By Raynard Jackson, ThyBlackMan
(ThyBlackMan.com) If president Trump were to call me and tell me he needed my help with improving his standing within the Black community and he would give me access to anyone in his administration to help me accomplish the mission, who would I choose?
I would choose Andy Wheeler, Larry Kudlow, Melania Trump, and Steve Mnuchin.
Yes, you have probably figured out that all of the above people are white folks. There is not one Black person within the Trump administration that I would choose simply because most have no interest in expanding the party’s base within the Black community; and they are more interested in meeting with Black liberals than they are Black conservatives as I wrote in my column last week.
Just an aside, right after Vice President Pence spoke glowingly about those radical liberal Democrat groups on the phone call last week, they all immediately trashed the Trump administration to the media. In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle, “surprise, SURPRISE, surprise.”
Wheeler is the administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I have done several events with him and the Black community during his reign at EPA and he has been a phenomenal hit!
I would connect Wheeler with Rev. Rodrick Burton to go into select Black communities to talk about the issue of “environmental racism” that radical liberals have been spreading within the Black community.
Burton is the Senior Pastor of New Northside Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, my hometown. Burton has the ability and relationships to organize town-hall meetings across the country to give this administration and Wheeler an opportunity to speak directly to the Black community on environmental issues.
Believe it or not, most Blacks do not subscribe to the radical liberal environmental agenda that groups like the NAACP, the National Urban League and the Congressional Black Caucus perpetuate.
Conservatives totally ignore the Black community when it comes to the environment, which is a terrible strategic mistake.
I would connect Larry Kudlow, Director of the U.S. National Economic Council for President Trump, with Herman Cain. Can you imagine President Trump dispatching Kudlow and Cain to speak with Black entrepreneurs across the country to discuss the president’s policies that have been beneficial to the Black business community?
Who better than Cain to be paired with Kudlow? Both come from the Jack Kemp school of opportunity and optimism. Cain has a math degree from Morehouse University, worked for Fortune 50 companies, and served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, MO.
I would connect Melania Trump with Jennifer Carroll to speak to Black female entrepreneurs and Black females who support school choice and vouchers.
Carroll is the former lieutenant governor of Florida; the first Black to hold state-wide office in the history of Florida. She is also a twenty-year navy veteran and an entrepreneur.
Carroll and the first lady are both immigrants, Trinidad and Slovenia, respectively. They both speak several languages and they both are proof positive that the American dream is still alive and well today.
Finally, I would connect Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, with Richard Finley and Ambassador Harold Doley, Jr.. Finley is from Birmingham, Alabama and part of the iconic A.G. Gaston family—one of the wealthiest families in Alabama and a major funder of the Civil Rights movement of the sixties.
Finley is also a former banker with relationships across the country within the Black business community.
Doley is the first Black to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
Each of these whites have demonstrated a willingness and comfort level with interacting with the Black community in a substantive manner. Each of the Blacks named have supreme credibility within the Black community, as well as impeccable standing within the party.
The unfortunate thing is most, if not all, of the Blacks in the Trump administration have absolutely no idea who these iconic Blacks are.
Herein lies the major problem with the Republican Party and their lack of substantive engagement with the Black community.
How can you be in the N.B.A. and not know who Spencer Haywood is? How can you be in Major League Baseball and not know who Curt Flood was?
Most, if not all, of the Blacks surrounding Trump have absolutely no “real” relationship with the Black community and no institutional knowledge of Blacks and the party.
These Blacks are not strategists and have no understanding of strategic communications, which is the one thing this administration needs more than anything else.
So, Mr. President, you still have a slight window of opportunity to move the needle in the Black community from 8% to north of 15%, but there must be a major change in your approach and strategy. The few Blacks that you have around you are not up to the challenge; it’s not their fault. They are just simply the wrong people for the job.
Mr. President, what a tragedy if this moment finds you and your administration unprepared or unqualified for the moment that could be your and America’s finest hour!
Raynard Jackson is a Pulitzer Award nominated columnist and founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter; Raynard1223.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal.
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