President Trump’s contempt for the media, which he has dubbed the “enemy of the people,” is no secret. The president has also publicly criticized and insulted several prominent black women, including Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who he has described as having a “low IQ.”
This week Trump singled out three African-American female journalists for asking him questions — Abby Phillip, who Trump said asked “stupid” questions, April Ryan, whom he called “a loser,” and Yamiche Alcindor, who, according to Trump, asked “a racist question” about his white nationalist supporters during a press conference at the White House.
Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III joined Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Boston Public Radio Monday for their weekly "All Revved Up" segment to discuss Trump’s relationship to women of color in the media.
“He has a tremendous contempt against women in general, and a particular spot for African-American women,” Monroe said. “What I like about all of them is that they didn’t allow Trump to exploit this racist trope of the ‘angry black woman’ ... they stayed very professional.”
“These women have such grace and are so polished,” Price said. “You look at these black women who are in the national media who are standing up, and they go back to their job and they ask the hard questions.”
Irene Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist, the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, and a visiting researcher in the religion and conflict transformation program at Boston University’s School of Theology. Emmett G. Price III is a professor and founding executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
