Former President Obama is drawing backlash for current feedback calling on Black males to prove for Vice President Harris in November’s election.
At a marketing campaign stump for Harris on Thursday in Pittsburgh, Obama mentioned that regardless of Harris elevating upward of $1 billion, “we have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running.”
That lag in power, he added, seems “to be more pronounced with the brothers.”
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses; I’ve got a problem with that,” he mentioned. “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.”
Regardless of polls displaying a generational divide in Black males’s help for Harris, Obama’s remarks have drawn the ire of a number of outstanding Black People.
Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner argued Obama’s feedback “belittled” Black males.
“Why are Black men being lectured to? Why are Black men being belittled in ways that no other voting group?” Turner mentioned Thursday night time on CNN.
She added she has a “lot of love” for Obama, “but for him to single out Black men is wrong, and some of the Black men that I have talked to have their reasons why they want to vote a different way, and even if some of us may not like that, we have to respect it.”
“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,” she mentioned. “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.”
Regardless of Black voters overwhelmingly displaying help for Harris, 1 in 4 Black males below the age of fifty expressed help for Trump, a current ballot from NAACP and HIT Methods discovered.
However actor Wendell Pierce mentioned Obama’s phrases despatched an “Awful message.”
“The party has to stop scapegoating Black men. Black men aren’t the problem. White men and White women are,” Pierce mentioned in a submit on social platform X.
Pierce’s newest feedback had been at odds with a message he despatched to Black males through the Democratic Nationwide Conference in August.
On the time, Pierce instructed Black males to recollect “there’s blood on the ballot box.”
“Any Black man that has an issue with a Black woman rising, they have to look at their own inadequacy,” Pierce mentioned. “What would make you so fearful of someone who was so beloved of you, who was so loving to you, like your mother and your grandmother and your aunts and your sisters, that you cannot be proud and embolden yourself when you see someone from your community rise up?”
Although Black voters — together with Black males — voted overwhelmingly for President Biden in 2020, Trump did make inroads with Black males.
Since Obama’s first election in 2008, Democrats’ help amongst Black males has been slipping.
Whereas exit polling reveals 80 p.c of Black males supported Biden in 2020, that quantity was down barely from Hillary Clinton’s 82 p.c in 2016 — which was considerably decrease than Obama’s 95 p.c in 2008 and his 87 p.c in 2012.
Nonetheless, Pierce mentioned, “Black men voting for Trump is insignificant.”
“This accusatorial tone will make some Black men stay home-which is worse,” Pierce mentioned. “Black men are questioning our party to find out what their loyalty for decades earns them. That’s good. That’s healthy. Democrats have the record to stand on and should embrace the challenge. But after touring this country specifically engaging Black men, I will not let my party leaders speak condescending towards them.”
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