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Yesterday afternoon. I was hopeful about the election results. And I still am. But yesterday, during the daylight hours, I was hoping former Vice President Joe Biden would pull off a landslide victory. Silently, I repeated landslide over and over again in my head. But as the night went on and Trump passed the 200 mark, the expletives flowed more freely and the prayers got more desperate.
Landslide, landslide, landslide became ‘Lord, please don’t let him lose this lead. We can’t do another four years of this.’
But apparently, millions of people are under the assumption that Trump is just “not that bad.” More than a few folks think he’s even doing a helluva job.
Most of those people are white. And at this point, I’m confident in saying that they’re also racist—whether they want to admit it or not.
Once again, Black folk have been tasked with carrying this country on our backs—to make it live up to the promises it has never realized.
And most of us have done what we were supposed to do. 80 percent of Black men voted against Trump. And because we’re the moral compass of this country, Black women voted 91 percent against Trump.
We did what needed to be done. And regardless of the outcome of this election, no one will ever be able to say Black people did not do their part. Should Trump be reelected, you can point all five fingers at white folks.
But in further examining these results, we found something interesting.
Votes for Trump from both Black people increased.
By the way these ignorant, under-read rappers were behaving, I’m not surprised to hear that they may have had a small influence on their Black, male fan base. Not to mention, there was an increasing number of Black men who’d somehow convinced themselves that there was difference between Biden and Trump. I won’t even waste my time arguing the differences between these two men. But the short answer is, they are night and day.
Perhaps what is most surprising in the latest polling numbers is the fact that the number of Black women who voted for Trump also increased. In fact, it doubled. And while the percentages were so low, that double is only 8 percent of Black women voters in 2020, you still have to ask yourself why?
These numbers were obtained from the New York Times Exit Polls. Please note that the numbers may not tell the story as all ballots, and particularly the mailed ones, have not been factored into the count.
What has changed in the past four years to make Black women identify with Donald Trump?
I don’t know if there’s a single definitive answer to explain this. So all we’ve been left to do is speculate on some theories.
I think as the number of Black men lending their support to Trump has increased, the women connected to them are following suit.
If your spouse is invested in protecting his financial assets—even at the expense of swallowing racist rhetoric and policies meant to disenfranchise women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, then there’s a chance he might be able to convince you to do the same.
Then there are those who don’t have the money yet but believe certain actions—including voting for a rich man will help them achieve that status in life.
Recently, my sister watched an interview with a Black woman who claimed she was voting for Trump because she simply wanted to be rich one day.
With more than a few failed business ventures, several bankruptcies and an inheritance for his father, Donald Trump is not even as rich as he pretends to be. What I think people fail to realize is that this country is not set up for most people to rise above the socioeconomic station to which they were born. And the rich, white men at the top, certainly aren’t throwing any ladders down to the middle and working class.
This woman wasn’t the only one who shared this sentiment. I saw another Twitter user say his family members operate under the same assumption.
Sadly, there are Black people, men and women alike, who are so invested in becoming as rich and white adjacent as possible—they’ve completely abandoned all hope, care and concern for the plight of their people.
Why they believe Trump is the person to help them achieve that wealth is beyond me.
More and more, I’m seeing Black people—men and women—express a notion that President Obama didn’t do anything for Black people while he was in office. While I understand had to walk a tight rope none of us will ever fully understand, Barack Obama was also up against a Republican Congress. Still, we expected, voted for and deserved more. And I understand that frustration.
Still, President Obama and his administration did put policies in place to help the Black community. He improved the economy for the nation and as a result, the unemployment rate for Black folks decreased. The median income in Black households increased.
Under Obamacare, the uninsured rate for African Americans fell by more than half. $4 Billion went to HBCUs each year. Pell Grant funding for HBCU students increased. Incarceration rates fell. Solitary confinement for juveniles was banned for those in federal custody. He launched My Brother’s Keeper to address opportunity gaps for Black boys and young men of color. Similarly, the Council for Women and Girls launched Advancing Equity for Women and Girls of Color.
Obama appointed 62 African American judges for lifetime appointments on the federal bench. And while Donald Trump and the celebrities in his pocket like to tout his accomplishments on “prison reform”—though there has been nothing systematic. The Obama administration granted clemency to more people than any President since Truman in the late 40s and early 50s. From 2009 to 2017, there were 1,927 pardons or commutations of sentences.
Meanwhile Trump has granted clemency to 28 pardons and 16 commutations—including two for deceased historical figures Susan B. Anthony and Jack Johnson—in the four years he’s been in office. And he wants to be lauded as a man for prison reform. It’s a joke.
The only reason why we know more about Trump’s clemency record is because he made so many of them fanfare for the media—arguably his best talent.
Trump signed one measly stimulus check for $1,200 in seven months of record unemployment in the midst of a global pandemic and some folks thinks that makes him a savior. Meanwhile, other developed nations are getting that and then some every single month.
Lastly, and this is perhaps the most devastating is the idea that Black women have internalized misogynoir— the hatred, dislike or distrust directed against Black women where both race and gender play roles in bias.
While the selection of Kamala Harris and Biden’s vice president is a source of pride for many Black women, there are Black women who have found various reasons to distrust her. Whether it is the righteous curiosity about her record as a prosecutor or the more nonsensical concerns about her white husband—Black women are often regurgitating talking points from Black men when it comes to Harris. While no candidate is above critique, the attention that’s been paid to Kamala cannot be separated from her identity as a Black woman.
Furthermore, as one of my coworkers mentioned, the social unrest of this past summer left Black women of all political leanings feeling more powerless, nor devastated and more wounded by the deaths of unarmed Black people at the hands of law enforcement.
And while there were Black women among that number—historically, much of the focus around the slain Black people goes to the men. Those are the people we uplift, they get the name recognition, the media coverage and the bulk of the concern from the community.
And in Black women’s desire to protect Black men—and sadly, there are Black men who associate masculinity, power, and money with Trump. There is protection in whiteness and perhaps that’s the reason Black women are trying to get our men and our people closer to it.
But that’s not how this system works. You can’t buy whiteness. It’s a birthright. And honestly, given the way white people across the globe have handled this happenstance of a lack of melanin, it’s not something we should want to be a part of.
What are some reasons you believe more Black women voted for Trump this time around?
