NBC reporter Sheinelle Jones pushed a theory that racism has gotten “worse” under President Trump, but former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wasn’t having it.
“There are people who will say it feels worse now when we’re talking about race,” Jones said during an interview with Rice on NBC’s ‘Today’ show.
Ah yes, using the guise of ‘others’ saying it as a means to push the narrative. Jones also insisted some people feel America is currently a “divisive environment.”
Divisive politically, yes. But Rice wasn’t about to feed into the narrative that race issues are worse today because of Trump, swiftly picking the argument apart.
Rice on Fire
“It sure doesn’t feel worse than when I grew up in Jim Crow Alabama. So let’s drop this notion that we’re worse race relations today than we were in the past,” Rice demanded.
Condoleezza Rice on race, female leadership and Mueller report https://t.co/nu5YT7azSw via @TODAYshow
— Dr. Lydia Gonzalez-DRoss (@DRLydiaDRoss) June 20, 2019
Rice has spoken at length about her upbringing in Jim Crow Alabama, even crediting the Second Amendment with her family’s protection.
“Let me tell you why I’m a defender of the Second Amendment,” Rice said during a guest hosting stint on ‘The View.’ “I was a little girl growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, in the late fifties, early sixties. There was no way that Bull Connor and the Birmingham Police were going to protect you.”
“And so when White Knight Riders would come through our neighborhood,” she continued, “my father and his friends would take their guns and they’d go to the head of the neighborhood, it’s a little cul-de-sac and they would fire in the air, if anybody came through.”
“But when we start saying, ‘Oh, you know, it’s worse today,’ no, they’re not.”
Condoleezza Rice rebuffs argument that race relations are worse in America now than everhttps://t.co/9rAB5a2tYx
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 20, 2019
Meanwhile, Jones continued to press Rice on the matter, suggesting racism in this country “top down, it starts with the president.”
“Oh, come on, alright. I would be the first to say we need to watch our language about race,” Rice said. “We need to watch that we don’t use dog whistles to people … but when we start saying, ‘Oh, you know, it’s worse today,’ no, they’re not.”
The former Bush administration official went on to mock Jones for fretting about President Trump’s comments about considering accepting foreign oppo research.
“Let’s not overstate this, alright?” Rice dismissed.
Race Relations Narrative
Jones might want to push her argument off on ‘others’ but regardless of the source, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
Rasmussen recently found that 33 percent of U.S. voters think life for young black Americans has gotten better since Trump’s election.
“By comparison, in July 2016, Obama’s final year in office,” they found, “just 13% said life for young black Americans had gotten better since the election of the nation’s first black president.”
Bolstering those findings, a poll one month prior to the 2016 election showed a majority of Americans believed race relations had worsened under Obama. 54% said the divide had grown worse, while a very low 16% said it had gotten better.
By contrast, in May of 2009, mere months into Obama’s first term, 32% of all Americans believed race relations had improved, while only 6% said they had gotten worse.
That is a massive 64-point turnaround.
Another study conducted by University of Pennsylvania scholars shows that “white Americans’ prejudice toward Latinos and African Americans declined” since Trump took office.
Consider the narrative that Trump has made racism worse officially toast.
