Forbes Takes Down Offensive Article That Posited If Trump Shooting Would Appeal to ‘Black Voters’

An opinion piece regarding Donald Trump's attempted assassination that asked whether the former president would exploit 'surviving gunfire' as an 'appeal to Black voters' was removed by Forbes following a significant backlash on the internet. Many social media users were angered by the piece, which was penned by self-described DEI specialist Shaun Harper, who is himself a Black person.

Harper said in the article, titled “Will Surviving Gunfire Be Donald Trump’s Next Appeal To Black Voters?” that there were 'inexcusably' high rates of gun violence against Black people in the US, and that Trump has a history of making racial claims about his relationships with Black people. Trump has previously contended that the “release of his criminal mugshot deeply resonated with Black voters because they know firsthand the unfairness of our nation’s criminal justice system,” Harper wrote, per The Root.

“Hopefully, being shot doesn’t become a similarly problematic strategy to link Trump with an experience that far too many (not all) Black people have,” part of the article, now deleted, read. “And the Blacks, they love me because they know the terrifying sound of gunshots,’ isn’t that something Trump has ‘actually’ said,” Harper stated in the article, with a hypothetical statement Trump might say. “Hopefully, he doesn’t. But it isn’t all that unthinkable,” Harper contends. 

Harper also made a startling comparison between Trump's raising of his fist in response to the attempt on his life with two significant Black leaders from the Civil Rights Movement. “After winning gold and bronze medals for their spectacular performances in the men’s 200-meter race at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, American track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists as they stood on the podium,” Harper wrote. “Hopefully Trump doesn’t claim that his raised fist was an homage to Smith and Carlos, two powerful Black Americans.”

In a statement to The New York Post, Harper said his article was misinterpreted online. Even so, many social media users slammed Harper's assertion of Black people resonating with Trump. "Just casual racism from Forbes. No biggie," a user wrote with a screenshot of the article. "Journalism is broken," a user wrote. “One thing everyone in my feed from MAGA to progressive agrees on is that this random Forbes op-ed sucks. Maybe that can be a starting place for healing,” wrote political commendatory Tim Miller.

"Forbes is so offensive. In addition to the racism, why would anyone who has experienced gun violence now decide to vote for the candidate and the party who opposes any kind of gun control?" a user asked. “This post does not represent who we, @ForbesUnion, are as a newsroom, or our ethical and journalistic principles,” Forbes' own union called out the article.