Martin held a candid discussion.
Trump’s Black unemployment sales pitch: Ahead of the SOTU, there was much talk about Trump addressing the economy and continuing to tout that his policies had led to Black unemployment reaching its lowest level. Martin brought in Dr. William Spriggs, an Economics professor and former chair of that department at Howard University as well as a respected Black economist, to dispell this myth. Spriggs began by saying that the economy began expanding in 2010. “It started in 2010, not after election day in 2016,” Martin loudly announced to the audience to expose that lie. “So six years [this happened] when [Barack] Obama was president.” To be clear, Obama “left [Trump] with the lowest Black unemployment rate than any president had ever inherited,” Spriggs clarified in an eye-opening point.
Trump’s Birther mess: “Somebody kept claiming he wasn’t president because he wasn’t born,” Spriggs said in reference to Obama being the nation’s former leader. Isn’t it obvious who that somebody is? “This would be the rooster claiming that made the sunrise because they were crowing,” Spriggs said to finish his clapback.
Trump’s weapon of division: The president rambled to reporters during a luncheon on Tuesday ahead of the SOTU that he wanted to “unite” the country and stop a “divisiveness” that had been going on “for years,” Martin said. In response to that, Kristen Clarke, executive director for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, gave an impassioned response on how the president has managed to completely divide folks across racial and more lines. “In every respect with President Trump, his words, his actions, his policies, his appointments, in every respect in the first year of the Trump administration, all we’ve seen is politics of division. I think there’s been no president in recent years that has done more to divide our country along lines of race, along lines of gender, LGBT status, you name it…” The administration has “taken our country back decades.” Didn’t Clarke hit the point on the head? Perhaps Trump forgot how he approved White supremacy when Charlottesville happened in August. “It’s hard not to chase the racial animus back to this White House,” Clarke added.
Right now, Black folks can bask in the glory of resistance, thanking Martin for playing a part in that.
@rolandsmartin great job Roland! #RolandMartinUnfiltered #IamIn! @NCBCP @ncbcp_bwr @BlackYouthVote #blackpress is the voice for our people!
Enjoyed the program. It was definitely worth skipping the State of the Union. Real truths were told tonight.