Trump’s “New American Moment” Signals More Disappointment For African Americans

Even before President Trump made it to the podium to deliver his first State of the Union address, African-American legislators had signaled they held little hope he would deliver good news to them or their constituencies. Some, like Democratic Congressman John Lewis, the civil rights icon from Atlanta, and Maxine Waters, the fiery longtime Democratic representative from Los Angeles, refused to attend. Meanwhile, members of the Congressional Black Caucus who were there wore black and Kinta Cloth to signal their disapproval of the president’s characterization of Haiti and African nations as “s–thole” countries. Members’ antagonism was pronounced following Trump’s remarks on black unemployment numbers, intimating that they are at their the lowest on record because of him. It didn’t sit well with representatives like Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.), who felt the president was not telling the whole story of those figures. “He was saying some of the right things, but his policies don’t align with them,” Lawrence said. “It’s not what you say, it’s what you do and what your policies are.”