A DEI expert suggested that former President Donald Trump might’ve increased his appeal to Black voters after surviving Saturday’s (July 13) assassination attempt.
In a now-deleted article published by Forbes, USC Professor Shaun Harper claimed that Black people may relate to Trump after he survived the campaign event shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania with a raised fist.
The article, titled “Will Surviving Gunfire Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal To Black Voters?” was uploaded at roughly 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and pulled hours after receiving backlash, per Daily Mail.
Harper, a DEI expert, suggested that Trump could use the shooting to appeal to Black voters similarly to the way he’s spoken about his mugshot and legal woes.
“The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly contended that the August 2023 release of his criminal mugshot deeply resonated with Black voters because they know firsthand the unfairness of our nation’s criminal justice system,” Harper wrote in the now-deleted piece. “Hopefully, being shot doesn’t become a similarly problematic strategy to link Trump with an experience that far too many Black people have.”
As gunfire rang out on Saturday, Trump crouched down at the podium before emerging with a bloodied face and raised fist. The former president said he was shot in the ear.
Harper wrote that the imagery of Trump raising his fist could resonate with Black voters.
“After winning gold and bronze medals for their spectacular performances in the men’s 200-meter race at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, American track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists as they stood on the podium,” the article read. “Hopefully Trump doesn’t claim that his raised fist was an homage to Smith and Carlos, two powerful Black Americans.”
Harper also cited how Black Americans raised their fists during nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s police killing in 2020.
“They were protesting Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man,” Harper wrote. “Then-President Trump weaponized the National Guard and law enforcement against them.”
“But now, just over four years later, there’s a chance that his raised fist at the Pennsylvania rally becomes erroneously connected to the Black people who were marching with fists raised in rallies in summer 2020 and at other moments in American history.”
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