www.blackamericaweb.com
President Donald Trump lashed out unnecessarily Sunday at another high-profile African-American on Twitter: Jay Z.
Trump scolded Jay Z Sunday after Jay Z said Trump’s comments about “shithole countries” like African and Haiti were “hurtful.” The Grammy-winning rapper also questioned Trump’s assertions that he’s created jobs for African-Americans.
“Somebody please inform Jay Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!,” Trump posted on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Jay Z said Trump’s “shithole” comments were inexcusable.
“It is disappointing and it’s hurtful. It really is hurtful, more than so … everyone feels anger but after the anger, it’s real hurtful,” Jay Z said during an interview on CNN Saturday.
“Everyone feels anger, but after the anger it’s really hurtful because it’s looking down at a whole population of people and it’s so misinformed because these places have beautiful people and beautiful everything. This is the leader of the free world speaking like this,” Jay Z said.
During the interview, Jay Z was asked his thoughts about Trump’s claims that he is boosting Black unemployment. He said Trump is misguided.
“Because it’s not about money at the end of the day,” Jay Z said. “Money is not – money doesn’t equate to happiness. It doesn’t. That’s missing the whole point. You treat people like human beings, then – that’s the main point.”
“You treat people like human beings. That’s the main point,” he said. “It goes back to the whole thing — ‘treat me really bad and pay me well.’ It’s not going to lead to happiness, it’s going to lead to, again, the same thing. Everyone’s going to be sick.”
African-American unemployment stands at 6.8%, a record low. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for African-Americans was 6.8 percent in December, the lowest since 1972.
Critics of Trump, however, say economic growth began under President Barack Obamaand unemployment is still higher among African-Americans than for whites.
Trump’s opponents also say they can’t point to any concrete policies by the Trump administration that have created jobs for African-Americans as Trump always suggests.
It’s worth noting that Trump completely ignored Jay Z’s comments about the “shithole” controversy and focused only on black unemployment.
It’s legitimate to question what the Trump administration is doing to create jobs for Black folks and it also makes sense to ask why Trump spends so much time criticizing people on social media and trashing countries of color. (Trump denies making the “shithole” comment.)
“This has been going on,” Jay-Z said. “This is how people talk. This is how they talk behind closed doors.”
“Donald Trump is a human being, too,” Jay Z said. “Somewhere along his lineage, something happened to him. Something happened to him and he’s in pain and he’s expressing it in this sort of way.”
Last week, Trump expressed another fabrication aimed at African-Americans: He tweeted that black folks are now supporting him in substantial numbers.
“Trump approval ratings with black Americans has doubled,” Trump tweeted.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, The New York Times reports that support for Trump among African-Americans has actually declined from 20 percent when Trump took office, to 15 percent in December.
Despite Trump’s claims that he’s the “least racist person you have ever met,” HBO talk show host Bill Maher said Trump often likes to “pick fights” with African-Americans.
Maher said Trump has picked fights with Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Colin Kaepernick, LaVar Ball, “the war widow from the failed raid in Niger” and “the war widow’s congresswoman,” the Central Park Five, Steph Curry, “the UCLA basketball players arrested in China,” Whoopi Goldberg, April Ryan, “the entire NFL,” the cast of Hamilton, the cities of Atlanta and Chicago, Nigeria, Haiti, “and the entire continent of Africa.”
Who’s next?
What do you think?
