During an Oct. 10 campaign stop in Pittsburgh, PA, where former President Barack Obama campaigned for Vice President Harris, he addressed what he perceived as a lack of enthusiasm from Black men, attributing it in part to underlying misogyny.
After saying that there appears to be a lack of energy from Black men compared to his 2008 campaign for president, Obama proceeded to generally criticize Black men who were not supporting Vice President Harris.
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses; I’ve got a problem with that,” the former president said. “Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
According to The Hill, Obama’s comments did not sit well with some politicians and public figures.
Among them were former Ohio Sen. Nina Turner and actor Wendell Pierce, who also called for Black men to turn out for Harris and criticized misogyny’s role in their political calculus in comments he made at the Democratic National Convention.
In a discussion of Obama’s comments on CNN, Turner was critical of former president Obama’s tone.
“Why are Black men being lectured to? Why are Black men being belittled in ways that no other voting group (are),” Turner said.
Turner continued, offering her advice to the Democratic Party establishment at large regarding Black men.
“Unless President Barack Obama is gonna go out and lecture every other group of men from other identity groups, my message for Democrats is don’t bring it here to Black men who by and large don’t vote much differently from Black women,” Turner said.
Turner concluded, “As a politician, we should be trying to get all voters to vote, and hopefully there are a few good men out there who do care about the stripping away of some of women’s bodily autonomy.”
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, there is also political science that throws cold water on earlier polling that suggested that Black men under the age of 50 were particularly interested in voting for former president Donald Trump in the forthcoming presidential election.
Kiana Cox, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center, told the outlet that Black people in that age range are no more likely to vote Republican than they were 30 years ago.
Per Cox’s research, today Black support for Republicans among Black people under 50 sits at 17% and in 1994 it was at 16%.
Joining that research are political experts and organizers also in that age range who say that the polling over-pronounces the issue.
Mondale Robinson, the 45-year-old founder and Executive Director of the Black Male Voter Project, as well as the mayor of Enfield, North Carolina, told the Inquirer that the problem is how the Democratic Party in general treats Black men.
“I would say that Black men absolutely hate…the transactional nature of how the [Democratic] Party does not show up to address the issues that are plaguing Black men, and are not listening to Black men, if there’s not an election on the ballot,” Robinson said.
Robinson continued, criticizing the narrative that Black men are becoming more conservative.
“All we’ve seen is a decrease in Black men’s support for [Trump] every election cycle,” Robinson said. “So even though Black men continue to show the world that we don’t f— with Donald Trump, the world keeps trying to push on Black men that you are becoming more conservative.”
Robinson concluded, in a similar tone to Turner, “Eighty-eight to 90% of Black men are doing something (voting for Democratic presidential candidates), and people are still spending this much time on the 8 to 10% that aren’t. What are you asking of Black men that you’re not asking anybody else?”
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