Fresh debates on race relations and immigration, triggered by incidents of police violence against black people and acts of terrorism committed by an American of Afghan origin, may be polarising the American voters further.
Early voting is already on in some States, even as opinion polls suggest an increasingly tight race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Reaching out strategyWhile Ms. Clinton has termed the frequent deaths of black men at the hands of police “intolerable”, Mr. Trump has used the opportunity to continue with his outreach to the community, but balancing it with his unqualified support for the police. Mr. Trump, who scores in low single digits among African- Americans, is not particularly hoping to win them over, but to seed questions in their minds regarding their overwhelming support of Ms. Clinton.
“I must tell you, I watched the shooting in particular in Tulsa. That man was hands up, that man went to the car, hands up, put his hand on the car. To me, it looked like everything you’re supposed to do. And he looked like a really good man,” the Republican candidate said about the shooting in Oklahoma.
Over the last several weeks, Mr. Trump has told black communities that this is the worst time ever to be a black in America, drawing sharp rebuttals from commentators and Democrats.
However, his strategy of unsettling the blacks seem to be working, and their frustration may be expressed by abstaining from voting though not many are likely to vote for Mr. Trump.
Sensing the danger, President Barack Obama has told African-Americans that he will consider it a “personal insult” if the community keeps away from voting booths. But the latest incidents of police shootings allow Mr. Trump to trudge on with his historically baseless claim that the blacks have the worst time “ever, ever, ever”.
The political elites among the African-Americans have launched a massive push-back against Mr. Trump but there are alternative voices too. “Whether it’s genuine or legitimate or not, at least he’s doing it. Either way, I think it’s good,” L. Douglas Wilder, the first African-American to be elected Governor of a State in America in 1990, said in an interview on Wednesday, about the Republican’s outreach to blacks.
‘Frustration with Hillary’The former Democratic Governor of Virginia said the black voters feel that Ms. Clinton is taking them for granted and Mr. Obama has failed them.
Mr. Trump has also used the arrest of an Afghan-American youth in connection with the bomb blasts in New York and New Jersey to reiterate their position in favour of increased surveillance of Muslim neighbourhoods and stricter immigration norms.
