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Day 6

Mychal Denzel Smith on Trump and the 'resentful white male electorate'

This week's Republican convention arrived amid rising racial tensions in the United States. A new poll found a majority of Americans think race relations are bad and getting worse. Mychal Denzel Smith is a 29 year-old columnist for The Nation whose new book "Invisible Man, Got The Whole World Watching" is getting critical acclaim for his recounting of what it's like to be a young black man coming up in America in the 2000s, a country that elects a black President but is still dangerous for him to walk the streets in.
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Mychal Denzel Smith, author of Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching. Published by Nation Books. (Syreeta McFadden)
Day 612:27What Mychal Denzel Smith learned about being black in America, from Trayvon Martin to Donald Trump

Donald Trump's rise is a reaction from white voters to American progress over the past decade including the election of Barack Obama, according to Mychal Denzel Smith a writer for The Nation and author.

"We're living through the moment of backlash." Smith told Day 6.

Mychal Denzel Smith is the author of a new book, Invisible Man, Got The Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education. The book recounts his experience as a millenial in America, a country that elects a Barack Obama but can still dangerous for him to walk the streets in because of ongoing police violence against black men.

"It's only natural that the system in place does everything it can to protect itself and the embodiment of that is Donald Trump — speaking to and speaking for the aggrieved, resentful, white male electorate, that feels America is their birthright and is slipping away from them."

Hillary Clinton

Smith isn't a fan of Hillary Clinton either.

Smith says she's "well versed" in attracting the support of African-Americans on the campaign trail, but is out of touch with the discourses coming out of movements like Black Lives Matter, which has been demonstrating against police killings of unarmed black men.

Smith says Clinton "Is a product of a time period when America would rather discuss things like diversity and multiculturalism and not anti- racism and not the dismantling of white supremacy".

Even with the potential of a Donald Trump presidency, he is unsure if he can vote for Hillary.

"I don't want to be scared into voting for someone that I disagree with simply because they can point to the other side and say do you want crazy?"    

Invisible Man

Smith's book title is taken from the Yasiin Bey song Hip Hop, which came out in 1999 when Bey went by Mos Def.  

The song is partly about how hip-hop became a global phenomenon which propelled black males into the spotlight, after generations of being an invisible underclass.

The lyric goes: We went from picking cotton/ To chain gang line chopping/To be-bopping, to hip-hopping/ blues people got the blue chip stock option/ Invisible man, got the whole world watching.

For Smith, the lyric speaks to the current moment where black victims of  violence are thrust into the public view. He says the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was an example of this. 

" Trayvon Martin was invisible to us before February 26, 2012. And then George Zimmerman killed him. And now suddenly what the world is doing is watching the drama of his life unfold, trying to dissect his life. But Trayvon is not here to tell his story. "  

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