs, President Trump started his campaign by touting himself as the greatest jobs president in history. Now he is actually producing some of the greatest jobs numbers ever recorded.

As a young Wall Street banker I paid very close attention to the monthly jobs numbers for African Americans. Now let’s give Trump credit where credit is due. African American unemployment has reached its lowest rate in modern history for both black men and women. This is actually the case for almost all ethnic groups in America.

The most impressive number of them all is the fact that almost 70% of working black women currently hold a white collar job, compared to just over 40% of black men.

The Tax plan and Jobs Act has help to stimulate this.

So clearly having a tax code that drops the corporate rate to 21% will have a huge impact on a growing number of African American families. Under the Obama tax code, these same entrepreneurs would pay nearly double this amount of taxes.

As many media outlets downplay the effects of the Trump Administration economic policies, the IRS tax filings won’t lie. And neither will the unemployment rate, which some skeptics say improved more under Obama verses President Trump. The key point that most who argue this choose to ignore is the fact that we are at full employment for first time in our nation's history! It seems like it would be a little harder to lower unemployment when the economy already has reached a point where we’ve had more jobs than workers to fill them.

Welfare and Food Stamp

Food stamps and welfare have helped my immediate family in the past and still helps some of those closest to me.

This is a safety net for many Americans that helps make our nation as great as it is. But when you promote food stamp programs to healthy, able-bodied individuals as an alternative to work, there lies your problem.

While Obama was widely known as the “Food Stamp President,” his administration took unprecedented measures to make it simple for states to sign up their able-bodied residents for food stamps.

Immediately following the financial crises of 2008, our country was in desperate need of food stamps and other government assistance. But enrollment kept expanding even as the unemployment rate declined and the gross domestic product (GDP) started rising. In short, the economy returned to normal, but food stamp enrollment did not.

This took a toll on the black community and further incentivized many to depend on government assistance verses seeking employment.

President Trump fortunately took a new approach and has put his energy into helping able-bodied food stamp recipients to get back into the work force. This trend has worked well and the Trump Administration has seen nearly 5 million Americans come off of food stamps.

For example, once the city of Kansas City added a work requirement for food stamp recipients, it halved the average time people received assistance, from 14 to seven months. The share of those employed jumped from 18 percent to 36 percent, and wages increased from an average of $6,000 to $13,000. I’ll be the first to admit that welfare programs are never perfect and there will always be unfortunate cases where someone who really needs helps get left out. Black America deserves a safety net when needed, but we don’t deserve institutionalized oppression through promoting a dependency on government aid. We need jobs and freedom like MLK marched and died fighting for.

I’m sure that I’ll get a ton of backlash from many of my black peers and several of my liberal colleagues as well. It’s hard for a lot of people to look beyond their personal style preferences to embrace the amazingly effective Trump Administration policies.

It’s even more interesting to see so many people who will support a policy initiated by the political affiliation that they prefer, yet they lash out against the same policies when they’re pushed by the opposite political party. Just check your favorite politician's perspectives on illegal immigration and criminal justice reform just a decade ago. Democrats have mastered this manipulation when it comes to winning the black vote, with most candidates not even needing to campaign to the black demographic. Democrats have been able to create a political correctness philosophy that has successfully lumped illegal immigration, minimum wage, LGBTQ rights and racism towards African Americans all into one blended issue. It’s comical really. The political party of slavery, Jim Crow, the 1994 Crime Bill, and welfare dumping has now branded themselves as the voice of social justice.

Well as a lifelong Democrat, I say enough is enough.

Jack Brewer possesses a unique combination of expertise in the fields of global economic development, sports, and finance through his roles as a successful entrepreneur, executive producer, news contributor, and humanitarian. Currently serving as the CEO and Portfolio Manager of The Brewer Group, Inc. as well as the Founder and Executive Director of The Jack Brewer Foundation (JBF Worldwide), active Shriner and Ambassador and National Spokesperson for the National Association of Police Athletic/ Activities Leagues, Inc. Other key roles include regular contributor to CNBC, Fox Business, and The American City Business Journals, Ambassador for Peace and Sport for the International Federation for Peace and Sustainable Development at the United Nations, Senior Advisor to former H.E. President Joyce Banda of the Republic of Malawi, and three time National Football League (NFL) Team Captain for the Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, and New York Giants. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.

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JackBrewer
I remember the move when I donated my entire office and all of the furniture and equipment to the Obama campaign to launch the Minnesota Headquarters in 2007.
trump, obama, hbcu, food stamps, first step act
2307
2019-48-12
Friday, 12 July 2019 10:48 AM
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