I never thought I’d defend Donald Trump, but he’s right about America’s Black community

Donald Trump has landed himself in hot water again, this time over a statement he made Michigan.

Addressing the Black community, he said: “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed – what the hell do you have to lose?”

Trump left the teleprompter to make this unscripted statement and every political commentator, news reporter, and disgruntled tweeter had something to say about it.

Rather than wasting your time with another article focusing on Trump’s offensive speech, his ignorance, or any other way his campaign has managed to embarrass not only the majority of the Republican Party but the entire United States; I’m going to take some time to point out why we should take the time to actually listen to his statement and evaluate it realistically in spite of whatever our personal feelings toward the man may be.

‘You’re living in poverty’

African Americans have the highest poverty rate of 27.4 percent. While 14.5 percent of white children under the age of six live in poverty, a whopping 45.8 percent of Black children of the same age range live in poverty. That being said, poverty is obviously a very serious issue for the Black community. So I’m having a hard time understanding why Hillary Clinton’s Twitter referred to Trump’s statement as ignorant? I would daresay that deflating the very real issues that plague the Black community and writing what Trump said off as some sort of ignorant dramatization of the state of Black America is the true ignorance.

‘Your schools are no good’

This statement is a harsh but accurate evaluation of the inequality in education afforded to Black youth vs their white counterparts.

“On average, schools serving more minority populations have less-experienced, lower-paid teachers who are less likely to be certified,” says an in-depth analysis of American education in U.S. News & World Report.

Aside from overall poorer quality education, African American students also are suspended or expelled at THREE times the rate of white students. In addition to receiving more punishment, Black students also are held back at a much higher rate than white Americans.

“They make up 16 percent of school enrollment, but account for 32 percent of students who receive in-school suspensions, 42 percent of students who receive multiple out-of-school suspensions and 34 percent of students who are expelled,” adds the same report.

Unfortunately, that means the current education system is not serving its minority students properly and as that population continues to grow that means there are many disparities that are the result of numerous problems that need to be addressed. That U.S. News and World Report News on education argued:

“These factors — a mix of race, poverty and family structures — are associated with a plethora of other problems: lower math and reading achievement, behavioral problems, grade retention, obesity, risky sexual behavior, greater risk of illness, greater risk of interpersonal or self-directed violence. The list is endless and the issues continue through adulthood, creating a cycle that proves difficult to escape for many. For those that do, however, disparities don’t end with college enrollment.”

These issues require immediate attention and repair of our broken educational system and to minimize these issues just further marginalizes the communities they plague.

‘You have no jobs. 58 percent of your youth is unemployed’

Now this is when things get a little bit confusing…. Many are attacking this statement as untrue or an exaggeration. While that is possible that Trump camp fills his speeches with lies and setting him up for failure, I wouldn’t say it is probable. I would argue that it is more probable that there was a little bit of miscommunication or confusion regarding this statistic. His statement gets the same scrutiny as Bernie Sanders when he claimed the real unemployment rate of African American youth ages 17-20 was 51 percent.

The numbers are higher because the commonly-quoted unemployment rate statistic uses less inclusive criteria and thus not factoring in, for example, high school graduates or drop-outs who didn’t try to attain further schooling and thus have entered the workforce with only a high school education/G.E.D. or less. Furthermore, their statistics also include those working part-time due to weakness of the economy. All that aside, regardless of the evaluation criteria, the main point is the same. African Americans youth have significantly worse job prospects than any other demographic.

I never thought the day would come when I defended Donald Trump…but when he’s attempting to amplify the voices of the Black community and bring our issues to the forefront, I do not appreciate others brushing off his claims as over-exaggerated.

The only ignorance I see here comes from his critics who dismiss his statement. Just because some of the statistics regarding African Americans and our youth are so disgustingly unbelievable doesn’t mean they aren’t true.