{"id":5989,"date":"2017-12-05T11:49:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T16:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?p=5989"},"modified":"2017-12-19T10:08:37","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T15:08:37","slug":"donald-trump-religious-freedom-african-american-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2017\/12\/donald-trump-religious-freedom-african-american-vote.html","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump, Religious Freedom, and the African American vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"rhetoric<\/a>from The Rhetoric of Religious Freedom in the United States<\/a>, edited by Eric C. Miller. (Lexington Books, 2017).<\/p>\n

Abstract:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this chapter,\u00a0I examine Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric of religious freedom specifically aimed at appealing to black voters. I first examine briefly two speeches given to predominately-white audiences. In those speeches, while arguably focusing his appeal on economics and jobs, he did it by creating a dystopian view of the African American community. It was this dystopian view and his promise to \u201cfix it\u201d that helped him strengthen his suburban white base.\u00a0However, when Trump appeared in black space and with a majority black audience, his approach and appeal was different. Still grounded in economics and jobs, Trump also included strong religious appeals. Moreover, examining Trump\u2019s rhetoric in Black Spaces, I argue that while the appeal for\u00a0better economics\u00a0and job creation was still a major aim, Trump also appealed to religious freedom and the historical significance of the black church in hopes at inviting African Americans to consider his candidacy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump\u2019s appeal to white evangelical voters received sustained attention from press and pundits. Less discussed was Trump\u2019s outreach to African Americans. For Trump and his campaign, black voters became important, I argue, for two reasons. First, Trump needed to appeal to African Americans to shore up votes from suburban white women, a\u00a0constituency that might withhold support from a candidate who appeared racist. Second, while Trump was never competitive for the majority of African American votes, he could get some-perhaps enough to switch a state or two in his favor. Terence\u00a0Jeffrey has noted that George W. Bush\u2019s 2004 victory came from the 16 percent support he received from African Americans in Ohio-enough for him to carry the state and win the election.<\/p>\n

For Trump, however, the road to African American endorsement would not be smooth. When the campaign started to appeal to African Americans, Trump polled only 1 to 3 percent with black voters. There were several reasons for this. For one, Trump had for years made headlines as the nation\u2019s most prominent \u201cbirther, \u201d having consisitently\u00a0maintained that President Obama was not born in America and demanded that the first African American president\u00a0show his papers as an American\u00a0citizen. He was slow to denounce the support of former Ku Klux Klan leader and devout white nationalist David Duke. His slogan, \u201cmake America Great Again,\u201d sounded to many African Americans like an invitation to go back to the days of segregation and Jim Crow. Then there were the constant attacks on the Black Lives Matter\u00a0movement, his attacks on Mexicans and Muslims and other non-white people, his stated intent to be the law and order candidate,\u201d and his continued\u2013throughly debunked-instance that the black men accused in the Central Park Five case were guilty. Thus, Trump faced a rhetorical hurdle in appealing to black voters.<\/p>\n

In this chapter, I examine Trump\u2019s strategy\u00a0for clearing this hurdle, with reference to the goals mentioned above. I first examine two speeches give to predominately white audiences. In these speeches, while arguably focusing his appeal on economics and jobs, Trump crafted a dystopian view of the African American community before promising to \u201cfix it\u201d-an appeal designed to strengthen his suburban white base. I then consider Trump\u2019s first campaign speech in the black space of an African American church, noting important differences. Still grounded in economics and jobs, this speech included religious appeals and expressed reference for African American traditions. I argue that these appeals to religious freedom and the historical significance\u00a0of the black church were crafted to invite African Americans to consider his candidacy. Finally, I offer some implications and conclusions. First, however, I begin with Trump\u2019s attempt to solidify the base of the Republican Party-white evangelicals.<\/p>\n

Read the rest\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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from The Rhetoric of Religious Freedom in the United States, edited by Eric C. Miller. (Lexington Books, 2017). Abstract: In this chapter,\u00a0I examine Donald Trump\u2019s rhetoric of religious freedom specifically aimed at appealing to black voters. I first examine briefly two speeches given to predominately-white audiences. In those speeches, while arguably focusing his appeal on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":5960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[969,306,728,968,29,967],"class_list":["post-5989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-andre-e-johnson","tag-african-american","tag-donald-trump","tag-election-2016","tag-political-communication","tag-race","tag-religious-rhetoric"],"yoast_head":"\nDonald Trump, Religious Freedom, and the African American vote<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"from The Rhetoric of Religious Freedom in the United States, edited by Eric C. Miller. (Lexington Books, 2017). 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