While Athletes Speak Out, Trump Drops the Ball with Black Voters

Donald Trump is a political commentator's dream in the usually news-challenged weeks of late summer when we're looking for someone to complain about.

For example, he rejects "political correctness." He says it takes too much time. That reminds me of an old nugget of good advice: If you don't have the time to do it right, when will you find time the time to do it over?

In recent days, for example, we have seen the Republican presidential nominee try to upstage his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's speech on race relations by calling her "a bigot," of all things.

"We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton," he said at a Wisconsin rally on Aug. 16, "which panders to and talks down to communities of color and sees them only as votes -- that's all they care about -- not as individual human beings worthy of a better future."

Yet a few days later, he sent out a tweet about a tragedy in NBA star Dwyane Wade's family that sounded as though he was, yes, seeing communities of color only as votes.

"Dwayne Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago," Trump tweeted, misspelling Wade's first name. "Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!"

Say what? Oh, yeah, I'm really ready to vote for Trump now. Not.

Wade's cousin Nykea Aldridge, 32, was fatally shot Friday afternoon while the mother of four was pushing a baby stroller down a South Side Chicago street on the way to register her children for school. Police described her as the innocent victim of a bullet intended for someone else.

Two brothers with multiple arrests in their backgrounds were held without bond on first-degree murder charges.

The breathtaking callousness of Trump's tweet kicked up a Twitter storm of its own.

Trump or his office tweeted real condolences to Aldridge's family a few hours later, this time with the correct spelling of Wade's name.

Trump loves Chicago for its murders. He frequently has talked about Chicago's homicide surge with a typical right-wing talk show host's narrative: It's President Barack Obama's adopted hometown with his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, as mayor and, in the right wing's view, lots of failures of Democratic policies.

"In so many communities under Democratic control, we have bad schools, no jobs, high crime and no hope. It can't get any worse," Trump said Saturday in Des Moines. "To those suffering, I say: Vote for Donald Trump and I will fix it. What do you have to lose?"

To lose? How about our dignity, for starters.

Sure, there have been Democratic failures in black urban communities. Black Chicagoans have welcomed allies in past decades who have been willing to help, regardless of what party those allies come from.

But Trump has offered himself not as an ally but as an amateur politician, less interested in African-Americans than in easing concerns of fellow Republicans who, according to polls, think he is a racist. Such are the hazards of political incorrectness.

The tragic irony for Wade and his family is that the death of Nykea Aldridge came a day after Wade appeared by satellite during an ESPN town hall in Chicago. The subject: gun violence and what role athletes can play to help fight the problem.

The town hall continued a conversation that began in the ESPY sports awards in July. Wade joined with fellow NBA Stars, LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony to open the telecast by declaring the crises gun violence and police profiling to be "bigger than basketball."

"We want kids to look up to us," Wade said, "and see what we need to be as a culture, community and country.

Athlete activism is a new and, I believe, underappreciated trend in this era of Black Lives Matter and lots of "Second Amendment people," as Trump recently called the gun lobby.

LeBron James, for example, has promised to pay college tuition for kids who want a degree in Akron. Bulls point guard Derrick Rose is donating $1 million to After School Matters, a Chicago apprenticeship program.

We can argue about whether everything these and other well-intentioned athletes do is the right thing, but it's encouraging that they want to do something at all. The issues are too important to be left to politicians.

========

(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)