Subscribe
NewsOne Featured Video
CLOSE

What do the numbers 88-0-91-0 actually mean?

Unfortunately, that is not your bae’s iPhone passcode, the number your grandma wanted you to play for her down at the barbershop, nor the score of next year’s NBA Finals now that Kevin Durant and Steph Curry have teamed up. Those are the winning numbers Omarosa Manigault is currently serving up in her new role as director of African-American outreach for the Trump campaign.

In the key swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, both of which have major electoral college heft, the GOP’s presumptive presidential candidate Donald Trump is polling at zero percent.

Yes, zero percent.

Hillary Clinton polls at 88 percent among Ohio African-American voters compared to Trump’s zero percent, and Clinton widens that lead to 91 percent among Pennsylvania African-American voters. Trump still stands at, you guessed it, zero.

Thus the oh-so-special combination of 88-0-91-0.

Trump, with his trusty side-kick Omarosa, goes on to hold this clear polling number among African-American voters nationwide as well, including other key swing states of Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Nevada.

So let’s assume the euphemistic glass of Trump Kool-Aid for African-Americans is half-full. Meaning, there is no downside to zero percent polling support, and all one can do is go “all the way up,” as our favorite new rappers like to chant.

Moreover, if we take one long big sip from that same spiked glass and then open our mouths to speak, why on earth would the first words out of one’s mouth be to appoint someone like Omarosa to lead African-American outreach effort? It doesn’t make sense, not when one might argue that her personal national polling with African-Americans also hovers close to zero for so many obvious reasons that any experienced viewer of reality television or woke African-American could see.

After all, would you appoint Flavor Flav to lead a class on etiquette, or as of last night, Melania Trump to write an original political speech? Then why would you select Omarosa to lead your efforts to reach African-American voters?

The answer lies in a wicked little triangle:

  • America’s sick obsession with all things celebrity.
  • How little Donald Trump truly understands or values the African-American electorate.
  • And last but certainly not least, the self-imposed egg we as African-Americans need to wear on our faces for continuing to prop up and participate in Omarosa’s foolishness.

We already know that upon receiving the appointment, Omarosa pulled Trump tactic number one and simply ignored reality by stating that the polling numbers are wrong and not reflective of the wealth of African-American support she sees among her circles. (Y’all didn’t know there are Black folks bursting at the seams and chomping at the bit to vote for Donald Trump in your church, beauty shop, and weekly pick-up game?)

So let me close with a glimpse into the trusted playbook of the Trump campaign and the master plan of Omarosa’s vision for African-American outreach. Deny reality, laugh it off with a fake and venomous smile, implore and praise Mr. Trump like the smiley butler Sam Jackson played in the film Django, and then show up at your family reunion and backyard barbecue this summer with boxes full of “Make America Great Again” hats – colored in bright Kool-Aid red, of course!

Thanks Omarosa for representing us all so well, and thank you Mr. Trump for such a winning strategy. All we need now is for African-Americans to continue to support this minstrel foolishness and sip once more on the Trump Kool-Aid.

Drink up and enjoy America, but don’t forget to show up and vote.

– Kwame Jackson is an entrepreneur, media personality, professional speaker and a former contestant of NBC’s hit show “The Apprentice.” You can follow him on Twitter @kwameinc

10 Black Trump Supporters
'All-Star Celebrity Apprentice' Red Carpet Event
9 photos