On Wednesday, Donald Trump hosted an African American town hall at a church in Cleveland, along with Sean Hannity. The town hall aired on Hannity’s show on Fox News Wednesday night, but before it aired, an attendee took some very telling pictures of the audience.
Trump's "African-American" town hall on Hannity pic.twitter.com/MINAQ9rbXY
— Brandon English (@brandonenglish) September 21, 2016
Brandon English, who describes himself as a proud Clevelander and a Democrat, took another photo of the town hall attendees outside.
More of Trump's "African-American" town hall attendees pic.twitter.com/KadaCKmWd6
— Brandon English (@brandonenglish) September 21, 2016
Can we really be surprised by this?
At this town hall, Trump proposed a nationwide “stop and frisk” policy to combat violence in black communities. Trump was addressing an African American man’s question when he gave this answer, but his response is much more appealing to white people than black people.
In 2013, a federal judge ruled that New York City’s stop and frisk law was unconstitutional because it was “a form of racial profiling.”
So, did Trump give that answer because he was trying to appeal to a mostly white audience? Or did he actually think that the few black people who came to the town hall would think it was a good idea?
It’s difficult to tell. Melanated Media News, a YouTube channel which aims to combat reporting which is biased against the black community, produced a video of interviews with several black people who attended the town hall.
One interviewee said,
“When [Trump] comes to black churches and speaks to black people, he’s speaking to white people about black people.”
That seems to sum up the audience as well as Trump’s responses.
But not everyone interviewed by Melanated Media News was disappointed with the town hall. One woman fervently spoke in favor of Donald Trump, saying that he’s always had “inclusion” and “diversity” with everything he’s done.
Trump’s poll numbers with African Americans are low. They appeared to increase a few days ago, but quickly went back down.
Watch Melanated Media News’ full video here:
Featured image from Twitter.
