Trumping Donald's Race Rhetoric

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 Election years are a particularly exciting time for Public Speaking educators like myself. Being able to connect theory and course material to the rhetoric and presentation styles of the presidential candidates creates relevancy and invites rich classroom discussion for my students. I have had some very colorful discussions in my class this semester centered around our presidential candidates and I knew that the second debate would be another opportunity for these conversations to continue.  I was eager to watch the second presidential debate since I knew that the content and delivery style of both candidates would be the hot topic in my classes this past Monday.

As I watched Hillary and Donald duke it out, I quickly noted the peculiar nonverbal behaviors of Trump.  He did many things I tell my students not to do- awkward movements , pacing back and forth, leaning on a chair, not making eye contact with his audience.Read here for more analysis on Donald's nonverbal behaviors during the most recent debate.  I can't forget to mention the return of his now famous sniffles in which he was said to have sniffled approximately 93 times (which comes out to about a sniffle a minute). Additionally, both Hillary and Donald illustrated poor listening and took turns in monopolizing conversation and ambushing each other the during the 90 minute debate. 

It wasn’t until Mr. Trump started talking about racial groups and the “inner cities” when I realized  that the most valuable teaching moment from this debate had nothing to do with public speaking styles. I cringed as I heard Donald state, “I’m going to help the African- Americans. I’m going to help the Latinos, Hispanics. I am going to help the inner cities. Clinton has done a terrible job for the African-Americans.”  Throughout the 90 minutes, I heard Donald say “The African Americans” and “The Latinos” various times. The way he addressed and labeled these racial groups was concerning to me and I knew that I would not be the only one who would be bothered by his demeaning and irresponsible rhetoric. This insightful article provides a linguistic perspective about why putting “the” in front of a racial group can raise some eyebrows.

Trump’s race rhetoric quickly resulted in the hashtag #theAfricanAmericans to trend on social media by people who were offended by his word choice. This short article provides a snapshot of some rather clever tweets with the hashtag #theAfricanAmericans. I know that many of us might not understand why Trump’s word choice is problematic and I have a feeling that Trump himself did not intend to be insulting or offensive in the statements that he made. Trump’s offensive statements illustrate just how complicated and challenging talking about race can be. Talking about race can be uncomfortable for both People of Color and White folks alike. From my years of experience in talking to people about race, I know that two common reasons that this uncomfortabililty exists is due to the fear of offending someone and/or the fear of appearing racist. Due to these fears, many people shy away from engaging in conversations regarding race. However, as we continue to become an increasingly diverse society and matters of race continue to be brought up in our everyday lives, learning how to effectively communicate about race becomes increasingly important. Avoiding the topic of race will only be counterproductive to strengthening intercultural relationships and inclusion efforts in our country. When Trump referred to African American and Latino PEOPLE as “The African Americans and The Latino’s” he did two things that are problematic and counterproductive to effective intercultural communication:

1. He Generalized.

When we talk about racial groups we have to be careful not to generalize and lump a diverse group of people together as if they could fit neatly into a box. For example, his use of “the” in front of “African Americans” works to homogenize roughly 13% of the U.S. Population. His statement suggesting that all African Americans are the same and have the same lived experiences, values, beliefs, and realities. If your only frame of reference about African American people was via media, you might actually believe that All African American people are the same. Trust me, they aren't! The African American identity group is dynamic, evolving, and heterogeneous. There are many ways of expressing and constructing racial identity and there are different ways of being “African American.” We are also more likely to make a stereotypical statement when we put a “the” in front of an identity group. When you say “African American people” vs the African Americans it becomes harder to say something generalizing because the word “people” inherently implies individuality. When you say “African American people” you are acknowledging the individuality and affirming personhood which brings me to my next point..

2. He didn’t affirm or acknowledge personhood.

 Many people felt insulted and offended by Donald’s word choice because when you don’t acknowledge personhood you run the risk of people feeling as if you have demeaned and dehumanized their identities. Personhood, according to dictionary.com, is the state or fact of being an individual or having human characteristic and feelings. When we talk about social identity groups, it is important to affirm personhood because by doing so you acknowledge that social identity groups are not static labels but instead are groups that are filled with PEOPLE. People who although may look similar are unique from each other in many ways. When you take the time to affirm personhood you are being respectful and humanizing the individuals within the group you are referring to.  You are also acknowledging the diversity and multiplicity of identity groups which may in turn help to decrease the use of stereotypes that we often associate with certain identity groups.  

The best thing about affirming personhood is that it is super easy and takes one second to do. When one affirms personhood they put a word that acknowledges individual identity (such as people, person, women, man, child, friend, family, etc) after the group identity label. For example, instead of saying “The African Americans” Donald could have said  “African American people” or “African American families.” Another example would be if you were talking about a Jewish friend you would want to say something like “Daniel, my Jewish friend is going to Israel this summer” rather than saying “Daniel, the Jew I am friends with, is going to Israel this summer.” Affirming personhood is as simple as that!

When we take the time to value something like affirming personhood, we are working towards increasing our individual levels of cultural competency and we are communicating our respect for others who are different than ourselves. Both are important considering we are living in a globalized world and specifically a highly multicultural United States of America. However, don’t think that when you begin to affirm personhood or stop generalizing racial/ethnic groups that you will overnight become a culturally competent person.  Cultural competency is something that evolves through knowledge, experiences, self-awareness, and increased intercultural interactions. It is something that we should continue to work on and develop throughout our lives. I myself did not always affirm personhood when addressing different culture groups and talking about race and diversity is something I do professionally! This just shows you that knowing how to communicate effectively about race and diversity is not something that always comes naturally- it is something that you can learn and continue to work on throughout your lifetime.

Trump’s famous wall will probably never get built but unless we learn from the mistakes that Donald has made when talking about race during his campaign, we will be left with many walls and barriers between us that will leave our nation more divided than united.