On Friday Donald Trump released the “Platinum Plan,” his plan for black America. I see it solely as a plan to decrease Joe Biden’s voter base and have absolutely no doubt that, if re-elected, in 2024 black people will be doing the same or possibly even worse than we are today. Here are 10 reasons why black America should say NO to Donald Trump’s plan:
1. The Timing
Why would trump wait until the 45thof a 48-month term to unveil a plan for us. We’ve been asking for one since before he became president in 2016 and the best he had for us was “what do you have to lose?” Any president truly interested in uplifting black people would have prioritized it during his or her initial candidacy. Calling it the “What do You Have to Lose Plan” would have been more sincere. 
Instead he’s trying to lure black people away from Joe Biden with the patronizing name, the “Platinum Plan.” This desperate ploy reminds us black people why we oppose Donald Trump to begin with. To have a platinum plan, one must first have a silver and gold plan. If Trump’s housing discrimination in the 1970s was his silver plan and the Central Park 5 was his Gold, what will this “Platinum Plan” have in store for us? He won’t be worried about re-election so who knows what he’ll actually do to us. Thus far, Trump efforts have been for rich people and while some of the benefits did trickle down to us, none of his policies deserve a medal from black people.
2. It’s Just a Ploy to Decrease Joe Biden’s Black Voter Base.
Unveiling his plan with a little more than a month for us to consider shows he’s negotiating in bad faith. Trump’s plan just seeks to decrease Joe Biden’s black voter base. No one would expect a constructive dialogue about such a major issue to take place and yield any constructive resolutions in 39 days. This subject has been on the table since before he became president. Bringing it up now is extremely telling.
3. We Haven’t Had an Opportunity to “Flinch.”
Master negotiator Robert Dawson teaches that in negotiations, a proper counter offer is always led by a “flinch,” meaning no matter what someone offers, one should always respond as if it is insultingly low. Even if this “Platinum Plan” were a generous offer, we would still say “no” because this is a negotiation and we know Trump is a negotiator. For black people to accept his offer we would need time to counter and then terms would have to be discussed prior to us agreeing.
4. We Haven’t Had a Chance to Counter.
Astute negotiators go for the “I want it all” approach in negotiations, meaning their first offer is more than ideal terms for them. They do this for two reasons: One, it will shock their counterpart and possibly loosen their counterpart’s position. And two, because the person they are negotiating with just may accept. Option two is off the table because we are rejecting Trump’s plan. We also realize this plan is solely the product of white male minds and received little to no black consideration except, perhaps, the “Platinum” title. Trump’s proposals are mostly a rewording of Republican ideals, for instance: “on-shoring manufacturing to advance jobs” and “immigration policies that protect American jobs.” He promised these things in 2015 and never delivered. We want fresh ideas, not white America’s left overs.
5. It Bears No Relation to Ice Cube’s “Contract with Black America.”
Ice cube, while not necessarily speaking for black America, introduced his “Contract with Black America” a month ago. This is the closest thing to a comprehensive list of demands from black people America has available. There’s no way anyone could form a plan for black people without hearing of Ice Cube’s first. For Trump to ignore Cube’s plan and unilaterally draw up his own shows his regard for us and demonstrates the paternal, authoritative stance white men have taken towards black people since before slavery.
6. You’d Have to Offer Us a Lot More to Let You Replace Clarence Thomas.
The value of what black people stand to gain, if anything, from Trump’s “Platinum Plan” plan pales in comparison to the value of being able to replace Clarence Thomas with Daniel Cameron or some other black conservative. Replacing Thurgood Marshall with a black conservative justice was a brilliant move. It was an astute tactic for thwarting the advancement of black men in a white democracy. The thought of two black male justices would raise even liberal whites’ eyebrows. It’s just like the difference between polling white people about neighborhood diversity versus getting them to vote for legislation implementing it; the latter reveals the true nature of racism in liberal America. In the same sense, having a black conservative justice has prevented Democratic presidents from appointing a black liberal one because both liberals and conservative whites will not yet stand for two black men on the Supreme Court. Joe Biden will facilitate a stepping-stone to a second “black males permitted” seat in the Supreme Court by appointing a black woman.
