The president paused for dramatic effect before he walked onstage at his Tulsa rally. He was silhouetted under a blue and white “Make America Great Again” banner and against an American flag. And in the few seconds that he stood basking in adulation, he resembled a giant black rectangle. A massive, inanimate void.
When he emerged into the light, he walked into the cheering embrace of a mostly unmasked crowd bedecked in red Trump hats and MAGA T-shirts, along with the occasional QAnon tank top and “Don’t Tread on Me” pullover.
It’s tempting to say it was a crowd that didn’t look anything like America because it appeared to be so lacking in diversity — so overwhelmingly white. But, in fact, the crowd looked precisely like America does in more than a few suburbs, counties and hollers. In churches and offices. In the president’s inner circle. There were only a few brown faces sprinkled directly behind the president’s lectern, along with a small cluster of them under “Black Voices for Trump” signs. Continue reading.