So, after a super Tuesday where presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden took a lead in the polls, a lot of supporters of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders are confused about the results. As a black millennial registered voter let me clear up the confusion.
Joe Biden’s super Tuesday success was NOT a result of overwhelming support from the black community. What happened was older black voters, who feel an obligation to vote and most to vote democratic. Black baby boomers, and the silent generation came out and voted in large numbers. They get their information from TV. That is the technology that they grew up with and the medium that they trust the most.
On the other hand, black gen X’ers, and millennials, and gen Z who get most of our news (for better or worse) from the internet, did not come out and vote. This is not true across the board but will give context for what is to come.
If you haven’t heard yet about it yet, there is the ADOS/FBA movement that is demanding an agenda specifically for us black Americans that are descended from chattel slaves in the United States. One of the main tenants of the movement is that black Americans should not vote for any candidate in the 2020 presidential election unless they have an agenda for us (reparations for slavery) among other things, also known as tangibles.
I have my disagreements with the movement, but I can’t argue with the basics. Other groups in this country have gotten legislation specific for their groups that others could not benefit from. Most recently President Donald Trump signed the Executive “Economic Empowerment of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders”. Legislation that is targeted at their community for their improvement and no other groups can benefit from that executive order. It is perfectly acceptable to do things for other specific groups in this country, but when you talk about doing that for black Americans that is political suicide.
I understand that Bernie Sanders does not want to upset too many moderate white voters, and others outside of the black community. He’s a populist candidate and he cannot upset too many people. He knows the racist history of this country and he knows that if he utters the word “reparations” then his political career is over.
In times past black Americans would just “take one for the team” as they say and just vote democratic or vote progressive and hope that we get something out of it. But after the presidency of Barack Obama, and the subsequent presidency of Donald Trump, combined with the fact that median black wealth is projected to be zero by the year 2053 (that’s 33 years from now less than two generations), black America has a fire under us not seen since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s.
For all the progressive talk of these leftist candidates they still have not progressed far enough to combat this country’s greatest sin, the treatment of black people. From slavery, to Jim crow, to being locked out of the new deal, to the war on drugs, to the Iran contra scandal, to mass incarceration with the 1994 crime bill also called Biden’s Law. Combine that with a media narrative, and the cumulative effects and this is what you get. A disillusioned black youth voting bloc and an older dwindling black voter bloc still loyal to the democrats.
Just my two cents,