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A2 The Afro-American, November 12, 2016 - November 12, 2016
November 19, 2016 - November 25, 2016, The Afro-American A3
Trump
Continued from A1
“A well-educated Black has a tremendous advantage over
a well-educated White in terms of the job market…if I was
starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated Black,
because I really do believe they have the actual advantage
today.”
That same year, Trump was a chief instigator in fanning the
lynch mob mentality that led to the wrongful imprisonment
of five Black and Hispanic teens in the notorious “Central
Park Five” case, in which a White woman was attacked while
jogging in the park. Even when DNA evidence exonerated
the teens, the real estate mogul remained unrepentant, saying,
“These young men do not exactly have the past of angels.”
Then, in 1991, former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino
President John R. O’Donnell, in his book Trumped, claimed
that Trump once pulled out the old tropes about Jews and greed
and Blacks and laziness during a discussion about a finance
employee with whom O’Donnell was displeased:
“Yeah, I never liked the guy,” Trump allegedly said. “I
don’t think he knows what the f––– he’s doing. My accountants
up in New York are always complaining about him. He’s not
responsive. And isn’t it funny, I’ve got Black accountants at
the Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my
money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my
money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are
the kind of people I want counting my money. No one else.”
Trump allegedly added, “Besides that, I’ve got to tell you
something else. I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably
not his fault because laziness is a trait in Blacks. It really is, I
believe that. It’s not something they can control. … Don’t you
agree?”
In a 1997 interview with Playboy, Trump acknowledged
O’Donnell’s book was “probably true.” But, he backpedaled a
couple years later when seeking the reform party’s nomination
for president.
With the popularization of social media, specifically Twitter,
Trump’s unvarnished prejudice was given room to breathe, as
he trafficked in fear of non-Whites. And, the election of the
nation’s first African-American president seemed to provide
rich fodder, giving rise to the racist “birther movement” – a tide
that would eventually sweep Trump into the White House –
which sought to delegitimize Barack Obama’s presidency.
Beginning in 2011, the self-proclaimed Tea Partier began
publicly questioning Obama’s citizenship—perhaps prompted
by his own aspirations toward the White House, which he
publicly mulled over at the time.
“I have people that have been studying [Obama’s birth
certificate] and they cannot believe what they’re finding ... I
would like to have him show his birth certificate, and can I be
honest with you, I hope he can. Because if he can’t, if he can’t,
if he wasn’t born in this country, which is a real possibility
... then he has pulled one of the great cons in the history of
politics,” he saidon NBC’s “Today” show.
Trump only publicly declared he was wrong in a brusque
“According to Bill O’Reilly, 80%
of all the shootings in New
York City are Blacks-if you add
Hispanics, that figure goes to
98%. 1% White.”
– Donald Trump tweet
statement this September, after years of denying evidence of
the president’s birth.
In June 2013, he let loose with stereotypes equating people
of color with violent crime.
“According to Bill O’Reilly, 80% of all the shootings in
New York City are Blacks-if you add Hispanics, that figure
goes to 98%. 1% White,” Trump tweeted. He later added,
“Sadly, the overwhelming amount of violent crime in our major
cities is committed by Blacks and Hispanics - a tough subject -
must be discussed.”
That November, he followed up by retweeting a post which
over-inflated statistics related to crime, making it appear that
Blacks were responsible for most of the murders in the U.S.
Trump’s racist vitriol did not abate with his candidacy
for the nation’s highest office—in fact, it got worse. And, he
launched his campaign by smearing Mexican immigrants,
calling them “rapists” and “killers.”
In addition, Trump continues to use the definite article “the”
when referring to ethnic and racial groups—“the Blacks,”
“the Hispanics,” “the Muslims”.... “The” in such cases often
acts as a separatist term that erases individuality and paints all
members of a racial or ethnic group as one monolithic entity,
essentially, “The Other.”
Similarly, Trump often used broad strokes to describe
communities of color, often in negative terms. During a Sept.
20, 2016, stump speech in North Carolina, for example, Trump
described what he saw as the dire state of all Black communities.
“We’re going to rebuild our inner cities because our African-
American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that
they’ve ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever,” Trump said ,
totally overlooking the historical atrocities of slavery, Jim Crow
and the like. He piled on the ignorance, saying, “You take a
look at the inner cities, you get no education, you get no jobs,
you get shot walking down the street. They’re worse -- I mean,
honestly, places like Afghanistan are safer than some of our
inner cities.”
