Rev. William Barber Says Racism Provided The Path For Trump’s Presidency

“There would have been no Trump without an Obama,” says Rev. William Barber, speaking with Ari Berman for the Mother Jones conversation on reviving democracy. Rev. Barber said Trump is not the first of his kind to use a strategy of racism to appeal to the white working class to advance politically.

Rev. Barber who spoke at the DNC convention has since focused on the mass poverty and income inequality that exists in the United States, something that Tavis Smiley and Cornell West was attacked for doing during the Obama presidency. While unemployment is said to be down, the fact is low wage job creation has not benefitted working class people who still qualify for food stamps despite being employed.