Why Biden Has The Black Vote, Why Blacks Do Not Trust The White Vote in The General

[ancianita]

What polls predicted a week ago about the black vote were not born out on Super Tuesday.

Seriously. Democrats must keep this in mind for the General Election & most especially for the DNC.




Black Voters Didn’t Vote for Biden in South Carolina Because They ‘Lack Information’ --
Black voters opted for Biden because they have no faith that white voters will do the right thing and vote for a true progressive. by Elie Mystal

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-black-vote/


The rest of the article:

"... black people know exactly what they’re doing, and why. Joe Biden is the indictment older black folks have issued against white America. His support is buttressed by chunks of the black community who have determined that most white people are selfish and cannot be trusted to do the right thing.

They believe if you make white people choose between their money and their morality ... they will choose their money every time and twice on Election Day.

... a 39-year-old African American voter in South Carolina ... told the Times: “Black voters know white voters better than white voters know themselves.… So yeah, we’ll back Biden, because we know who white America will vote for in the general election in a way they may not tell a pollster or the media.” ...

... The Root’s politics editor, Dr. Jason Johnson, put it like this to me ...

“Voting for Bernie Sanders requires that black people believe that white people will do something they’ve never done: willingly and openly share in the economic bounty of the United States.”

He’s not wrong, and what’s more, older black voters in South Carolina know he’s not wrong. ...

... They remember that actual progressive choices, like Jackson and Edwards, were rejected by white Democrats. They remember that white people failed to turn on George W. Bush, despite his legacy of incompetence and torture, and instead reelected him.

They remember that the majority of white people did not vote for the first black president, spent eight years attacking his every move, and then replaced him with the most small-minded bigot they could find, rejecting an immensely qualified white woman in the process.

Learning these lessons about what white people will do is part of growing up black in this country...."

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I have to say it

I'm 47, black, and a woman - and I agree with the 39 year old.

After Trump (pull Edwards out of it - though I supported him in 2004) I can't trust people to do the right thing.

I trust myself and my peers. We are pragmatic, thoughtful, and know what we are doing here.

[ancianita]

3. I absolutely agree.

I'm 72, white and have a good memory.

The history of the larger white vote in America is so malleable by Trump's lies that they can be scared of anything. Last time, besides the racist wall chants, Ebola was his other main pretext for fearmongering; this time it will be the coronavirus that he literally let into the house.

Both issues cover for their Nazi white supremacy hate votes.

I hate them all back. I'm with your judgment.

As go the lives of black people in America, so goes America. I've always believed that.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. What a bunch of nonsense.

Black voters didn't vote for Bernie because they didn't think a white guy would do them any good, but they voted for another white guy because...? This makes no sense at all, but coming from The Nation I guess that's no surprise.

[ancianita]

5. You're really going to "nonsense" Jason Johnson of The Root, eh. Okay, then.

As for The Nation, I'm no fan and realize it used to be farther left, because I read it back then, but still, in media context ...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I like Jason Johnson (who wasn't the author of the article).

That doesn't mean I have to agree with him on this point, which doesn't make much sense to me. It seems awfully convoluted.

[ancianita]

8. Me, too.

Of course you don't have to agree, but one would think you have more credible reasons or polls, etc. behind the "nonsense" judgment.

I don't think any of this is convoluted to Jason, though, whose opinion I trust more than The Nation's.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. The problem I have with the author's reasoning is that it seems to presume

that black voters rejected Sanders only because they didn't think white voters would vote for him in enough numbers to win the GE. But that's the same reason a lot of white voters didn't vote for Sanders! It looks like most voters, regardless of their race, are trying to choose the candidate most likely to beat Trump, and it wasn't Sanders.

[ancianita]

11. Agreed. Though I posted this to remind voters here to foreground black voters' reasoning, is all.

That most Americans won't vote for Sanders is something his young supporters don't really get, my own son included.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. One reason black voters might not have embraced Sanders in large numbers

is Sanders' insistence that economic equality by itself will cure racism. I don't think many PoC (or white people, for that matter) believe that.

[ancianita]

13. True.

[yardwork]

6. That's not how I read it.

I understand the columnist to say that black voters - especially those in the south - don't trust white voters to support a progressive candidate in the general election.

In other words, if a progressive candidate gets the nomination, black voters have good reason to believe that white voters will turn against the progressive and vote for the Republican in the GE.

In fact, we've seen this happen over and over. So black voters are using a strategy based on past experience. They'll throw their support behind a candidate they think white voters might support.

I'm a white person who has lived in the south for decades. I think there's a lot of truth in this column. Quite frankly, I don't trust white voters to do the right thing. And I'm white.

[yardwork]

4. Lots of truth in this.

[ancianita]

9. No one wins without the black vote. No one.