Are Blacks in the conversation in Trump’s America?

Are Blacks in the conversation in Trump’s America?

By Roger Caldwell

     The Black voice in Trump’s America has been silenced because the mass media is being controlled by millionaires and billionaires. There is something wrong when there are very few cable news shows hosted by Blacks and Hispanics.

This is not a mistake; it has been designed this way, and everyone is expected to confirm to the company line. In Trump’s America, diversity is no longer important because making America White again is the long term goal of Trump’s new administration.

Must Whites live and work in a segregated community and workplace, and their children go to segregated schools. Within cities, a different dynamic exists; there is more of a diverse cultural mix involving many different races. Outside of the inner core of cities, the communities become segregated.

In 2017, if you took a poll and asked White folks who live in the suburbs, if Blacks were mistreated, discriminated, and marginalized, the majority would say the color of your skin is not important in America.

America is color blind is what most Whites think, and they feel everyone has equal opportunity to be successful. But some would admit that they have a friend or two who does not like people of color. Many Americans that don’t like people of color are Republican, and they are angry, so they get a pass and we are praying for them.

Even Blacks in 2017 believe that

only small minorities of Whites are racist, and groups like Black Lives Matter are extremist. Many Blacks would concede that President Obama was treated unfairly because of the color of his skin, but the majority of these were White Republicans.

It appears that Republicans get a pass for their racist thinking, even though the last time I checked, there were 33 Republican governors, and the majority of the legislations were headed by members of the GOP. Freedom of speech is becoming a crime in Trump’s America, and many Blacks are afraid to speak the truth.

According to Rashad Robinson, a Color of Change reporter in Jacksonville Florida witnessed, “Last weekend during an anti-Syrian war protest, a Trump supporter antagonized peaceful protesters, storming the speakers’ platform and physically assaulted them to start a fight. Instead of helping, four police officers tackled and brutalized the activist organizer Connell Crooms, one of a few Black protesters present, and one officer punched him five times while other officers pinned him down.”

This is the new environment that is being fostered by Trump supporters and the police are acting with physical attacks and actions. The police no longer have a hands-off approach to protesters when it comes to demonstrations. This show of force is what protestors can expect from police when there is a demonstration.

The Black Lives Matter organization and other young Black groups are involved in public demonstrations, and are building coalitions with powerful grassroots activist groups. But other historical Black organizations appear to be irrelevant and the Black community is leaderless.

In order for the Black community to have a voice in the conversation of America in 2017, it is important to have a Black agenda, and identify our leadership. Black leadership roles is to address and confront Black on Black violence, underserved and under-performing schools, mental illness, substance abuse, unemployment, HIV, poverty, injustice within the criminal system,  mass incarceration, and chronic diseases that disproportionately affect the Black community..

“Effective Black leadership’s vision should be developed from where the community needs to be 50 years from now” says Mark Brooks, retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel.

Finally, Blacks must learn to love again, and it starts with one’s self, family and community. We can no longer wait; it is time to start the conversation at home, with the Black media, at church, in the community, and begin to work towards building Black unity.