“I think it’s a very nasty question”: Trumpian anti-Black racism and the limits of traditional journalistic standards

This essay analyses Donald Trump’s interview at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). We identify his responses to the Black women journalists at the NABJ panel as racist and sexist outrage rhetoric. Trump launches personal attacks to delegitimize the Black women journalists who challenge him, with the purpose of inspiring outrage in liberal circles while offering white conservatives amusement and comfort. This panel, beyond illustrating Trump’s political rhetoric, unearths a key challenge American journalism is currently facing: objectivity, as it is conceptualized and operationalized in traditional journalistic spaces, insists on dispassionate neutrality and civility. This standard is further pronounced when applied to marginalized journalists. We contend that Trump, in his deployment of outrage rhetoric, is taking advantage of the professional rules of objectivity in an increasingly polarized society; Black professionals in historically white professions have to remain “civil” to be considered legitimate in the profession, even as Trump responds to legitimate questions with anti-Black, sexist attacks.