Tuesday, July 2, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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Whether President Joe Biden should stay on the campaign trail or hit the family beach house in Delaware for an extended stay is not the most pressing question to arise from the presidential debate.
The most bewildering and, at the same time, enlightening query from last week’s debacle is this: What in the heck are Black jobs?
Former President Donald Trump, self-described as the person who has done more for “the Blacks” than anyone since Lincoln, apparently continues his paternalistic effort to defend (and demean) the most melanin-blessed Americans.
Why else would he answer a debate question about immigration by suggesting that “millions” of people coming in through the border are taking “Black jobs.”
Until last week, I was unaware jobs came in colors. As far as I know, even the most woke DEI team has not yet assigned positions based on the Pantone color chart.
Trump’s debate answer set off a response among Black Twitter filled with nearly as much disbelief as that of the political cognoscenti who took one look at Biden’s spaced-out gaze and became puddles of despair and regret.
Black Twitter, unlike the pundits, was able to quickly find unity and even humor as users sought an explanation for so-called Black jobs.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Trump vice presidential hopeful, in a TV interview helpfully explained that Black jobs are likely “low-wage” positions — the kinds in construction and trades that immigrants will take at an even lower wage.
Oh. So, does that mean white jobs are high-wage positions? Because that would explain why qualified Black candidates are so routinely overlooked that corporate America undertook an entire system of diversity and equity training to recalibrate the hiring apparatus that too often equated Black people with the lowest-paying jobs.
“Black people’s relegation to underemployment hurts the U.S. economy by weakening local communities,” Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Forbes.
Ray, who is also a University of Maryland sociology professor, considered Trump’s “Black jobs” remark insulting and offensive, not just to Black people, but to all Americans.
On social media, there was little anger or even frustration from Black people at once again being the target of a race card taken from the bottom of a stacked deck. We are familiar with this shuffle that is often used to make us think we’ve been dealt a bad hand and will have to live with it.
But instead of just living, many of us are thriving. Our main Black job in America has always been to survive, but many of us have worked so much harder and gone so much further than that.
As the hashtag #BlackJobs began trending, social media users posted pictures of themselves at work: “Hello from my Black job!” Among the posts, there were doctors, lawyers, professors, astronauts, engineers, immunologists, researchers, teachers, authors, actors, musicians, ballerinas, business owners — just to name a few professions that were highlighted, not to mention Supreme Court justices, members of Congress and the vice president of the United States.
Brandon Scott celebrated his Black job as mayor of Baltimore in a Tweet.
Wes Moore also saluted his Black job — as governor of Maryland and as a Biden surrogate visiting Wisconsin to uplift Black-owned businesses and the Democratic Party.
Republicans, for their part, have spent recent months highlighting polls that suggest a shift of Black voters from Biden to Trump. Many in the Black community have been skeptical of such a seismic change; I know I have.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Ben Carson, former HUD secretary, likely see it differently since both have endorsed Trump. Their Black job is to ensure his return to the White House.
During the 2020 election, Black voters were the targets of disinformation campaigns on social media, particularly Facebook. Without a doubt, that effort continues in 2024 with even more fuel as AI-generated content, including pictures that show Black people rallying and meeting with Trump, enter the chat.
It will be even more challenging for Black voters, who generally have a long history of backing Democratic candidates, to clear the noise and determine their support as November approaches. But most of us know that our Black jobs — and our lives — depend upon the outcome.
Michelle Deal-Zimmerman is a columnist for the Baltimore Sun.