7. It’s Not Strong Enough of Police Brutality and Black Public Safety.
Trump’s “Platinum Plan” is not aggressive enough on neo lynchings by police and white America’s permitting of the persecution of black people. For instance, when protests were considered black “riots,” law enforcement inserted plained clothed cops into the crowds to disrupt them. Once it was determined that it was white supremacists that were making these peaceful protests violent, police’s determination to remove the violent element within theses protests seems to have gone away. Trump’s safety and Justice segment of his plan is nothing but lofty language and looks like a recipe for continued or even escalated abusive policing. It says he plans to “work with police departments, community leaders and mental health professionals to install the most responsive, professional and accountable models of policing, including diversity training and accreditation standards.” In other words, we can be assured they will pay off community leaders while black and brown police carry out racism on racists’ behalf. We black people need weapons against police brutality like tough laws that automatically fire officers who kill unarmed people, regardless of the circumstances. Perhaps a law that forbids officers from carrying personal weapons to plant on unarmed people they shoot. How about disallowing police department from doctoring bodycam footage and simply saying “there was no audio for certain segments.” Orange county sheriff just killed someone a friend of mine went to school with for J-walking. These two white male cops will get away with killing Kurt Reinhold and be on the streets to kill more because Donald Trump empowers racist acts. What Trump has done with much of his plan is reworded his own Republican objectives to make them seem agreeable to black people. He thinks we’re stupid.
8. It has no teeth.
Donald Trump’s plan has no timeline, no guarantees and no method of implementation. Theoretically Trump can do absolutely nothing for black people in his second term and be in full compliance with his “Platinum Plan.” After watching how Republicans exploited nuance, interpreting the Constitution’s words to produce that joke of an impeachment we saw earlier this year, I have no faith in Trump’s will to carry out his plan for black America and am sure it will yield absolutely no deliverables.
9. You’re Not Blaming Us for Bankrupting the Nation.
Tax cuts already happened and the economy has tanked. Trump has been promising an infrastructure bill since he became president. Spending $500 Billion of an already promised bill in the name of black people is not a gift UNLESS you originally planned to prioritize white contractors. Growing businesses through tax cuts is how Trump bankrupted many of his own businesses. The New York Times just released information about Trump’s tax returns and it appears he doesn’t understand the principles of creating or maintaining a strong profitable venture. He doesn’t seem to understand that productivity is not a one-way street. You have to generate revenue and use some of that revenue to pay bills. Trump’s generated most of his first term’s economic prosperity by pumping America’s bill money into the Stock Market via Fed Rate reductions. Every time the market would slow, he would tweet a bullying message to the Fed Chair to lower the Fed Rate and suddenly the market would start growing again. That Fed rate is how America generates its bill money. This could have carried on throughout his first term had COVID19 not taken his last 1.5% prematurely. You can’t bankrupt America when the dollar is the world’s reserve currency. The buck is supposed to stop with us (no pun intended) but under Trump, we’ve become that buck. Where does it stop? Plus, I could imagine Trump supporters blaming the upcoming catastrophic bank crash on Trump trying to help black America. They will definitely blame the upcoming $6+ Trillion in added national debt from the COVID19 stimulus on Joe Biden should he become president.
10. Trump promised healthcare before and never delivered.
I specifically remember analyzing the anatomy of a Donald Trump debate response about healthcare and it was this: 40% superficial slander of Democratic policies, 55% hyping of the plan that he would propose and 5% substance. While debating Hillary Clinton about healthcare in 2016 that 5% of substance was health savings accounts and buying insurance across state lines. While far from new ideas, the only thing he’s done is chip away at Obamacare. He promised cheaper and better healthcare and failed to deliver. If Trump will renege on white America, he has absolutely no plan to deliver for blacks.
Donald Trump could have grabbed a chunk of the black vote. Too bad he though we were stupid.
Trump’s plan immediately grabbed my attention. The proposal had the potential to pull me away from Joe Biden. I imagined getting an easy low-interest loan to start another venture because of the color of my skin. Then I thought of all the things he promised white America and not only failed to deliver, but looked them right in their eyes and lied to them saying he did. If Trump thinks he’s going to lure black people away from the party we actually have leverage on with baseless words, he’s mistaken. We’ve seen how he lured contractors to work on his casino and stiffed them in the end. Not us! It ain’t that kind of party.
Take a look below and see what black people in one of my groups think about Trump’s “Platinum Plan.” ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