In a November 2015 interview with Yahoo.com, the
president-elect said he would deport any Syrian refugees
allowed to enter the country under President Obama. The
reality TV star also called for increased surveillance of Muslims
and mosques in the United States, and did not rule out tactics
such as warrantless searches, creating a database of Muslims
and giving them special IDs that identify their religion.
“We’re going to have to look at the mosques. We’re going to
have to look very, very carefully,” he said, adding, “We’re going
to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year
ago…. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think
that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule.”
To be fair, Trump has been an equal opportunity offender,
also wielding anti-Semitic tropes and furthering anti-Semitic
conspiracy theories. During an address to the Republican
Jewish Coalition last December, for example, Trump drew
on the common stereotype that paints Jews as money-loving
“Shylocks.”
“You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your
money,” he told the Jewish audience. He also said, “Is there
anybody that doesn’t renegotiate deals in this room? Perhaps
more than any other room I’ve ever spoken in.”
Just as damaging as the deluge of hateful language Trump
has spewed is what he has not said, such as his unwillingness
to quickly and firmly repudiate supporters at his rallies who
physically attacked people of color or White supremacists who
co-opted his campaign.
Gwen Ifill
Continued from A1
and Race in the Age of
Obama,” a book published
the day President Obama was
inaugurated in 2009.
Ifill was not the first
African-American television
anchor – Max Robinson on
ABC and Bernard Shaw on
CNN beat her to that job – she
was the first Black woman to
anchor a weekly news show
when she was appointed in
1999 to moderate PBS’ thennamed
“Washington Week
in Review.” She also was
the first African American
woman to moderate a vice
presidential debate and
to co-anchor a network
newscast, when she joined
Judy Woodruff on the PBS
“NewsHour” in 2013. She
also left a rich legacy of
mentoring young journalists,
bringing diverse groups
together and consistently
exuding calm professionalism.
“This is a devastating loss
for our family and for me
personally,” Sherrilyn Ifill,
president and director-counsel
of the NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund and
Gwen Ifill’s cousin, said in a
statement.
“Gwen was a shining
light in our family and a true
and dear friend. She was
well known to Baltimoreans
from her years as a tough
and tenacious reporter at The
Evening Sun.
“We have lost her voice at
a time when we desperately
need sober, tenacious, truthful
journalism to help guide
us through the challenging
days ahead in this country.
Identification Statements
Fortunately Gwen believed
in serving as a mentor. And
so there are scores of young,
African American women
journalists who are her
professional daughters.”
One of those mentored
by Ifill was Sonya Ross, race
and ethnicity editor for The
Associated Press. She recalled
Ifill’s warmth and grace when
they first met at the northwest
gate of the White House around
1993 while Ifill was a Times
reporter and Ross was covering
the urban affairs beat for the AP.
“I had been to a news
conference at the (National)
Press Club and decided to
walk back to our offices
and I saw Gwen talking to
a colleague. I went up and
introduced myself, told her
who I was and that I admired
her work.
“She said, ‘Thank you.
Now who are you again?’
and flipped the conversation
over to be about me. She said,
‘You can do this, too, you
know. It’s easy.’”
“One word that comes
immediately to mind when
I think of Gwen is ‘class,’”
said Michael K. Frisby,
a media strategist based
in Washington, D.C., and
a former White House
correspondent for The
Wall Street Journal, who
competed against Ifill when
they covered presidential
campaigns.
Frisby admitted he caught
a lot of flack in his reporting
days for having a little too
much swagger and pushing
boundaries, but he accepted
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gentle chiding from Ifill
who, he said, was one of the
few people whose advice he
actually took to heart.
“I was always getting the
Gwen Look or the ‘Frisby,
what are you doing?’ talk,”
Frisby said. “She played by
the rules. I pushed the rules to
the limit.”
“I never saw her ruffled;
she never responded with the
anger you’d expect to hear
in some situations. She was
always classy in everything
she did,” Frisby said. “She had
this radiant smile and it always
affected people.”
After distinguishing
herself as moderator of vice
presidential debates in 2004
and 2008, Ifill was not invited
to moderate a presidential
debate in 2012, when President
Obama ran for re-election.
