Donald Trump’s Sick, Cynical Racial Con—and How to Fight It

Race is a key part of Trump’s agenda on nearly every issue, from education to immigration. Trump is not insisting on “colorblind” policies, as conservatives in the past thought. Trump’s policies at times quite explicitly favor some racial and ethnic groups, such as white people from South Africa, while targeting others for worse treatment, particularly African Americans and Latinos. In the latest edition of Right Now With Perry Bacon, University of Iowa sociology, criminology, and African-American studies professor Victor Ray and Stanford University professor Hakeem Jefferson discuss the central role of race in Trump’s administration, which they argue has been under-covered. Ray argues that Trump is “weaponizing the tools of the Civil Rights Movement” against people of color, who were its intended beneficiaries. Jefferson says Democrats would make a mistake by downplaying or moving to the right on racial issues.