During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump asked Black Americans why they support the Democratic Party: “Look how much African American communities have suffered under Democratic control. . . . What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump? … You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs. … What the hell do you have to lose?”
It was a brazen challenge. Of course, as it turns out, Trump did little to improve the lives of Black Americans. At least he didn’t get in the way of a declining Black unemployment rate, a trend that started under President Barack Obama.
But Trump’s question should be a wake-up call for Democrats. For decades, Blacks have been strong supporters of the Democratic Party but without much to show in return since the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968 were passed.
Generations back, Blacks favored the Republican Party—homage to the party of Lincoln that ended slavery, but things changed in the early 20th century. Oppressive Jim Crow laws in the south led to a Black migration north, where Blacks found support in organized labor, and Democrats led the charge in expanding civil rights in the 1960s.
Now, some 80 percent of Blacks self-identify as Democrats. To understand what this means, look at last November’s election. Roughly 50 percent of the Democratic vote in both Alabama and Georgia came from Blacks who comprise only about 30 percent of either state’s population.
Academics Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird refer to this party loyalty as a “racialized social constraint,” where “supporting the Democratic Party has come to be understood as just something you do as a Black person, an expectation of behavior meant to empower the racial group.” But loyalty to the Democratic Party isn’t paying off.
From a 2020 Brookings report, the median net worth of white families is $171,000, while it’s $17,150 for a Black family. Stated another way, it takes the combined net worth of 10 Black households to equal the net worth of a typical white household. And the wealth disparity—wealth measures homes and other assets—between whites and Blacks increases significantly with age. Since 1992, net worth for whites increased by 42 percent, while it decreased slightly for Blacks.
Even when comparing whites and Blacks with similar education levels, a wealth gap exists. Congress’ Joint Economic committee conclude in 2020 that Blacks with a high school degree earn less than white high school graduates College educated Blacks earn less than similarly situated whites and are at greater risk at working in jobs that do make use of their education. Throw in being a woman, and the disparity increases.
Pew Research determined that in 2014 that 43 percent of Black households owned their home, compared to 72 percent of white households. The number of Blacks living at the poverty was more than twice that of whites, and the unemployment rate for Blacks was roughly twice that of whites, just as it is today.
This disparity extends to the criminal justice system. Every police shooting that captures the nation’s headlines involves a Black victim. Blacks are more likely to receive the Death Penalty than whites. According to the Innocence Project, Blacks are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder and three times more likely to be wrongly convicted of sexual assault as compared to white people.
There’s risk in taking the Black vote for granted. The Republican Party is hardly a good option, but Blacks can choose to sit out elections. Remember what happened in the 2016 presidential election when some 765,000 fewer Black voters went to the polls than in 2012?
[This post was published in The Columbus Dispatch as an op-ed on February 16, 2021.]
________________________________________
Jack D’Aurora writes for Considerthisbyjd.com
__________________________________________________________
Also published on Medium.
FEB
About the Author: