A Black conservative radio host is facing backlash for referring to Black supporters of Donald Trump as “field African Americans.”
Shelley Wynter made an appearance on CNN on Oct. 16 where he made “a bazooka blast” statement when he broke down the Black male electorate in the U.S. into “house African Americans and field African Americans.”
“Let me boil this election down in the African American community to a very simple — I’ll reference the great Malcolm X,” he said. “This race is between house African Americans and field African Americans, and field African Americans are voting for [Donald] Trump.”
The remarks referenced the “house slaves” who worked inside the slave house during enslavement in the U.S. and the “field slaves” who worked outdoors. While Wynter claims he was referencing a Malcolm X quote, his comments drew criticism from CNN News Central co-host Sarah Sidner and guest Michael Blake, and many who watched the clip back.
According to Rashawn Ray, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, Wynter’s comments “speak to a growing social class divide between the have and have-nots among Black Americans.”
“These are the types of comments that oftentimes occur behind closed doors within the Black community.”
Wynter claims that he was referencing part of Malcolm X’s famous 1963 speech, “The Race Problem in America,” where the revolutionary leader compared modern Black individuals who resisted separating from white societal power to house slaves. The “The Shelley Wynter Show” host is standing by his comments saying anyone who has a problem with him invoking Malcolm X and slavery was “overanalyzing it.”
“There’s an argument to be made that we’re all technically slaves to this system, whether you’re Democrat or Republican,” he said. “No one’s being called a slave. It’s using an analogy in the context of what it was used, the same as when Malcolm was explaining something, and he wasn’t calling Black people slaves when he gave that speech.”
“He was saying that this was an attitudinal thing. There are people in the Black community who, when they’re close to power — i.e., master — they will take on the attributes and defend that power. And that’s what we’re seeing now with this race.”
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