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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.
WASHINGTON, D.C.- Day two of the four-day Republican National Convention highlighted orchestrated speeches by First Lady Melania Trump, two of the president's grown children, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, and Trump himself, Kentucky's Black attorney general, Daniel Cameron, the only Black keynote speaker of the night.
The main backdrops for speaking presentations, some live and others recorded, were the White House and Mellon Auditorium, also in Washington D.C. and where, just like Monday night, speakers took to the stage with no stage audience due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Like Monday night, Black women were virtually left out of Tuesday night's day two convention forum in terms of recognized speakers, and in spite of a salute to women and the 100-year anniversary of women's suffrage and the ratification of the 19th amendment.
That video segment of the convention showed an array of White women, and obviously by design.
Other than Cameron, 34, a Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell protege and a rising star in the Republican Party, Blacks had no pivotal roles last night and simply were not on the auditorium stage at all, which was telling, pundits said.
Trump did, however, showcase a Black man he had pardoned, again a self-serving gesture, his adversaries said, and a routine thing to subordinate Black leaders and politicians to mainly those who have come in contact with the nation's racist legal system, Cameron also bragging that the president had put forth an executive order that addresses criminal justice reform.
And video footage of women of power in the Trump administration showed no Black women as none have a position of influence in Trump's administration, even his cabinet of which is void of a Black female face in a leadership role in the 21st century.
Though Melania Trump gave a moving and nearly flawless speech where she spoke on racial unrest in the country behind the George Floyd killing by police in Minneapolis, and on her work in and out of the White House in the past nearly four years, and policies of her husband and his administration, the Rose Garden where her speech was delivered had some 77 people in the audience and nearly all of them were White too.
The use of the White House for Melania Trump's speech and the president's presentation of immigrants who had just become U.S. citizens set a precedent for political sitting president's in the future to use or misuse the White House for political gain.
In short, critics said President Trump exploited the White House to but on a convention that is basically all about him.
Unlike Monday night, or day one of the Republican convention, last night focused more on the president than on his opponent for the upcoming Nov 3 presidential election, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, the former vice president under former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president.
That might be the Democrats undoing pundits said, Cameron the only speaker who really challenged Biden, saying his public comments that Black an't Blacks if they do not vote for him and that diversity is lacking in the Black community show he is in the dark ages and is ignorant on race.
While Melania, a former model, may have reminded America that she too is an immigrant and preached briefly against racism during her magnificent speech on Monday, it was in stark contrast to her and her husband's racist birtherism stance that Obama, born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and not Hawaii, and therefore was unqualified to be president, the couple later backing off of such a prejudicial theory.
Melanie Trump carved out her legacy Tuesday night, a speech vastly different from her husband's controversial policies and divisive racial prehistoric, and a speech with diplomacy and warmth, the first lady graciously asking the American people to give her and her husband "four more years."
Also like Monday, day two was a salute to the American flag, and while racism came up, the atmosphere was so White that it almost appeared disingenuous.
It was if they were saying that Blacks, notwithstanding the absence of Black women, were featured Monday night, which included speeches from former NFL football star Herschel Walker, Democratic Georgia state Rep, Vernon Jones, and U.S. Sen Tim Scott, the highest ranking Black Republican in Congress.
Tuesday night was apparently White night, primarily.
Issues on Tuesday ranged from immigration, pro-life legislation, gun rights, education, excessive force, the economy and middle east, to foreign policy and religious and racial persecution.
Like their stepmother Melania, Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump both spoke well too, Eric Trump the president's second son by his first wife Ivanka Trump, and Tiffany Trump, the daughter by the president's second wife, Marla Maples, and a recent Georgetown law school graduate.
Trump has five children, three grown children with his first wife, namely Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Yvanka Trump, one daughter with his second wife, specifically Tiffany Trump, and a teenage son with Melania, the first lady also talking about parenting during the pandemic, a pandemic she spoke on in detail amid media criticism that Republicans were downplaying the coronavirus crisis on night two of the convention.
Trump's family members are playing a similar role in his campaign as they did when he won the Republican nomination for president in a crowded field of president wannabes in 2016, and then the general election that year over then Democratic nominee presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote put lost the electoral college to Trump.
The Republicans' opposition to abortion was front and center too on Tuesday, Trump appointing mainly pro-life judges to the federal bench during his tenure as president, and two pro-life judges to the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court.
Vice President Mike Pence is among the speakers for day three of the RNC, and day four will bring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to the podium, along with a host of other speakers.
Also slated to speak is Ivanka Trump, the president's oldest daughter, who will introduce her father before he accepts the Republican nomination for president.
Whether Black women will play a viable role in the remaining days of the convention remains to be seen.
Biden, who has chosen U.S. Sen Kamla Harris as his vice presidential running mate, continues to lead President Trump by double digits in national polls, Harris the first Black woman to compete on a major party presidential ticket in America.
The Republican National Convention comes on the heels last week of the well-crafted and highly diverse four-day Democratic National Convention, a largely virtual convention based out of Milwaukee.
