Trump's black history month speech a 'dire forecast' for black community

Rev Al Sharpton called the president’s self-referential black
history month welcome event at the White House ‘tantamount
to an insult’

Jamiles Lartey
Thursday 2 February 2017 11.00 GMT

On Monday Donald Trump marked the first day of black history month with a so-called “listening session”, pulling together about a dozen black Americans, virtually all campaign supporters or administration staffers, to inaugurate the month. The meeting, which was only open to the press for about 12 minutes, resembled most of Trump’s interactions with the black community to date: self-referential and placing style ahead of substance, to the chagrin of civil rights advocates.

“It is a total reduction of the White House level of celebrating black history month,” the Rev Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, told the Guardian. “Our last three presidents, at a minimum, would have a celebration where they would have black culture, artists and invited people that represent established civil rights groups.

“To reduce that to a ‘listening session’ at the Roosevelt Room with people who basically all agree with you, to me is tantamount to an insult,” Sharpton continued.

The event follows a familiar trend for the president. Between the election and inauguration, Trump spent much of his time hosting meetings with representatives on a slew of topics and interest groups. On black issues Trump dialed up retired football stars Ray Lewis and Jim Brown, as well as entertainer and talkshow host Steve Harvey, rather than community activists, civil rights leaders or policy specialists. He also posed for a photo op with Kanye West in the lobby of Trump Tower after the rapper had pledged his support to Trump during several live shows.

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