Guest Commentary
Anthony Cook, Daily Home Editor
As the election season has grown more and more … interesting, I’ve watched the pundits and the politicians debate who will win and who deserves to win the so-called black vote.
Some say businessman Donald Trump should be disqualified as a candidate period and especially as an option for black voters after he failed to immediately denounce former KKK leader David Duke, who endorsed Trump as the choice candidate for racists and separatists.
Others assume the real battle for the black vote is between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders because black people will vote en masse for the Democratic Party, and will largely determine who becomes the nominee.
While I appreciate the collective power that comes with any voting bloc, I have to admit, something bothers me about the idea of “courting the black vote.”
You never hear anyone talk about courting the white vote.
The level of assumption about how all blacks vote is not only incredible; it’s insulting.
Because my skin is of a certain hue, politicians assume that I’m accessible through the biggest local church, that I will pay more attention to what they’re saying if they pepper their speeches with excerpts from old spirituals, that I want them to promise to give me free stuff, that I’ll support them if they blame all my problems on rich people.
What’s worse is there are some black voters who fall for the okey-doke. Toss out some red-meat rhetoric about every hardship finding its roots in racism, and fists start pumping. Racism does exist, but protests against it lose their power when we see racism in everything and everyone.
There are some truths that come with the color of my skin, but those truths largely have to do with how you see me, not how I see myself.
Sure, I want safe neighborhoods and affordable healthcare and quality education. Doesn’t everybody? But that’s not all I care about.
As a black man, I, too, am concerned about national security and a balanced budget and a rising stock market and a healthy 401K (yes, black people have those, too) and lowering the deficit and the availability of decent jobs that pay a living wage.
You can’t just yell “Black Lives Matter” at me and get my vote.
You can’t look at my skin and know me.
My identity is as nuanced as the many shades of my brothers and sisters.
If you’re going to court my vote, your campaign had better be just as sophisticated.
Anthony Cook is the editor of The Daily Home. Reach him at acook@dailyhome.com. On Twitter: @AnthonyCook_DH.
3 Comments
Tjo Johnson
Good little article
Don Walton
Heath Walton
Anthony Cook
Thanks, Scott!!