Black people respond with fury after Jared Kushner suggests they don't 'want to be successful'

Jared Kushner, the senior adviser to Donald Trump and the husband of Ivanka Trump, has come under intense scrutiny for his recent comments on the Black community.

Speaking the Fox News on Monday morning, Kushner suggested that Black Americans should be voting for Trump in next week's US election as the president's policies would benefit them.

He said:

The thing we've seen in a lot of the Black community, which is mostly Democrat is that president Trump's policies are the polices that can help people break out of the problems that they are complaining about but he can't want them to be more successful than they want to be successful. What you are seeing throughout the country now is a groundswell of support for the Black community because they are realising all the bad things that the media and the Democrats have said about president Trump are not true.

Kushner's comments prompted immediate and widespread outrage with many Black people accusing Kushner of being out of touch and having 'no understanding' of the Black community and being 'the face of white privilege.'

Elsewhere in the interview, Kushner appeared to hit out at supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, accusing people of 'virtue signalling' following the tragic and unnecessary death of George Floyd in May.

As well as the well-documented issue of systematic racism in the United States, the Black community in the US has been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with a study recently finding that they are at twice the risk of dying from the disease.

The White House has since responded to the criticism being aimed at Kushner with press secretary Kayleigh McEnany telling The Hill:

It’s disgusting to see internet trolls taking Senior Advisor Jared Kushner out of context as they try to distract from President Trump’s undeniable record of accomplishment for the Black community," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Monday. "From criminal justice reform and record [historically black colleges and universities] funding to record low Black unemployment and record high income increases, there is simply no disputing that President Trump accomplished what Democrats merely talked about.

More: How not voting for Trump or Biden is a harsh reality in the Black community