Business magazine Forbes has retracted an insensitive article written by a prominent DEI researcher that claimed black people could now relate to Donald Trump because he was shot.
USC professor Shaun Harper, who boasts on his resume that he has advised more than 400 organizations on their diversity policies, said the wounded former president’s defiant raised fist could resonate with George Floyd protesters.
The article titled “Will surviving gunshots be Donald Trump’s next selling point for black voters?” was posted at 10.27am on Saturday.
And the crude analysis had left hundreds of incredulous readers blinking in disbelief when it was removed hours later.
“It’s so sad to see a magazine of the stature of Forbes measure the attractiveness of ‘surviving a gunshot’ based solely on skin color,” wrote one.
“Why do black people keep getting shot? Is that the point?” asked another. “Sick and twisted.”
Self-proclaimed DEI expert and USC professor Shaun Harper saw his op-ed retracted just hours after claiming that Donald Trump’s shooting could resonate with black voters.
The image of the former president defiantly raising his fist has already acquired iconic status.
Harper, who describes himself in the article as an “expert on diversity, equity and inclusion,” noted that support for Trump among Black Americans has more than doubled since the 2020 election.
“The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly maintained that the August 2023 release of his mugshot resonated deeply with Black voters because they know firsthand the injustice of our nation’s criminal justice system,” he wrote.
‘Hopefully, getting shot won’t become an equally problematic strategy to link Trump to an experience too many black people have had.
“Another racially problematic kinship narrative is unlikely to make black voters see Trump as one of them. And it certainly won’t solve gun violence.”
But the professor, who has persuaded the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post to publish previous articles, fears that photos of the former president’s now-iconic raised fist will convince even more black voters to abandon the Democratic field.
‘After winning gold and bronze medals for their spectacular performances in the men’s 200-meter race at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, American track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists as they stood on the podium,’ he wrote.
‘Let’s hope Trump doesn’t say his raised fist was a tribute to Smith and Carlos, two powerful black Americans.
The ‘hot take’ was written within four hours of Saturday’s shooting, but deleted hours later.
The author expressed fears that the former president’s raised fist gesture would attract black voters by associating it with the Black Power protest of American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
The image of defiance was also very present during the Black Lives Matters protests.
In June 2020, many Black Americans and supporters of other racial groups marched in cities across the country with their fists raised.
‘They were protesting the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
‘Then-President Trump used the National Guard and law enforcement as weapons against them.
“But now, just over four years later, there is a chance that his raised fist at the Pennsylvania rally is being wrongly associated with Black people who marched with their fists raised at protests in the summer of 2020 and at other times in American history.”
Harper, who boasts of having attracted more than $40 million from foundations for his DEI research center at USC, is a frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC and CNBC.
Foundations have invested $22.2 million in my diversity, equity and inclusion research, and I have secured an additional $18.5 million for my center at USC.
But his view on the implications of the brutal assassination attempt on the former president was criticised by some as “beyond racist”.
“I didn’t vote for him because he was a criminal, but when they tried to put a bullet in his ass… that made up my mind,” said no one ever,” wrote one scathing tweet.
Screenshots of the tone-deaf op-ed were taken before it was deleted, and sparked howls of protest when it was shared on social media.
“So the fact that he was arrested and then shot makes him relatable? Too much racism? The media fails on a daily basis,” wrote another.
“They’re really trying to say the worst things about black people, like we identify with him more because he’s a convicted felon and now he survived being shot,” a third added.