Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016 | 2 a.m.
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Over the course of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump has repeatedly attempted to sway minority voters with promises of investment in our communities, while managing to insult us at the same time. During a rally in California, Trump referred to a black man in the crowd as “my African-American.” He generalized an entire immigrant community from Mexico, calling them drug dealers, criminals and rapists. And during a recent rally here in Las Vegas, Trump promised to go into the “poorest communities” to work on a national plan for revitalization. But for all of his condescension under the guise of inclusion and outreach, Trump’s long record of discriminatory actions makes his record on minority outreach pretty clear.
Trump’s real estate company had a record of housing discrimination. In a 1973 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against Trump, his father and their company, there were multiple cases of minorities being denied housing on the basis of their race. Take for instance Alfred Hoyt, a black man who was told there was no space for rent but whose white wife was offered a two-bedroom apartment the next day. Similar patterns of discrimination were found in the cases of Henrietta Davis, Godfrey Jacobs, Muriel Silberberg and Beverly Best.
The Sun recently published the story of Sheila Morse, a housing discrimination tester for the Human Rights Commission in the 1970s. Sheila was sent to investigate one of Trump’s apartment buildings in New York after a black man was denied housing. The day after the man was told the apartment had already been leased, Morse, a white woman, was welcomed “with open arms” and encouraged to sign a lease. Federal investigators were told that Trump’s company, led by him and his father, Fred Trump, had a policy of turning down black applicants. Applications filed by black families were in some cases marked with the letter “C,” for “Colored.”
We have seen Trump’s record on minority issues unfold over the past several decades, and it corresponds with the approach he has taken throughout his presidential campaign. Trump, through his business, stiffed working men and women who sought access to housing, but he was able to settle the case without admitting wrongdoing.
Trump’s record and posture toward minorities will be on the ballot this election. Today, American minorities across the country will send a clear message to Trump by rejecting his cynical vision for America. His politics of division will be defeated because, as Hillary Clinton articulates, we are stronger together when we lift each other up and work toward common goals. I look forward to doing my part to help build on the progress we have made by electing Hillary Clinton as our next president of the United States.
Marcus Banks, a lifelong resident of Las Vegas, played basketball for the Runnin’ Rebels from 2001 to 2003, when he was selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, and played for 10 years in the NBA.
