A former contestant on The Apprentice, whose harsh treatment by Donald Trump drew accusations of racism in 2004, suggested to TPM on Monday that the billionaire Republican businessman's attacks on President Obama's academic record are reflective of Trump's hang-ups over race.
"Apparently he doesn't like educated African-Americans very much," Kevin Allen, a final four contestant on the series' second season, said with a laugh when asked about Trump's recent attacks on Obama. His words contrast with Trump's claim Monday on FOX News that The Apprentice's treatment of African-American contestants in recent seasons confirms that he is "the least racist person there is."
Allen, a Wharton Business School grad, Emory MBA, and University of Chicago law graduate, was "fired" from the show after Trump criticized his "unbelievable education," and numerous degrees from elite universities.
"You're an unbelievably talented guy in terms of education, and you haven't done anything," Trump said on the show. "At some point you have to say 'That's enough.'"
Allen was fired shortly after a controversial episode in which he was ordered to sell chocolate bars outside of New York City subway stops, a job stereotypically associated with African-American high school students. Entertainment Weekly's Mark Harris bluntly labeled Trump's handling of race tone-deaf at the time and said that the show "humiliated itself in regards to Allen."
"By never addressing race head-on, and instead concocting a ludicrous way to turn Allen's intelligence into a liability, the show paradoxically came off as so panicked about hiring a black guy that they had to invent a new standard -- 'too smart' -- to boot him off," Harris wrote.
Allen told TPM that he took the candy episode in stride as a typical competition for the show. "We knew we were being evaluated in part on our ability to sell things and it was a valid sort of path to put us through," he said. But he indicated that Trump's dressing down of his impressive credentials raised tougher questions for him.
"What I thought was more interesting was that one of the knocks he had on me when he told me I was fired was that I was overeducated," he said. "That was more interesting than necessarily anything we had to do."
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