And even with a perfect record and the universal adoration of his fellow contestants, it was still touch-and-go. They couldn’t just give it to him flat-out. Immediately after hiring the much-loved Randal, who jumped up and cheered and rushed over to hug his peers, Trump called him back and posed the unthinkable: hiring both Randal AND Rebecca. Wha????? Never had this option come up before. It would have been a first in the four-season history of The Apprentice. Why now? So it wouldn’t have been all about a black person finally winning? To reassure the viewing audience that just because a black person won, that didn’t mean a white person had to lose? Trump asked Randal if he should also hire Rebecca. Randal responded with a resounding NO, reminding Trump that it was The Apprentice, not The Apprentii. There was some booing from the audience at his response, like Randal was supposed to be the bigger person and share his hard-earned victory. As if. Trump deferred to Randal’s decision, but not without clearly stating that if Randal had said yes, he would have hired Rebecca too, thus placing Rebecca’s loss squarely on Randal’s shoulders. I guess that was his clever way of saying, “Hey people, I tried. Blame it on the selfish black guy.”

Damn. I’m not one to see racism, subtle or blatant, in everything, but this was ridiculous. I mean, what’s a brother gotta do to win without resistance? And they wonder why we riot.

The Apprentice 4