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Tara Dowdell: Trump Attacks Black Women, And It Has Real-Life Effects

Tara Dowdell says she is less likely to get work from a client because of what Trump says about black women.

After playing a clip of Trump attacking three reporters this week, Joy Reid pointed out they had something "very obvious" in common.

"What is his weird thing with black women? I mean, other than Diamond and Silk. Doesn't seem to like them very much," Reid said.

"Number one is that black women have overwhelmingly, the one group that refuses to bow down to Donald Trump. We have been on the forefront of the resistance. we are also not just on the forefront of the resistance, but we are actually behind the defeat of a lot of his candidates," Tara Dowdell said.

"It was black women, black women voters, black women organizer. Roy Moore is a perfect example in Alabama, a ruby red state, we have talked about this over and over again, Trump had backed Moore, ultimately, and came out aggressively for him. That is part of what his issue is.

"The second thing is Trump knows what racial buttons to push. He has, he always has from the Central Park Five. His attacks are specific. talking about black women are stupid, low IQ, those are very specific attacks that have a historic context, and so I think, number one, Trump knows black women voters are not stupid because we are the one group that has not fallen for his con in any kind of significant way. Overwhelmingly, we haven't fallen for his con." she said.

Reid then played a mashup of Trump going after Rep. Maxine Waters.

"And that's always his attack, right? It's always going after women's intelligence. You know what? I bet what Maxine Waters is smart enough to do, get your tax returns. He knows she is unafraid of him. But even people who have been his allies in the past, Omarosa, also, you know, we all know from The Apprentice, a woman who said he will make everyone who was ever mean to him bow down before she changed sides. She said you will bow down. He then decides she's a dog, a dog."

Reid asked Dowdell, who was a contestant on "The Apprentice," if this is "racism plus sexism, or is this a strategy?"

"I think it's all three. I think Donald Trump is a racist. I think he's also a sexist and a misogynist, and he has this masterful understanding of what buttons to push," she replied.

"He saw what the Republican party really was, he saw what excited the base and jumped on the bandwagon. I want to make a point why what he's doing is so particularly insidious to black women. as a small business owner. A study came out and said his rhetoric is having scientifically, in the Washington Post, on Halloween. His rhetoric is having an impact on people, not just people who already have, you know, tendencies in terms of racism, but having an impact on white people generally, and let me tell you why that's important.

"Because as a black woman business owner, when I sit across the table from someone and I'm pitching business and they think I'm inferior or not smart, or low IQ, that affects my ability to get business, to pay the people that work for me. If you're a worker sending a resume out and people have this unconscious or implicit bias, that affects -- bias, that affects their ability to get a job.

"If you have a resume that's better than a white counterpart but if you have a black name, that you are likely not to get that job. And so that's why this matters."

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