LANSING, MI — Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said President Donald Trump “does not value black lives,” but she does not believe all people who have voted for him in the past are racist.
Barnes made the comments during a virtual press conference Thursday, June 4, a few days after writing a statement titled, “The Time for Silence is Over,” which drew criticism from Laura Cox, chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party.
In that statement released May 31, Barnes said, “If you support Donald Trump, you are a racist. Here is where it gets tricky and uncomfortable. Donald Trump is a racist, and if being a racist is not a dealbreaker for you, you are the reason Black people are being murdered for being Black.”
When asked by a reporter Thursday whether she believed all people who have voted for Trump in the past are racist, Barnes said, “I don’t. And what I said, very clearly, is that if you’re supporting this Donald Trump, who is engaging in racist activities, then you are a racist. I was not in any way suggesting that having voted for him in the past makes you a racist.”
During the press conference, which Barnes hosted with State Rep. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, the MDP chairwoman reiterated her position that “silence is not an option."
“Earlier this week, I said, most of you saw, ‘The time for silence is over.’ I felt compelled to speak up about this president’s hateful and divisive rhetoric and to discuss the devastating impact it has had on the black community. Donald Trump didn’t create the racial inequities that have left black Michiganders behind, but he did indeed make them worse. Time and again, he’s shown nothing but callous disregard and, as a result, black people have suffered," Barnes said.
Barnes said Trump’s “failed response to COVID-19 has devastated black Michiganders" and “when protesters stand up and demand that police be held accountable for racist conduct and abusing black people, he calls those protesters ‘rioters’ and ‘looters’ and demands that governors ‘dominate’ their citizens.” In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump administration “has rolled back critical Obama-era policing reforms and has refused to investigate police departments with cultures of abuse,” she said.
"If it wasn’t clear before, the past three years have made it obvious: Donald Trump does not value black lives. If he did, he wouldn’t have fanned the flames of racial hate with his divisive rhetoric, he would have taken action on this pandemic and acknowledged the ways in which it is specifically devastating to the black community, and he’d be standing with the protesters demanding justice for George Floyd and working to truly change our criminal justice system, not tweeting about halfhearted reforms while his DOJ fails to hold police departments accountable for abuse,” Barnes said Thursday.
“The time for silence is over. We have to have these difficult conversations if we’re ever going to move our country forward and hold accountable those who are holding us back.”
Anthony said, “this is a moment like none other.”
“I know that in November when those of us who have been protesting and have been using everything we have to bring us together, we’re not just going to use our feet to walk and our voices to elevate these issues, we’re going to also use the power of the ballot to finally say, ‘Enough. Enough of the hatred and the fear-mongering and the division.’ We can do better. We’ve seen our country better. And we’ve all reached a breaking point.”
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