Trump's real record on race may surprise you

Quote:

---

One lesson I've learned from working for Donald Trump is that you have to pay attention to what he does, not what he says. The left and the media are on a rampage accusing Trump of being a ‎racist and Nazi and Ku Klux Klan sympathizer because of his words in response to the horrid events in Charlottesville, Va.

Let's all accept two truths: First, that every sane person denounces the ‎violence and racial hatred displayed in Charlottesville by far-right, fringe white supremacists. And second, that Trump should have shown better judgment in his seeming defense of these crazed groups carrying around torches and Confederate flags as if celebrating a darker period in our history.

Words matter for sure, but actions do speak louder than words. Leftists believe that good intentions are more important than results. If you meant well and your heart is in the right place, that's what really matters, according to this creed. As Bill Clinton put it so famously: "I feel your pain." And that was enough.

No one cared more about the plight of black Americans than Barack Obama — our first African-American president — who won well more than 90 percent of the black vote. But the sad paradox of Obama's presidency is that a president who was going to lift up black America economically didn't deliver. From 2009 to 2015, the incomes of black Americans fell by more than $900 per family adjusted for inflation.

So far under Trump, median family incomes have risen by more than $1,000, according‎ to Sentier Research and based on Census Bureau numbers. These numbers are not broken down by race, but it's a pretty good bet that black incomes have risen with those of other races under Trump.

What about other metrics of black economic progress under Trump? It's early for sure, but we have some preliminary results since Election Day, when the stock market started its latest bull market run.

The black unemployment rate has fallen by a full percentage point in the last year, black labor force participation is up and the number of black Americans with a job has risen by 600,000 from last year. Preliminary data show black wages and incomes are up since the election.

The rate of job growth per month for blacks under Trump has so far been 40 percent higher than the monthly average under ‎Obama. Trump has averaged nearly 30,000 new black jobs per month. That's especially remarkable because Obama was elected when employment was way down.

Another issue that is critically important to black and Hispanic economic progress is good schools. Trump is advancing the idea of school choice so that every child can attend a quality school, public or private. In cities such as Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee, the children who benefit from voucher and scholarship programs are predominantly black. Trump wants to increase by tenfold the number of black children who benefit from these vouchers and scholarships.
Fighting Words Newsletter
Twice-weekly
Receive the Chicago Tribune's latest editorials, commentaries and columns, delivered to your email box twice a week.

The goal here is to give every poor or minority child the same range of education choices that wealthy families have.

The same people who denounce Trump for being a racist hypocritically oppose Trump's plan for better school options for black children. I have heard many liberal commentators compare Trump to George Wallace, the late Alabama governor who defended school segregation and stood in front of the white public schools with armed guards to keep the black children out.

Now we have liberals and teachers unions figuratively standing in front of the high-quality white private schools like modern-day George Wallaces trying to keep black children out.

Trump also wants more infrastructure spending, more energy jobs and more apprenticeship programs so our youth have access to better jobs and better training. Disproportionately, blacks and other minorities will benefit from these programs, because fewer have the financial capability to go to a four-year college.

So is Trump a racist who doesn't care about the future of black Americans? Let's face it. He's no Jack Kemp when it comes to talking about race and healing wounds with his words. But Trump is creating more jobs and higher incomes for blacks and other minorities and is trying to give a better education to every disadvantaged black child in America. That is a pretty impressive civil rights record. ‎

Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a senior economic analyst at CNN.

---