It should have surprised no one when, on Aug. 19, Donald Trump announced his outreach to African-American voters. He did it by tapping into the same “village” spirit that made America great in the first place. First, he reminded African-Americans they have been consistently and deliberately ignored by the Democratic Party for more than 50 years. Then, opening his arms, he asked, “What have you got to lose? Look, it is a disaster the way African-Americans are living.…We’ll get rid of the crime. You’ll be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Right now, you walk down the street, you get shot.”
It was a question that resonates well beyond the mostly white working-class voters in Trump’s Akron, Ohio audience. Even faithful Obama followers like Fox News’ Juan Williams gets the message: “Millions of black and Hispanic students in U.S. schools simply aren’t taught to read well enough to flourish academically. For them, the end of the school year marks another lost opportunity, another step toward a life of blunted potential.”
But, of course, the progressive media went ballistic. ABC, CBS, CNN, CNBC and PBS all piled on, outraged that a rich, white male capitalist like Donald Trump would dare to speak the unspeakable and touch the untouchable. All the usual-suspect blogs from Politico to Huffington Post and the always liberal elitist newspapers like the New York Times and The Washington Post dragged out their same old put-downs about the “low-information” voters who “cling to their guns and bibles.”
As for that once great organizational champion of “black rights,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), they got their comeuppance from the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley in his Aug. 24 column: “Give Mr. Trump credit,” Mr. Riley wrote, “for not doing something that too many Republican presidential candidates before him have done, only to have it blow up in their face…. Giving speeches to civil-rights groups like the NAACP isn’t effective black outreach. It’s a setup.”
Drawing attention to the NAACP’s opposition to charter schools in such public school districts as New York City, Riley concluded, “Should the Trump campaign do a better job of addressing the actual needs of black voters? Sure. But these days, you could fairly say the same thing about groups like the NAACP.”
So how, cynics ask, can the Trump campaign possibly “do a better job of addressing the actual needs of black voters?” There are only 11 weeks left to do it and Hillary’s poll numbers are daunting.
Part of the answer is in what Hillary Clinton has already claimed herself in her book, “It Takes a Village.” Clinton’s right. It does “take a village” to make “lives matter.” If you read her book, though, you’ll quickly learn that the “village” she’s talking about is the District of Columbia—a vast complex of giant buildings full of anonymous bureaucrats who neither know nor care about the millions of average citizens who live thousands of miles away. The village that really makes lives matter is the place where people encounter each other every day. In other words, it’s only the place where you live that can make your life matter. Even a billionaire like Trump understands that. Just look at how he’s raised his own kids.
So why wouldn’t he double down on this pitch to the African-American community, especially those millions of unemployed young black men and single black moms and their children trapped in the crime-ridden “plantations” the Obama administration has ignored for almost eight years and Hillary Clinton has promised to continue to ignore? Both she and the NAACP have made it clear that is their plan. Why? Because that’s what the teachers unions want.
So now Trump is putting together a team of prominent African-Americans who know what’s needed and can both talk the talk and walk the walk of the “village” spirit. The Trump campaign already has on board a few of the right people to lead this effort, including Dr. Ben Carson and Omarosa Manigault. Many more are needed, though. To mention just a few proven leaders, Robert L. Woodson Sr,, Kevin P. Chavous, and Herman Cain should be considered.
What about that Korean mom Michelle Rhee who literally wrote the book on genuine educational reform titled “Radical”? She had some excellent ideas and started some very promising programs like “Students First,” until she somehow disappeared from everybody’s radar after marrying Obama’s buddy, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.
In the final analysis, whatever solutions may be offered to heal the damage done by decades of Democratic Party neglect, the best solutions are those tailored to the specific and unique needs of each African-American “village.” Not all villages are the same. One size will not fit all. Any plan to revive the “village” spirit must address not only troubled urban neighborhoods like South Chicago and Baltimore but also poor rural regions like those in South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. As Paul Theroux has observed: “To me, globalization is the search for a new plantation, and cheaper labor; globalization means that, by outsourcing, it is possible to impoverish an American community to the point where it is indistinguishable from a hard-up town in the dusty heartland of a third world country.”
Here are just a few alternative suggestions the Trump team may want to consider:

1. Improve employment opportunities within “the village” by identifying and staffing the essential maintenance jobs with local residents. This will help individuals get off welfare by acquiring highly transferable trade skills . As “dirty jobs” advocate Mike Rowe says, “Learning how to weld, or how to run electric, or how to install a toilet—these skills can and often do lead to fulfilling careers, balanced lives, and better than average pay. Even if you don’t spend the rest of your life working in the trades, there’s simply no downside to learning a skill.”

2. Educate community residents so they acquire the literacy skills (English and mathematics) they need to survive and thrive. This doesn’t require a massive federal funding program. Excellent free tools for doing it are already available. The Trump team should check out an online training program called “USA Learns.”

3. Grow civic responsibility through local community forums, elections and leadership training. This will enable village residents to become smart and involved voters as well as to staff their own community service safety, security and emergency medical response teams. Maybe even the American Bar Association could help Trump out with this part of his program.

These are just baby steps. But they are all doable if village residents follow the most basic principle: keep it simple and local.
In fact, among the most insidious threats to local community autonomy and control in big cities like Detroit, for instance, are rules requiring “that potential workers and entrepreneurs undergo training, take classes and exams, and pay fees to hold a particular job or provide a service…. occupational licensing raises the costs of goods and makes it harder for less well-off Americans to find and maintain steady employment.”
As always, the devil is in the details.

Bruce Robinson is a writer and former Benicia resident.

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