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Donald Trump’s recent interest in African-American voters has produced a backlash condemning the politicians for his offensive and condescending comments.

To make matters worse, Trump has been addressing predominantly White audiences when speaking to the Black community.

Well, Trump’s campaign announced on Monday that the GOP presidential nominee will make his first appearance before a predominantly Black audience when he visits Great Faith Ministries in Detroit on Saturday.

Wendell Anthony, President of the Detroit NAACP, spoke with Roland Martin about Trump’s attempt to woo African-American voters and the upcoming meeting, which he equated to “a wolf coming to a sheep farm saying ‘let me lead you to greener pastures.’”

Anthony listed all of the opportunities during which Trump could have addressed Black voters and did not take advantage of the moment. If you remember, the Republican skipped the NAACP national convention, the National Urban League’s convention, and the National Action Network’s convention.

The Detroit NAACP head continued to detail Trump’s failure to bridge the gap between himself and African-American voters and included Trump’s role in escalating the “birther” controversy about President Barack Obama.

According to Anthony, Trump is “cherry picking” who he can use as a bridge to speak to the African-American community.

Cutting to the heart of the matter, Anthony drew a direct parallel between Trump’s tactics and the “Southern strategy” employed by Richard M. Nixon “to talk about Blacks, to talk around them, but not to talk to them.” This strategy also infers that African-Americans need “law and order.”

Anthony asked, “If Donald Trump is really concerned about the African-American community, where is he on the extension and the retooling of the Voting Rights Act?” 

The fired up NAACP official continued to make his point pertaining to Trump’s alleged motives and asked why Trump is not sitting down with Martin on NewsOne Now or Tamron Hall or Joy Reid on MSNBC.

Anthony continued his blistering commentary on Trump’s ploy to court Black voters: “Do not allow this guy to use us as leverage to be able to engage the African-American community. He is not speaking to our interests, he is not interested in us, he is interested in our vote.”  

Anthony went on to quote scripture: “By their fruit you shall know them” and added, “He does not have a record … of dealing with, or addressing, or being sensitive to the interests of Black and Brown people.

Don’t cherry pick a minister to use your misinformation and your misconstrued representation as if you are really concerned about us.

“You ain’t been concerned about us to this point, what in the world makes you think that we believe you’re going to be concerned about us going towards the future?”

Watch Roland Martin, Wendell Anthony, and the NewsOne Now panel discuss Donald Trump’s attempt to garner African-American voter support in the video clip above.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

SEE ALSO:

Martin Blasts Trump For Exploiting Black Plight To Win White Moderate Votes

Detroit NAACP Head Absolutely Shreds Trump Over ‘Misconstrued Representation’ Of Black Voter Outreach  was originally published on newsone.com

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