by Kurtis Lee
Los Angeles Times
September 24, 2016
Donald Trump had nothing to say at his rally Saturday about the recent police shootings of black men that have mobilized civil rights activists across the country — but he did talk talk about what he sees as the “new civil rights issue of our time.”
In Trump’s view, it is school choice.
“Too many African Americans have been left behind and trapped in poverty,” Trump said in Roanoke, Va., stressing that he, not Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, will foster better schools and create more jobs for African Americans.
“I will fight to make sure every single African American child in this country is fully included in the American dream. That includes the new civil rights issue of our time: School choice,” he said.
Republicans have often invoked school choice in their efforts to woo minority support from Democrats.
Trump, in the final stretch of a campaign marked by racially divisive rhetoric, is making an overt pitch to black voters. But the appeals, rarely made before black audiences, also appear to be aimed at easing concerns of moderate white voters uneasy with Trump’s racially coded rhetoric.