President Trump's White House has been planning to hold the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Conference Week set for September as its traditionally been part of the White House initiative every year. But the CEO for Thurgood Marshall Fund, Johnny C. Taylor, sent a letter to the White House asking that the event be postponed, especially since the event follows the outbreak of violence committed by racist hate groups on August 12 in Charlottesville, Virginia. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during the first press briefing in three weeks on Thursday that the event would continue as scheduled.
White House defies demands to postpone HBCU event
Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) made the same request of the administration, saying that those who had registered for the HBCU event might not end up attending after the events in Charlottesville. Sanders' statement is only the most recent statement of defiance by Trump's aides that the White House will continue with the conference anyway. According to an article by BuzzFeed News titled: "White House Going Ahead With HBCU Conference After Charlottesville," White House aide Omarosa Manigault sent an email to the media outlet saying that they still intend to carry on with the conference and that they were still committed to their support for the HBCU.
In a similar pattern of stubborn and bullheaded decisions, when Manigault's presence at recent event for black journalists was announced at the last minute, those involved and attending the event knew from that point on that her being invited was already going to be a problem.
When she did attend, the discussion fell apart almost immediately. As it relates to the HBCU event, politically and logistically, it is already too close to the events of Charlottesville -- as it is being held in Northern Virginia.
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The city's decision to remove a Robert E. Lee statue lured white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and members of the "alt-right" for a "Unite the Right" rally to protest, starting on the evening of August 11.
They reportedly ended up clashing with counter-protesters who believe that the ideology from those racist hate groups should not have a chance to gain ground. The fights picked up again the next day during a larger rally, which led to a white nationalist driving his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring 19.
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Two police officers who were monitoring the events from the air were also killed when their helicopter crashed. Trump then successfully stoked the anger of the nation when it took him hours to make a statement where he was expected to denounce the hate groups. Instead, he ended up blaming "both sides" for the violence. He would make a more formal statement under pressure from his chief of staff Gen. John Kelly on the Monday that followed, where he denounced the groups by name. On Tuesday, he came out again and doubled-down on his previous statement, blaming both sides in an angry display before the press, defying expectations.
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The trilogy of statements fueled criticism from even some within his own party, while many of his aides and supporters in the administration were either fired or they left willingly. BuzzFeed also reported on a tour of students who visited Howard University approximately a week after Charlottesville, wearing the Trump campaign's "Make America Great Again" hats and shirts, where they were confronted by black students. In an Act Of Defiance very similar to Donald Trump, the students defended themselves against criticism of their bad decisions and blamed the black students for harassment.
President versus consensus
As if it wasn't enough that the administration refuses to postpone the HBCU event, the HBCU board is also vulnerable to the administration's influence as they are currently looking to add a chairman and an executive to that board.
But as to the request made by Mr. Taylor, he also added in his message to the White House that there was consensus that the event should be postponed. If anything, President Trump has already shown that mass consensus against his decisions or his views means nothing.
Such was the case with him losing the popularity vote against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, or when the number of people who attended former President Obama's inauguration outnumbered those who attended Trump's, and when the nation wanted him to denounce Nazis but he decided to return to blaming all sides. In all of those cases, he defied those who know better. The White House continuing to do the same with the HBCU event is just another act of defiance by the president.