What did Donald Trump do today?
He thanked Kanye West for things he assumed Kanye West said about him.
For Trump, praise from one black man is the same thing as praise from all black men, which is why he frequently pivots from Kanye West's occasional gestures of support to insisting that he is popular with African-Americans.
Today, Trump thanked West again for his support, presumably in response to West's appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show Thursday night, where Trump was a topic of discussion. But Trump apparently didn't actually go so far as to listen to what West was saying. West said that his public support of Trump was to prove a point, that nobody could tell him what to think. "It represented overcoming fear and doing what you felt, no matter what anyone said, and saying, ‘You can’t bully me.’ Liberals can’t bully me, news can’t bully me, the hip-hop community, they can’t bully me."
Kimmel responded by referencing West's famous call-out of President Bush after the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina:
In literal terms, there are families being torn apart at the border of this country. They are literally families being torn apart as a result of what this president is doing—and I think that we cannot forget that, whether we like his personality or not, his actions are really what matter. I mean you so famously and so powerfully said, ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people.’ It makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does (care about black people) or any people at all?Kimmel paused for an answer, and West said nothing.
Who cares?
- Treating all members of a group as though they were interchangeable is pretty much bedrock racism.
- Assuming that all black people will follow the lead of one black celebrity is pretty insulting even aside from the racism.
- Declaring yourself popular among a group where 80-90% of its members disapprove of you is delusional.
- Not listening to your "one black friend" when he speaks is a good way to lose your one black friend.