Considering it’s only been a mere 48 hours since President Trump used Jay-Z’s criticisms of him to take credit for the record low black unemployment rates in the U.S, we all knew what was coming tonight during the POTUS’s first State of the Union address — and clearly, the Congressional Black Caucus did too.
Early on in the State of the Union, the president addressed the state of the economy, noting that unemployment rates are at an all time low, including those for African Americans and Hispanic Americans.
“And something I’m very proud of, African American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded,” Trump said during the speech.
When you take into account the fact that the black unemployment rate has been falling since 2011, and that it’s kind of difficult to point to any specific one of Trump’s policies that would significantly impact African American unemployment rates, well… It’s kind of hard to see how exactly the POTUS had any hand in lowering unemployment rates as he claims. For this reason, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of African American representatives and senators, were *not* amused.
The Congressional Black Caucus responding to Trump bragging about low African-American unemployment. #SOTU pic.twitter.com/1rokp95wKj
— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) January 31, 2018
While Trump stood up to clap for himself (which seemed to be a common theme throughout the night), and many members of the Republican party stood to applaud, members of the CBC hit the president with some pretty obvious and well-deserved side eye.
As Vox notes, many members of the CBC opted out of attending Trump’s first State of the Union altogether as part of a protest of Trump’s failure to condemn Nazi sympathizers after violence in Charlottesville last year and his comments toward black NFL players protesting police brutality and racial inequality — while those who did attend said they felt the speech was an opportunity to, “stare racism in the face.”