Donald Trump’s conviction drowned out what had been a potentially transformational week for his campaign. Prior to his conviction, the presidential candidates had made contrasting efforts to attract black voters: Trump through a Bronx rally and Biden through his Morehouse commencement address and press conference after his meeting with the Kenyan president. Despite efforts of the legacy press, it was clear that Trump shined while Biden didn’t.
At his Morehouse speech, Biden did not mention black accomplishments and how graduates should aspire to further success. Instead, he focused on black victimization that might have been realistic fifty years ago but not today; and certainly not for a group of black college graduates. He asked, “What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?”
You can certainly make a case that due to informal biased hiring practices, black applicants with less than a college degree face modest labor market discrimination. However, the current drive for equity enables black college graduates with weaker credentials to gain acceptance to prestigious postgraduate programs and the most desirable employment opportunities. For example, ten times as many white as black test-takers obtained LSAT scores of at least 170 – the traditional benchmark for acceptance in first-tier law schools. Despite this more limited pool of high achieving black law students, 29 percent of Biden’s federal judicial appointments were black; not much below the 35 percent of white appointments.
At a press conference with the Kenyan president, Biden was asked about his policies to aid African economic development. For more than a minute, he read from his binder, rarely raising his head or having any inflection in his voice. This lifeless, scripted behavior leads many observers to question his robustness or ability to handle challenges.
Trump’s Bronx rally stood in sharp contrast. He was spontaneous and engaging while making his political points. Trump stayed on message, identifying ways for black and Latino Americans to move forward despite the impact that illegal immigration has had on their employment, their neighborhoods, and their schools. Studies continue to find that overall, immigration does not adversely affect wages and employment rates, but there is still evidence that it adversely affects workers without college degrees. A recent Atlanta Fed paper found that the decline in low-skilled immigrant labor from 2007 through 2020 was associated with subsequent wage increases for low-skilled workers and labor shortages in low-skilled jobs that can't be moved to other countries. This strongly suggests that the surge in illegal immigration under the Biden Administration has modestly constrained wage growth, if not employment among less-educated youth.
While official black unemployment rates are at historic lows, this evidence is consistent with a growing underemployment problem for young black Americans. Within the black population, 18 to 24 years old, over 23.4% percent were neither in school nor had paid employment compared to 11.7% for comparably-aged white youth. More generally, one-third of all those in this age group had zero income.
Trump also spoke about unifying all Americans regardless of race or ethnicity:
"It doesn’t matter whether you are black or brown or white, we are all Americans. We all want better opportunity — and I’m not just going to promise it, I’m going to deliver it, as I did against all odds for four straight years."
The Blacks and Latinos who attended were enthusiastic in their support. The Free Press reporter Olivia Reingold interviewed a multicultural array of enthusiasts: a Chinese acupuncturist, a native-Bronx Dominican, a black community college student, an Iraqi Jewish entrepreneur, and a Muslim art teacher.
You wouldn’t know this if you only read the legacy press. Many focused exclusively on the two rap singers Trump introduced on stage, both with pending serious felony charges against them. The AP story, the USA Today reporting, a report from Salon, an article from Newsweek, along with a New York Times account all mentioned the rappers in their titles, and detail the charges and evidence against them, but said nothing about Trump’s speech or the diversity of his supporters. Among left-of-center publications, only Axios presented a meaningful assessment of the multicultural composition of the rally. Titled, “Trump's Bronx Rally Looked Very Different than the usual MAGA Crowd,” it highlighted interviews with a black security guard and a Latino barber.
The employment woes of young black Americans remain a sore point for Democrats. Unfortunately, members of the press give more attention to Trump's inability to stay on message than they do real issues of importance to Americans, including blacks.
