In the midst of some of the worst civil unrest that we've seen in this country for a long
time, coming at the juncture of a 100 year pandemic, police killings of black men that
have generated massive protests, a huge economic recession.
Donald Trump is now bragging he has been the best president for black people since Abraham
Lincoln.
Trump tweeting this week, quote, My administration has done more for the black community than
any president since Abraham Lincoln passed opportunity zones, which, with Senator Tim
Scott, guaranteed funding for HBC use, school choice, past criminal justice reform, lowest
black unemployment, poverty and crime rates in history, and then adding in a second tweet
in all caps.
And the best is yet to come.
So let's pretend that this is serious and this is a serious person making a serious
claim.
The first question is, does this even pass the sniff test?
Does it pass the test that Tump Trump has done more for the black community than any
president taking all the way back to Abraham Lincoln?
It doesn't sound right and obviously it's not right.
And Trump's persistent dog whistles to white nationalists are only a tiny, tiny piece of
it.
But let's pick one of those things and actually think about it in a little bit more detail.
So one of the claims that Trump regularly made before 25 percent of the workforce lost
their jobs because a corona virus was that black unemployment is at record lows and that
Trump is, of course, to thank for that.
A couple of things.
What you need to understand is that when unemployment is very low, it's typically low for every
group.
So we no doubt had a very low unemployment rate up until the Corona virus pandemic started
when we talked about the economy leading up to the pandemic.
I made no effort to deceive or hide the fact that we had a low unemployment rate.
It was very low for white people.
It was low for black people.
It was, you know, low for young and old people.
It was low for men and women.
It was low for college graduates, a non college graduate.
So thinking back to my interview earlier this week with Jonathan Faber about critical thinking,
was black unemployment low because of something Trump did?
Was black unemployment low and it applied to all groups because of something Trump did?
Or was this part of the sort of natural cycle of the economy?
What we know is job growth certainly slowed from the pace under Barack Obama.
But again, only some of this has to do with the president.
So the logical question to ask would be what specifically did Donald Trump do that disproportionately
created jobs for black Americans relative to nonblack Americans?
And when you actually boil it down and think about it in this way, Trump didn't do anything.
There was nothing.
Now, I'm gonna give you one other example of this.
Remember, during Barack Obama's presidency, the right would regularly say a record number
of people aren't working.
A record number of people are outside of the labor force.
And then Trump is inaugurated and instantly, up until three months ago.
Some of those same people were saying a record number of people are working now.
And it didn't sound right.
How is it that we went from record numbers of people not working under Obama to record
numbers of people working under Donald Trump?
Doesn't really make sense.
Well, the truth is, during Obama's presidency, a record number of people were working and
a record number of people were not working.
Likewise, during Trump's presidency, before coronavirus, of course, a record number of
people were working and a record number of people were not working.
How is this possible?
The answer is the population keeps growing.
If at any given time, roughly 55 percent of the population is in the workforce and 45
percent of the population is out of the workforce.
As long as our population keeps growing, you will simultaneously continue to have more
people working than ever before and more people not working than ever before.
The devil is in the details.
Why are people not working?
Is it because they don't have to?
Because the economy's doing really well?
Is it because there are no jobs?
Is it because there's been a population shift to more older folks who are retirement age
or a population shift to a lot of more college aged people who, when they are not working,
even if you're in college full time, you count as being out of the labor force.
How much are people earning?
Are their wages allowing them to afford the cost of living wherever it is that they live?
So as you can very quickly see, for a long time we've had a record number of people working
and a record number of people not working coronavirus.
Of course, this has changed that.
But the question is, is Trump doing more for black?
People than anyone since Abraham Lincoln.
That is obviously untrue, and it's something that only a pathological, pathological liar
or completely delusional person would say.
They lie for the sake of lying.
They are hyperbolic in their lies.
And that's all that this is.
And let's not be confused about it.