Donald Trump’s questionable and even outright prejudice rhetoric when dealing with issues pertaining to people of color has been a focal point of his presidential campaign since he first announced his White House bid. He recently made headlines yet again by referring to a Black person in the audience at one of his rallies as “my African-American.”
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The bizarre incident happened just days after Trump was officially presumed as the Republican presidential nominee and the man on the receiving end of the hoopla in light of Trump’s statement is surprisingly not offended. Gregory Cheadle says he attended Trump’s rally with “an open mind” and did not take offense when the reality star turned GOP presidential front runner referred to him as his “African-American.” “I was not offended by it because he had been speaking positively about black people prior to that statement,” Cheadle told NPR.
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“People around me were laughing [at the fact] that he noticed me, and everybody was happy. It was a jovial thing.”
Although Cheadle says he didn’t see anything particularly wrong with the way Trump singled him out, he also wants to make it clear that he doesn’t consider himself a Trump supporter and has made no plans to vote for him in the general election.”I am not a Trump supporter,” he said.
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“I went to go hear Donald Trump because I have an open mind. I am a free man. I am not chained to any particular party, and I refuse to be chained to any particular party.”
Trump has continuously attempted to draw in more African-American supporters throughout the course of his campaign, but most are simply not convinced that he has the best interest of the Black community at heart.
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