Do We Owe Black Men an Apology?

Examining the Role of Black Men’s Votes in Kamala Harris’s Election Defeat

After Kamala Harris’s defeat by Donald Trump, the question remains: Did 20% of Black men really decide this race?

by Joseph Williams

After Kamala Harris’s stinging loss to Donald Trump in the election on Tuesday, the social media Blackisphere chopped up why an accomplished Black woman — the sitting vice president, a former senator and prosecutor — lost. How, they wondered, could Harris have crashed out to a scandal-plagued, insurrectionist convicted felon, an old white man who was one of the least popular presidents in recent history?

To some, the villains are obvious: the roughly 20% of Black men who, according to exit polls, voted for Trump. 

“I just seen a black man say ‘i didn’t vote for Trump…. I voted against Trans rights and LGBTQ people rights, High inflation and a Broken Economy,’” television personality Ts Madison wrote on X. “Trying to Hurt a small group of people as a BLACK person definitely shows me that you don’t want rights…. You want privilege!”

Not so fast, said Joy-Ann Reid, host of MSNBC’s “The Reid Report.” 

“Every four years, I go through this ritual,” she said Tuesday night, noting 8 in 10 brothers chose Harris, not Trump, at the ballot box. “The world just wants to say that Black men are realigning, and they’re all gonna run to Donald Trump,” even though the Latino vote shifted far more dramatically to the former president than in 2020. 

“It is not Black men. They are not shifting,” she said. “You are not seeing Black men shift. Please stop.” 

Andre Perry, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, thinks the debate over whether Black men turned their backs on Harris when she most needed them is misguided because “it really does not reckon with why people vote, or the rationale for people’s votes.” 

Misogynoir — resentment and anger towards Black women — may have motivated some Black men to choose Trump, Perry says. But it overlooks more complex socioeconomic issues, and the GOP’s continuing outreach to Black men. 

“I think there’s sexism among men, but the truth is economic shifts, like overseas trade agreements, hit Black men just as hard as whites,” Perry says. That, he says, makes both groups more receptive to Trump’s message.

Unfairly Scapegoated?

Not since Willie Horton became a household name in the 1988 presidential election have Black men been at the center of such intense political debate. Unlike Horton, who became the face of violent crime in America for Republicans, there’s no consensus on whether Black men are the avatars of Harris’s 2024 defeat. 

What is clear, however, is that narrative has taken hold among many Black Harris supporters.

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Keywords: Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Black men voting, election analysis, vice president loss

#KamalaHarris #Election2023 #BlackVote