By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA News Wire Columnist
It is probably not especially politically correct to bring more race matters into the debacle that is also known as the Donald Trump quest for the Presidency.
He has called out and targeted racial and ethnic groups, as well as targeted individual women because of their appearance (or more, but we won’t go there). He has supported basic thuggery, offering to pay the legal fees for a man who sucker-punched an African American protester, and egging on others who beat up a protester. The latest goes from the amusing to the amazing. Although there is a video showing his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski putting his hands on former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, he and Trump have said that eyes can lie. Even in the face of video evidence, he denied touching Fields. He and Trump tried to dismiss her as “delusional,” essentially “blaming the victim.”
Imagine that Corey Lewandowski was an African American man. Imagine that he nearly knocked down a White woman reporter. Can you hear the outrage? Can you hear the demands? Were Lewandowski African American, would he have been caricatured as a hoodlum or thug, pandering to the stereotypes? Or would Mr. Trump have had Black Lewandowski’s back as firmly?
I am not surprised that Mr. Trump has condoned Lewandowski’s violence, nor am I surprised that he’s taken the “wuss” role by suggesting the reporter, who was attempting to get his attention, had “touched” him (and that maybe he should press charges). It is entirely consistent with his other campaign behavior. He has suggested that his supporters might “riot” if he does not get the Republican nomination. His amazing incivility adds to the vaudevillian atmosphere of this bizarre campaign. How different would it be if Corey Lewandowski were Black?
A Black man could not have put his hand on a White woman with impunity. If he did, he probably would not have had to wait more than a week to be charged for his transgression. He might have apologized, whether he were asked to do so or not, both from civility and from cultural conditioning. Trump and Lewandowski assumed that Michelle Fields, a White woman, could be thrown under the bus by two powerful, White men who called her a liar, delusional, and any other slur they could get away