Forbes DELETES article from DEI expert claiming Trump will be more appealing to black voters after surviving shooting

Business magazine Forbes has pulled the plug on a tone-deaf article by a leading DEI researcher which claimed that black people might now identify with Donald Trump because he has been shot.

USC Professor Shaun Harper who boasts on his resume of advising more than 400 organizations about their diversity policies, claimed that the injured ex-president's defiant raised fist might resonate with George Floyd protesters.

The article under the headline 'Will surviving gunfire be Donald Trump's next appeal to black voters?' was uploaded at 10.27am on Saturday.

And the crass analysis had left hundreds of incredulous readers blinking in disbelief by the time it was deleted hours later.

'Very sad to see a magazine with the relevance of Forbes measuring the appeal of 'surviving a gunfire' sorely based on skin color,' wrote one.

'Because black people keep being shot at? Is that the idea?' demanded another. 'Sick and twisted.'

Self-styled DEI expert and USC Professor Shaun Harper saw his opinion piece pulled within hours after claiming that the shooting of Donald Trump might resonated with black voters

The image of the former president defiantly raising his fist has already acquired iconic status

Harper, who billed himself in the piece as a 'diversity, equity and inclusion expert', noted that support for Trump among black Americans has more than doubled since the 2020 election.

'The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly contended that the August 2023 release of his criminal mugshot deeply resonated with Black voters because they know firsthand the unfairness of our nation's criminal justice system,' he wrote.

'Hopefully, being shot doesn't become a similarly problematic strategy to link Trump with an experience that far too many Black people have.

'Another racially problematic kinship narrative is unlikely to make Black voters see Trump as one of them. And it most certainly won't fix the gun violence.'

But the professor, who has persuaded the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post to carry previous pieces, fears that photos of the ex-president's already iconic raised fist will persuade yet more black voters to abandon the Democrat camp.

'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,' he wrote.

'Hopefully Trump doesn't claim that his raised fist was an homage to Smith and Carlos, two powerful Black Americans.

The 'hot take' was written within four hours of Saturday's shooting, but deleted hours later 

The author raised fears that the ex-President's raised fist gesture would appeal to black voters associating it with the Black Power protest of US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos 

The image of defiance was also heavily in evidence during Black Lives Matters protests

In June 2020, many Black Americans and supporters from other racial groups marched in cities all across the nation with their fists raised.

'They were protesting Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man.

'Then-President Trump weaponized the National Guard and law enforcement against them.

'But now, just over four years later, there's a chance that his raised fist at the Pennsylvania rally becomes erroneously connected to the Black people who were marching with fists raised in rallies in summer 2020 and at other moments in American history.'

Harper, who boasts of attracting more than $40 million from foundations for his DEI research and center at USC, is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC.

Screenshots of the tone-deaf opinion piece were taken before it was deleted, and attracted howls of protest when shared to social media    

Foundations have invested $22.2 million into my diversity, equity, and inclusion research, and I have procured an additional $18.5 million for my center at USC.

But his hot take on the implications of the brutal assassination attempt against the former president was slammed as 'beyond racist' by some.

'I wasn't voting for him because he was a felon, but when they tried to bust a cap in his *ss... that made up my mind,' ...said no one ever,' wrote one scathing tweeter.

'So getting arrested and later shot at makes him relatable?? Racism much? Media fails on a daily basis.' wrote another.

'They really trying to say the worst stuff about black people like we relate to him more because he's a convicted felon and now surviving get shot at,' added a third.