In Trump’s Remarks, Black Churches See a Nation Backsliding: Note for a discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United."

By SABRINA TAVERNISE, New York Times

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Excerpt:

On the day before Martin Luther King’s Birthday, African-American churchgoers gathered as they always do, to pray, give thanks and reflect on the state of race in America. But after a disheartening week and an even more disheartening year, black Americans interviewed on Sunday said they were struggling to comprehend what was happening in a country that so recently had an African-American president. ...

“Donald Trump is America’s id,” said the Rev. William H. Lamar IV, pastor of the 180-year-old Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is five blocks from the White House. “He is as American as baseball and apple pie.” ...

Pastor Lamar agreed that there was a problem with the American story. “The narrative that held America together has been fractured,” he said. “The ground is shifting underneath us. You have to tell a truthful story about how America got to where it is. The factories are not gone because of immigration.” ...