Page 12
November 28, 2018
O PINION
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Rude Theatrics Targeting Black Reporters
Trump’s racism by
omission
C aleb g ayle
April Ryan, White
House correspondent
for American Urban
Radio Networks, and
other journalists of
color have not been fa-
vorites of President Donald Trump. From
telling Ryan to set up a meeting with the
Congressional Black Caucus when she
asked if he planned to meet with black
members of Congress to calling her a los-
er, President Trump has displayed his con-
tempt for Ryan.
In his post-midterm press conference,
Ryan became the target of Trump’s ire yet
again. But this time what the President did
was show more than displeasure with black
female reporters – his theatrics overshad-
owed a key issue that Ryan was trying to
address: voter suppression. While his rage,
his diminishing of the credibility of these
black, award-winning journalists, and his
stupidity in calling their questions “racist”
minimized what was actually happening:
Trump was committing racism by omis-
sion.
Ryan’s question was simple, “Mr. Pres-
ident, what about voter suppression?” She
stood up after Trump acknowledged her
question but was promptly told “sit down.”
While pundits opined about Trump’s mis-
treatment of black women journalists,
many missed that Trump refused to an-
swer the question about voter suppression,
which is poisoning our democracy and dis-
proportionately disenfranchising commu-
by
nities of color.
The reality is that suppressing votes has
become a hallmark of most of the Republi-
can electoral strategy. Their politicians re-
fuse to engage with communities of color,
and instead embark on strategies to dimin-
ish our power at the voting booth. We can
all see it. But the President uses his bully
pulpit to create distractions that shield scru-
tiny of this undemocratic tactic. Moreover,
it allows him to avoid questions about the
strategy that he has happily endorsed and
enacted with the Republican Party.
As a reminder, Republicans have not
been particularly shy about their voter
in the past few elections. In the run-up to
the midterms, some 32 counties in Florida
violated the law by not providing bilingual
ballot assistance.
More egregiously, states like Kansas
use the Interstate Voter Registration Cross-
check (Crosscheck) to identify duplicative
voter registrants across numerous com-
bined voter rolls and subsequently purge
those duplicates. Expanded under Kris
Kobach – the outgoing Republican Sec-
retary of State and failed gubernatorial
candidate – Crosscheck, which had an er-
ror rate of 99.5 percent, uses a loose name
matching that disproportionately targets
More egregiously, states like Kansas use
the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck
(Crosscheck) to identify duplicative voter
registrants across numerous combined voter
rolls and subsequently purge those duplicates.
suppression efforts. For example, Ben Na-
dler of the Associated Press broke news
in October that in Georgia, approximately
53,000 voter registration applications were
sitting on hold at the office of Brian Kemp,
Georgia’s Secretary of State and Republi-
can nominee for governor. Nadler’s team at
the AP identified that most of these appli-
cations were those of black voters.
Voter purges are supposed to be used to
eliminate people who become ineligible to
vote usually because they move or because
of a death or incarceration. But in some
states like Ohio, voter purges have wrong-
fully removed people who have not voted
voters of color for purging. According to
a study by the Brennan Center for Justice,
“African-American, Asian-American, and
Latino voters are much more likely than
Caucasians to have one of the most com-
mon 100 last names in the United States.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 16.3
percent of Hispanic people and 13 percent
of black people have one of the 10 most
common surnames, compared to 4.5 per-
cent of white people. An ongoing lawsuit
on this is underway and being pursued by
the advocacy group Demos.
And in states like Alabama, voters are
up against photo ID laws, which dispropor-
tionately affect black voters, limited access
to offices to issue IDs in black areas, and
more. Clarity around where to vote, how
to vote, and eligibility to vote become even
more significant when these impediments
make voting disproportionately harder for
black people. According to a study by the
Public Religion Research Institute, “black
(nine percent) and Hispanic (nine percent)
Americans are three times more likely
than white Americans (three percent)” to
report complications with voting for them
or someone in their household because of
identification issues. In the same report,
“black (15 percent) and Hispanic (14 per-
cent) Americans were roughly three times
more likely” to have trouble locating their
correct polling place than white Americans
(five percent).
