(cc photo: Gage Skidmore)
Donald Trump’s efforts to delegitimize Barack Obama by suggesting he’s not a native-born citizen, and questioning his qualifications for admissions to Columbia University and Harvard Law School, have drawn fire from prominent media figures like MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell (FAIR Blog, 4/29/11), CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer (CBS Evening News, 4/27/11) and even David Letterman (Late Show, 4/28/11), who have pointed out the racism implicit in Trump’s smears.
But few corporate journalists have so far put Trump’s anti-Obama efforts in the context of earlier racist episodes in the real estate developer’s career—a history that sheds light on the potential presidential candidate’s recent hamfisted claim: “I have a great relationship with the blacks. I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.” (As Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson—4/19/11—observed regarding Trump’s awkward boast: “Yes, he said ‘the blacks.’ Twice.”)
Salon‘s Justin Elliot (4/28/11) traced Trump’s racism back to the 1970s, when the Justice Department repeatedly alleged racial discrimination by Trump Management Company, where Trump served as president. According to a New York Times report (10/16/73) about the federal case:
After Trump agreed in a 1975 deal to integrate Trump properties, in 1978 the Justice Department charged Trump Management with failing to live up to the agreement. As Elliott reports, “in 1983, a fair-housing activist cited statistics that two Trump Village developments had white majorities of at least 95 percent.” (See New York Times, 10/16/83.)
In his 1991 book Trumped!, the former president of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, John R. O’Donnell, recalled Trump declaring that “laziness is a trait in blacks,” and exclaiming: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” Trump acknowledged in a Playboy interview (5/97; cited in Huffington Post, 4/29/11), “The stuff O’Donnell wrote about me is probably true.”
Trump injected himself into a racial controversy in 1989 when, after a white female jogger was raped in Central Park, he took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the executions of the five people arrested—all minors aged 14 to 16 years old, four of them African-American and one Latino. All five were later exonerated after being convicted on the basis of what turned out to be false confessions, the crime actually having been committed by a lone serial rapist (New York Times, 12/8/02, 12/9/03).
Trump has never taken out similar ads in regard to other prominent and even more serious crimes, including serial murders, in the New York area, and failed to apologize following the exonerations. The story recently received local coverage on New York City cable news station NY1 (4/28/11) when one of the people targeted in the Trump ads asked the presidential hopeful for an apology—but national media have avoided the story.
When Barack Obama held a press conference (4/27/11) announcing he would release additional evidence to document his already-established U.S. birth, the spectacle recalled the days of Jim Crow, when black citizens were required to produce extra documentation, pay poll taxes and take “literacy tests” in a system designed to disenfranchise them. Trump followed in these footsteps by demanding that Obama provide evidence never required of any white politician—a parallel heightened when, during a press conference boasting of his role in forcing Obama to release a new version of his birth certificate, he made a new bid to delegitimize Obama by demanding that he release his school records as well.
The failure to cover Trump’s record of racism is troubling, but perhaps not surprising given the evident glee with which corporate media have greeted his potential candidacy. Trump attended the April 20 White House Correspondents Dinner as a guest of the Washington Post, about which the Post‘s Dan Zak (4/20/11) reported, “Trump elicited boos from gawkers and protesters while entering the Washington Hilton, but once inside it was all flashbulbs and glad-handing and laughs.”
As I read through your article I cannot believe it is not very fact checked either. I do not know where to go to find unbiased media that just reports, without selectively reporting. #1 – the case was against the trump properties, was thrown out, and they (government) were counter sued. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-governments-racial-bias-case-against-donald-trumps-company-and-how-he-fought-it/2016/01/23/fb90163e-bfbe-11e5-bcda-62a36b394160_story.html As for the book thing with Mr. O’Donell – this sounds more like conjecture, and opinion. But I will fact check that a bit more. And – well – really – the central park 5? You have got to be kidding me! So a miscarriage of the police and justice system is Donald Trumps fault. Yes – he wanted a conviction, and safety on the streets of the town where he lives. LASTLY – your headline cannot be further from the truth. Everyday I see media outlets spew some sort of statement saying that Donald Trump is racist, but then they TWIST THE TRUTH to fit their own personal agenda and narrative as you are doing. PATHETIC.
I just read the same article, and took away an entirely different perspective. The cases were against Trump properties, of which Donald was the president. Neither case was thrown out. You read that wrong. Both cases preceded, and Trump settled in both cases. The countersuit is what was thrown out. When it comes to the CP5, the author of this article certainly never accused Trump of being at fault for their incarceration. The point the author is making is that he went out of his way to personally weigh in on this case, calling for the execution of teenagers before they had even been convicted. To top it off, he to this day refuses to acknowledge their innocence, called NYC’s decision to reimburse them “a disgrace”, and despite DNA evidence exonerating them of the crime he still to this day maintains their guilt. Recently arguing, “What were they doing in that park, playing checkers?” Maybe you are somehow blind to Trump’s racism, but every white nationlist movement in the U.S. sees it just fine.
With this kind of reporting I think every American could be accused of racism.
What’s up, every time i used to check blog posts here early in the daylight, because
i like to gain knowledge of more and more.