Business magazine Forbes has pulled the plug on a tone-deaf article by a leading DEI researcher that claimed black people might now identify with Donald Trump because he was shot.
USC professor Shaun Harper, whose resume boasts that he has advised more than 400 organizations on their diversity policies, argued that the wounded ex-president’s proud raised fist could resonate with George Floyd protesters.
The article, headlined “Will Surviving Gunfire Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal to Black Voters?” was uploaded at 10:27 a.m. Saturday.
And when the crude analysis was removed hours later, hundreds of disbelieving readers blinked.
“Very sad to see a magazine with the relevance of Forbes measure the appeal of ‘surviving a shooting’ solely on skin color,” one wrote.
“Because black people keep getting shot? Is that the point?” asked another. “Sick and deranged.”
Self-proclaimed DEI expert and USC professor Shaun Harper saw his op-ed retracted within hours after he claimed the shooting of Donald Trump could resonate with Black voters
The image of the former president defiantly raising his fist in the air has already acquired iconic status
Harper, who described himself in the piece 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 claimed that the release of his photo in August 2023 resonated deeply with Black voters because they know firsthand the injustice of our nation’s criminal justice system,” he wrote.
‘Hopefully getting shot doesn’t become an equally problematic strategy to associate Trump with an experience that far too many black people have.
“Another racially problematic kinship narrative is unlikely to make black voters see themselves as one of them. And it certainly won’t solve gun violence.”
But the professor, who has convinced the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post to publish previous articles, fears that photos of the ex-president’s now-iconic raised fist will convince even more black voters to leave the Democratic camp.
“After winning gold and bronze medals for their spectacular performances in the men’s 200 meters at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists as they stood on the podium,” he wrote.
‘Hopefully Trump doesn’t claim his raised fist was a tribute to Smith and Carlos, two powerful black Americans.
The ‘hot take’ was written within four hours of the shooting on Saturday, but deleted hours later
The author expressed concern that the ex-president’s raised fist gesture would appeal to black voters, as he associated it with the Black Power protests of American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos
The image of resistance was also clearly visible during the Black Lives Matters protests
In June 2020, many Black Americans and supporters of other ethnic 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 police against them.
“But now, more than four years later, his raised fist at the Pennsylvania rally could be wrongly associated with the Black community who marched with raised fists in the summer of 2020 and at other times in American history.”
Harper, who boasts having raised more than $40 million from foundations for his DEI research and center at USC, is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC and CNBC.
Foundations have invested $22.2 million in my research on diversity, equity and inclusion, and I have raised another $18.5 million for my center at USC.
But his sharp take on the fallout from the brutal assassination attempt on the former president was criticized 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… I decided to do it,”…no one ever said that before,” wrote one scathing Twitter user.
The tone-deaf opinion piece was screenshotted before it was removed, and sparked an outcry when it was shared on social media
‘So getting arrested and then shot makes him recognizable?? Lots of racism? The media fails daily.’ wrote another.
“They really try to say the worst things about black people, like we can relate to him more because he’s a convicted felon and now he’s a survivor and gets shot at,” a third added.