By Joe Lane
The latest episode of the ABC sitcom “Black-ish,” “Lemons,” addressed the complicated issue of Donald Trump’s election with respect to the groups in the United States that felt and continue to feel alienated by the results.
Prior to this episode, I have never watched an episode of “Black-ish,” and I have not watched any since. I don’t claim to understand the issues presented in this episode or any other, and I certainly don’t claim to understand the overarching themes or plot points of the show, because I am white. What intrigued me about this episode, however, were the powerful (though exaggerated) conversations that took place about the greater meaning of the election.
The most prominent moment in the episode was when Anthony Anderson’s character was challenged on his relative silence about the election.
He sharply retorts with a powerful speech about how the United States continues to fail black Americans: “For most black people, this system has never worked for us. But we still play ball, try to do our best to live by the rules even though we knew they would never work out in our favor. Had to live in neighborhoods that you wouldn’t drive through, sent our kids to schools with books so beat up, you couldn’t read ’em …”
The speech is excellent and, in many ways, breaks the fourth wall as it directly addresses an America as divided as it’s been in a long time. But while it goes a long way in personifying the broad fears of many Americans, it isn’t the most interesting moment. To me, that moment comes a few minutes earlier, when a white woman is asked how she could have voted for Donald Trump.
Her response: “I don’t think Donald Trump is a great guy. Hillary’s no angel, either … I voted for Obama twice, I even got my Republican parents to vote for him. He felt different, I believed he was gonna change stuff. But it’s eight years later; my dad’s still out of work, my home town’s about to go under, and Hillary comes out saying she’s basically gonna keep everything the same. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t work for me or my family.”
This was the best and most valid argument I’ve heard in favor of voting for Trump to date. Yes, I’ve heard the argument that he’s a competent business man, and he’s more aggressive on immigration and foreign policy. But to me, those things all paled in comparison to his instability and lack of knowledge and experience on major issues.
The reason many reasonable (non-hateful) people voted for Trump may have been because the current government wasn’t working for them and their families and they felt that they needed change.
I never considered voting for Trump. In my mind, when you vote for any candidate, you’re voting for the whole person. You don’t get to pick and choose the traits of the candidate that are attractive to you or that you feel can make change, glorify those traits and ignore the negative ones. None of the other candidates were even remotely perfect, but I was willing to accept their flaws for the benefits they presented.
People who voted for Trump — even though the vast, vast majority of them are not even remotely bigoted — made this choice as well. The conversation that needs to be had now is why Trump’s flaws were insignificant to so many while Clinton’s weren’t.
