Biden, Morehouse, Black Men and the Bronx

By Naba’a Muhammad, StraightWords.com

Naba’a Muhammad

Black men and Black America need more than just hope, Mr. President, as you seek to rally Black voters and win re-election in the fall.

Your historic Morehouse speech referenced God and history, but that isn’t enough. What are your real commitments to Black voters backing the Democratic Party, the most loyal voting bloc in U.S. political history?

Before you say Black folks cannot afford to lose to Trump, that’s not the issue. The question is how bad do Democrats want to win? And can America, a nation in which a recent poll said 106 million people see civil war coming, afford to let Trump win?

Black male voter support for MAGA Man isn’t about fake Trump swagger, ugly sneakers, barbershop chatter, or Black men trapped in basements who can’t get a woman. Please don’t bring Caucasian Male Pathology Syndrome over here with Black men and try to find some equivalency. There is none.

Trump isn’t winning, Biden is losing.

Al Jazeera has reported: “In 2016, Trump received 8 percent of the Black vote ac cording to the exit polls, the highest level of support by Black voters for any Repub lican since George Bush in 2000. By the 2020 U.S. presidential election, support for Trump among Black voters had surged to 12 percent.” That’s not a surge if you track Black voter support for the GOP prez candidate over several decades. Plus that 12 percent was all Black voters, male and female.

In 2020 NBC News reported: “Support for the Democratic presidential candidate reached a new low among Black men this year, according to the NBC News poll of early and Election Day voters. Eighty per cent of Black men supported Joe Biden, down slightly from Hilary Clinton’s 82 per cent in 2016, but significantly down from Barack Obama’s level of support among Black men in 2012 and 2008.”

Instead of figuring out the problem or disconnect, the Dems and their operatives demonized Black men. Black support for the Dems has been slipping for years.

Many Black men, like many young Blacks and some Black women, are sick of the Democrats, Biden and their failures. Failures? Yes. Has Biden condemned po lice misconduct and killing of Black people, or instructed his Justice Dept. to vigorously prosecute these cases? Never. He didn’t pass the George Floyd police reform bill nor the John Lewis voting rights act at the federal level when he had House and Senate. The president raised these two issues as threats speaking at Morehouse. When he had the power to eliminate some state level threats to Black lives and voting rights, he allowed then-Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Christian Sinema of Arizona to block and kill the federal legislation.

Studies and complaints show inflation, loss of Covid relief programs, higher prices for food, gas, rent, homes and taxes for small businesses hurt Blacks more.

Some Black males are clinging to Trump to rebel against the Democratic political plantation and some out of plain spite given that Trump has promised nothing. He held a Bronx rally May 23, trying to draw out images of Blacks and Latinos backing him – but he has made no commitments to Blacks.

Supporting someone giving you nothing is foolishness.

But Blacks saw billions poured into cit ies as humanitarian aid for migrants while West Side neighborhoods in Chicago haven’t recovered from 1960s riots. While Biden touted reinvestments in America at Morehouse, many aren’t seeing any difference.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, speaking to media May 17, talked about population losses tied to decades of disinvestment in Black neighborhoods.

He told the press, “The lack of afford able housing, loss of jobs, and closed schools and mental health clinics have impacted many of Chicago’s communities, and disproportionately hurt Black Chicagoans in particular.”

Blacks have seen little done and little spent to solve the homeless crisis, which hits them harder. Black men coming home from prison seeking to turn their lives around are given just about nothing.

Biden asked May 19 at all-male Morehouse College: “And most of all, what does it mean, as we’ve heard be fore, to be a Black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure?”

Biden declared “democracy” was the way. I beg your pardon, Mr. President. Blacks live under continued oppression in a perpetual fight for some measure of freedom, justice and equality in the “world’s greatest democracy.” This “democracy” was birthed out of the Black holocaust of the transatlantic slave trade and Native American genocide.

Black men should have zero interest in trying to prove love to a nation that hates, abuses but loves to use them.

Consider U.S. Airman Roger Fortson, who was cut down by bullets fired by an Okaloosa County, Fla., sheriff’s deputy. Authorities said an armed offender was killed by an officer in fear of his life. Lies.

The Black legal gun owner opened the door to his apartment to a sheriff, who he didn’t see when he looked out a peep hole. He opened the door, legal gun by his side. He was blasted into oblivion. Biden and his administration have said nothing.

The president highlighted some $23 billion he said was invested in HBCU’s over four years, but he gave $18 billion in aid to Israel weeks ago. Are investments in Israel’s military and slaughter of Palestinians more important than Black institutions that may have been underfunded, perhaps, by a trillion dol lars over the years?

“What’s happening in Gaza and Israel is heartbreaking,” said the president at Morehouse. “Innocent Palestinians caught in the middle of all this: men, women, and children killed or displaced in despite – in desperate need of water, food, and medicine. It’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

Slaughter in Gaza isn’t just happening, Israel is killing people.

Yet Biden supports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the face of International Criminal Court charges of war crimes in Gaza. The charges against Netanyahu followed the president’s Morehouse remarks but Biden fully backs the prime minister and Israel.

Can we say the same thing about Biden support for Black America?

Mr. Biden spoke of “extremists” “who close the doors of opportunity; strike down affirmative action; attack the values of diversity, equality, and inclusion.” Are these “extremists” in corporate board rooms, board members at colleges and universities, and political bodies? Be cause that’s where these efforts are being destroyed and eliminated.

Black voters could be the difference in the 2024 presidential election, especially in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The election could literally come down to 45,000 votes as we look at the electoral college, not the popular vote of millions.

Black voters could be the difference in the 2024 presidential election, especially in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The election could literally come down to 45,000 votes as we look at the electoral college, not the popular vote of millions.

It’s going to take more than ads re leased May 23 by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris blasting Trump for his anti-Black actions, attitudes and racism.

“A New York Times poll published earlier this month found Biden leading former President Trump among Black voters, 63 percent to 23 percent, a significant de crease from the 87 percent of Black voters who voted for Biden in 2020,” Huff Post noted May 23.

Mr. President, here’s your question: Can you afford to lose not just an election, but your country?

Naba’a Muhammad, award winning Final Call editor, is host of “Straight Words With Naba’a Richard Muhammad, Bj Murphy, and James G. Muhammad,” which airs live Tuesdays, 9 p.m. to 12 a.m Central Time, on WVON AM 1690 Black Talk Radio Chicago and is livestreamed at the iHeart Radio app and WVON.com. Get more of his writing and content at straightwords.com.