Showing posts with label Black Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Twitter. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

On Twitter, Trump accuses blacks of racism three times as often as whites


In his eight years on Twitter, Trump has been far more likely to accuse African Americans of racism than white people.

During a White House speech on Monday President Donald Trump denounced racism as "evil" after facing two days of bipartisan criticism for declining to specifically condemn Nazis and white supremacists following a violent rally Charlottesville, Virginia.

After a non-specific response on Saturday decrying the violence exhibited on "many sides," on Monday he addressed the problem head on: "Racism is evil," he said, "and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to all that we hold dear as Americans."

Trump's initial hesitancy to call out white racism did not go unnoticed, and it has similarities with a longstanding trend on Trump's twitter account: In his eight years on Twitter, Trump has been far more likely to accuse African Americans of racism than white people.

Trump has used the word "racist" or "racism" at least 56 times on Twitter, according to the Trump Twitter Archive, a website that tracks and archives all the President's tweets. In two-thirds of those Tweets, Trump levied accusations of racism at individuals or groups of people. And those accusations followed a very clear pattern: Trump has directed accusations of racism toward black people three times as often as he's done so against whites.

Read more: On Twitter, Trump accuses blacks of racism three times as often as whites