U.S. President-elect Donald Trump‘s stunning victory Tuesday was summed up as “white-lash” by CNN commentator Van Jones, who said it’s time to talk about the role race played in the election’s outcome.
READ MORE: How will America heal from the nasty, violent race for president?
“There’s another side to this,” Jones said. “We’ve talked about everything but race tonight. We’ve talked about income, we’ve talked about class, we’ve talked about region, we haven’t talked about race.
“This was a white-lash. This was a white-lash against a changing country, it was a white-lash against a black president, in part, and that’s the part where the pain comes.”
What is white-lash?
White-lash is a play of words on the term backlash, with Jones suggesting it was white Americans pushing back against the change underway in the historically white dominated country by voting for Trump on election day.
READ MORE: LGBTQ, Muslims, immigrants left feeling scared, discouraged over Donald Trump win
Full voter data won’t be released for some time, but the Edison Research exit poll indicated a swell of support for Trump among white voters.
The exit poll of nearly 25,000 people found that Trump picked up 58 per cent of white voters versus Democrat Hillary Clinton‘s 37 per cent.
Broken down by gender and race, 63 per cent of white men voted for Trump, versus 31 per cent for Clinton, and 53 per cent of white women voted for Trump, versus 43 per cent for Clinton.
READ MORE: Kellie Leitch wants to bring Donald Trump’s ‘exciting message’ to Canada
It should be noted that white Americans made up nearly 70 per cent of voters who showed up at the polls.
Overall, Clinton picked up 88 per cent of the black vote; 80 per cent of black men voted for Clinton, along with an overwhelming 94 per cent of black women.
-
![]()
Who voted for Trump? -
![]()
President Obama urges national unity following Trump’s election win -
![]()
Therapy dogs brought to Capitol Hill to ease workers’ election stress -
![]()
Trump supporters outside NY Trump Tower say they feel safer wearing red hats -
![]()
Hundreds of California students walk out of school to protest Trump’s electoral win
Trump’s track record on minorities is controversial.
Through his campaign he pledged to deport millions of undocumented “illegals” back to Mexico as well as build a wall along the Mexican border. He suggested a total ban on Muslims entering the country and said mosques should be monitored.
READ MORE: White supremacists and EU far-right leaders praise Donald Trump election win
At times during his campaign Trump worked to connect with African American voters, but he consistently polled at near zero with the demographic.
Jones’ blunt critique made waves on Twitter.
Tuesday night, Jones said Trump needed to make his case to all voters after his win.
“Donald Trump has a responsibility tonight, to come out and reassure people that he is going to be the president of all the people who he insulted, and offended and brushed aside,” Jones said.
READ MORE: Five million Americans voted for third parties, and people are mad
Trump, in his victory speech early Wednesday morning, did offer some indication he may do just that, speaking in an atypically soft tone.
“It is time for us to come together as one united people,” Trump said.
“For those who have chosen not to support me in the past…I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can unify our great country.”
Comments