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Remember in 2016 when Trump made coal miners 1 of 2 campaign causes along w/ building a wall along the border?

Those were 2 sides of the same racist coin: Of the 300+ industry classifications in the USA coal mining is the single whitest. BY FAR. [THREAD]

Photo @dominickreuter
A key Trump slogan was “Trump Digs Coal”. Many news articles justified it as part of a broader play for “working class voters”. Sometimes they would color their wording to clarify “white working class voters.”

But is coal really that white? Answer: yes.
nytimes.com/2016/11/10/ups…
The assumption was that he was looking for $$ from coal mine owners. But is that really it? The coal industry only supported his campaign with $223,000 in donations, which is a drop in the bucket for a multi-hundred million dollar presidential campaign.

theguardian.com/us-news/2016/n…
Another suggestion is that his support for coal was from a desire for energy independence. Except that natural gas, wind & solar are also produced in sufficient quantities to meet our consumption. So a push for energy independence could have just as easily promoted them instead.
It was also implied that saving coal would be part of his broader anti-regulatory philosophy. Except that once he was in office he instead tried to impose heavy-handed regulations to protect coal using a bogus argument around reliability.

thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/…
The other assumption is that as a major employer coal was symbolic of the nation’s economic plight as a whole and therefore worthy of our sympathies. But there are 250+ other industries with larger employment. Ultimately, tens of thousands of coal miners are a blip compared to...
...the massive employment of 10+ million people each in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, education or health.

Apparently, coal was worth a lot more attention over all those other industries that have much more diverse employment.
How white is coal mining? The whitest. It's not even close.

4.6% of the coal mining workforce identifies as Black, Asian, Hispanic or Latino. The next closest industry is veterinary services with 12%--more than 2.5x as many non-white workers as coal.

bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18.h…
BTW, the least white industries are barber shops and taxi & limousine services, with 63 & 69% non-white employees.
Many of us who follow the energy industry closely recognized that saving the coal industry would be nearly impossible for a whole host of reasons. My piece in @nytopinion the week after Trump was elected is just one of many examples.

nytimes.com/2016/11/16/opi…
I have to say that I’ve been closely following the energy industry for 15+ years and I just learned for the first time 2 hours ago that

coal is BY FAR THE WHITEST INDUSTRY in the USA.

How did I not know that sooner?
In the end it’s hard to see coal as a critical priority from an employment, anti-regulatory, energy self-sufficiency or campaign fundraising perspective. Looking through the lens of the more obvious recent racist dog-whistling I think it’s time we re-examine his coal fetish.[END]
That coal is America's whitest industry & was front-and-center of Trump's 2016 campaign seems worthy of attention given the last few weeks.

@ailworth @DrRichReddick @Allison_Good1 @rye_journo
@KatherineBlunt @MollyJongFast @edward_klump @EthanAll @christopherkay @KiahCollier
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