Obama Shuts Down Trump For Saying Black Americans Have “Never Been Worse Off”

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It makes sense why Trump would try to appeal to black voters. Based on a poll released less than a month ago on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Trump had a zero percent approval rating among African Americans. According to the poll, 97 percent of black voters view him unfavorably while three percent remain undecided.

In an attempt to improve ratings within the black community, Trump did what he does best: make ludicrous, factually incorrect statements. Lately, Trump claimed at a rally in North Carolina that black neighborhoods are "in the worst shape that they've ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever." Luckily, President Obama stepped in to swiftly reveal the idiocy behind that assessment. In an interview with ABC News on Friday, Obama said,

“I think even most 8-year-olds will tell you that whole slavery thing wasn't very good for black people. Jim Crow wasn't very good for black people. What we have to do is use our history to propel us to make even more progress in the future.”

Realizing he needs to make a last-ditch effort to win over a broader demographic in the final weeks of his presidential campaign, we can expect to hear more inane proclamations come out of Trump’s “small mouth.” Recently, he suggested we expand the stop-and-frisk policies that were proven to be unconstitutional and downright harmful in New York. But as New Yorker reporter Ed Kilgore points out, Trump could be making these laughable appeals to black voters in an attempt to draw more suburban white voters to his side. Kilgore theorizes that Trump’s rhetoric is “almost certainly aimed at white voters worried (or angry) about being labeled as racists.”

Naturally, this wouldn’t be that surprising considering the man has earned the enthusiastic support of white nationalists and KKK members. All we can do, it seems, is follow Obama’s lead on this one and counter Trump’s claims with facts. Indeed, anyone who thinks African Americans were better off in the “separate-but-equal” age needs a lesson in basic American history followed by a crash course in empathy.