Donald Trump is once again being accused of throwing out racist dog whistles in an early morning tweet declaring that the “suburban housewife” would definitely vote for him. That, as well as what followed, is being described as a series of thinly veiled warnings that electing Joe Biden means that lots of Black people would be around.
Trump recently announced via tweet that he was ending yet another Obama program, this time a fair housing rule meant to combat discrimination by landlords against tenants of color and others often viewed as “undesirable” in certain neighborhoods. He then bragged about this during speaking events, claiming that low-income housing is “hell for suburbia.”
Newsweek was quick to point out that a recent poll found that 66 percent of women living in the suburbs disapproved of the job Trump has done as president.
While it’s true that some suburban individuals don’t want low-income housing in their areas, it has to go somewhere, and keeping it all in the cities worsens racial segregation due to the still-critical racial wealth disparities in the U.S. Even Trump’s initial tweet announcing the end to the fair housing policy had people accusing him of being a segregationist.
His latest tweet declaring that the “suburban housewife” loves him for this is getting even greater scrutiny for what critics are calling a number of dog whistles, including the naming of an actual Black man for housewives to be afraid of. People are also taking issue with the use of the word “invade,” as white supremacists have used the vision of people of color or others they don’t like “invading” the country for centuries in order to scare people into overt racism.