As president of the United States, Trump
had an opportunity to explain his views on
voter suppression when Ryan asked her
question. Because of his inconsistent ap-
plication of the truth, one can expect the
truth would be stretched or he would of-
fer up unverifiable facts. Instead he exhib-
ited the Trump brand of racism – racism
by omission, refusing to acknowledge that
voter suppression exists and is spreading
across the land in states predominantly
controlled by Republicans.
Voter suppression is a weighty issue,
especially for African Americans, whose
ancestors marched, protested and died for
the right to vote. For President Trump, to
simply dismiss voting suppression by as-
sailing Ryan is a racist slight to all people
of color, and our forefathers.
Caleb Gayle is the Emerging Voices Fel-
low at Demos, a national public policy and
advocacy organization.
Making It My Business to Support Immigrants
Sown fears and
racism breaks
my heart
d reya m oore
Two years ago, I
left a corporate job
as a chemist and
bought an artists’
studio and gallery.
I’d just become
a mother, and my corporate job
was taking me away for some of
my daughter’s most important
milestones. I was meeting with
clients when she rolled over for
the first time, crawled for the first
time, and said her first words. This
broke my heart.
The studio, which I co-own
with my mother in Lancaster,
Penn., has meant more time with
family and the chance to be more
involved with art — my own and
by
others’.
We’ve also made our studio a
place for cultivating community.
Here, we celebrate all the people
who make up Lancaster.
One of our exhibits shared
#BlackGirlMagic, and an-
other featured Latinx artists.
In July, we held an exhibit
called “Hex,” highlighting
Amish artists. We want to
make sure everyone’s art
is seen, and everyone feels
welcome.
Our studio has also begun of-
fering free art classes. Money
shouldn’t be an obstacle for peo-
ple engaging with art, just like it
shouldn’t be an obstacle to educa-
tion, food, or health care.
Knowing how important com-
munity has been to my business,
my heart breaks when I see how
much fear and racism is being
sown by politicians who want to
shrink our sense of community in-
stead of enriching it.
The news is flooded with sto-
ries about this, but a lot of it’s
happening behind the scenes. For
example, the Trump administra-
tion is rewriting the rules to make
it harder for people to become cit-
izens. One idea they’re proposing
is a new wealth test for people
seeking a green card, one of the
first steps toward citizenship.
That test has an income thresh-
old of almost $63,000 a year for a
family of four — a test that about
a third of the U.S. population
would fail. Are we all supposed to
think we’re not good enough to be
U.S. citizens?
This test puts huge power in
the hands of government officials
to reject people for a green card,
when already too many people are
denied any chance to move toward
citizenship.
This flies in the face of what
we, the people, want. Poll after
poll shows that big majorities fa-
vor people being able to get citi-
zenship and live with their fami-
lies.
Making it worse, the adminis-
tration say it’s also going to count
Medicaid and food stamps against
people in the immigration process.
Most people who are applying for
their green cards aren’t eligible
for these important programs as it
is. But the rules are complicated,
and immigrants at all stages in the
process are afraid of risking their
chance at citizenship.
As a result, immigrant families
will miss out on food and health
care, whether they’re citizens al-
ready or hoping to become citi-
zens. We’re already seeing stories
of families walking away from es-
sential assistance out of fear.
This new wealth test is a cruel
maneuver to make our community
and our country smaller instead of
stronger. We shouldn’t be a coun-
try that takes food and health from
people — and denies them citizen-
ship — because they aren’t rich.
Immigrants have enriched our
community. They’ve helped give
new life to our downtown and
neighborhoods. They’ve created
new opportunities for learning and
sharing. And they’ve brought vi-
tality to our local economy, help-
ing us keep more than a thousand
manufacturing jobs local.
Leaders whose strongest mes-
sage is division aren’t real leaders.
So, it’s up to all of us to be leaders
in our communities.
I try to do this in my business
every day. Today I’m going to do
it in one more way: by writing
to the administration and telling
them I’m against wealth tests and
for immigrants in my community.
Dreya Moore co-owns The Art-
ist Studio & Gallery @ Annex 24
in Lancaster, Penn. Distributed by
OtherWords.org.