While many of her colleagues
were angered, Ifill never
addressed the perceived snub,
publicly or privately.
“We were like, ‘How
many times are you supposed
to be the vice presidential
moderator when you certainly
are qualified to moderate a
presidential debate?” said AP’s
Ross.
“Gwen just didn’t address
it. She said, ‘we can talk about
it over drinks,’ but it never
happened. She never talked
about it,” Ross said. “In the
grand scheme of things, she
decided not to make a big deal
out of it.”
Ross recalled another time,
during the mid-90s, when she
and Ifill were covering the
Clinton White House and Ifill’s
legendary poise – and pointed
sense of humor – were on
display.
The two were among a
group of journalists traveling
with first lady Hillary Clinton
on a tour of Africa.
“We were out in some
rural part of Tanzania and
they called a press briefing
at 10 o’clock at night. We
didn’t feel like going, but
there was nowhere to go.
The hotel didn’t have a lot
of amenities and it was so
rural that you couldn’t go
out and walk around outside
the lodge because there were
lions at night. Hillary Clinton
came out, urging us to come
to the briefing, and she said
to Gwen, ‘C’mon, these are
your people.’ We looked at
Gwen and she just smiled and
said, ‘Now some people get to
Africa and get just a little too
comfortable.’”
Her graciousness was
especially apparent every
New Year’s Day at her
home when she hosted a
daylong, sumptuous buffet,
where people from all walks
of life gathered for food,
conversation and laughter.
For many, it became the
mandatory kickoff to the year.
“She created an
environment where everyone
Petersen
Continued from A1
Burke-class destroyer,
DDG 121, will be named
Frank E. Petersen Jr.,
in honor of the Marine
Corps lieutenant general
who was the first Black
Marine Corps aviator and
the first Black Marine
Corps general officer.
Mabus said during
the announcement
“The courage and
perseverance of Lt. Gen.
Petersen throughout
his distinguished and
ground-breaking career
make him especially
deserving of this honor.”
He continued, “Those
could be together and get
along,” said A’Lelia Bundles,
former Washington deputy
bureau chief for ABC News,
an award winning producer
and biographer of her greatgreat-grandmother
Madam
C.J. Walker.
“The genius and beauty
of Gwen was she could be
friends with people across
ideologies,” Bundles said.
“She took journalism
seriously and didn’t want to
be seen as partisan, so much
so that those who tried to
accuse her of it were quickly
set straight. She was so
graceful about it. She just
never flinched.”
Bundles also noted Ifill’s
steadfast devotion to women
friends, showing up for major
events, dinners, get-togethers
despite a hectic schedule.
“She was the busiest
among us; had the highest
profile, carried the biggest
burden of all of us, but she
showed up for her girls.”
In addition to cousin
Sherrilyn Ifill, survivors
include her brothers Roberto
Ifill of Silver Spring and the
Rev. Earle Ifill of Atlanta, and
a sister Maria Ifill Phillip, also
of Silver Spring.
Jackie Jones is chair
of the Dept. of Multimedia
Journalism at Morgan State
University’s School of Global
Journalism & Communication
and a former colleague of
Gwen Ifill’s at ‘The Evening
Sun.’
Courtesy photo
A graphic representation of the future USS Frank E. Petersen
Jr.
who serve aboard DDG 121 will, for decades, carry on the storied legacy of this Marine Corps
hero.”
Construction began on the future USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG 121) April 27 at the
Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.
In 1950, two years after President Harry S. Truman desegregated the armed forces, Petersen
enlisted in the Navy. Two years later, in 1952, Petersen was commissioned as a second lieutenant
in the Marine Corps. He would go on to fly 350 combat missions during the Korean and Vietnam
Wars. Petersen also went on to become the first Black in the Marine Corps to command a fighter
squadron, an air group and a major base.
Petersen retired from the Marine Corps in 1988 after 38 years of service. At the time of his
retirement he was the senior-ranking aviator in the Marine Corps and the United States Navy.
“It’s a tremendous honor, said Dana Moore, Petersen’s second of five children. “It’s a
destroyer but in its description it will have a peacekeeping mission as well as being prepared
for battle. It was only as a last resort that he would want to do battle and I think it’s the perfect
embodiment of him. It’s a tremendous honor and we’re thankful to the Navy,” said Moore, owner
and founder of Baltimore based law firm Petersen Moore.