Opinion: The Media Is Giving Black Men Too Much Credit For Something White Women Do — Support Trump

As soon as there is even a whisper of a possible Donald Trump presidency, out come this mysterious group of Black men, that wear boat shoes and khaki pants that don’t meet their ankles. Black men that don’t frequent Black barbershops that can’t wait to vote for The Orange One.
For some reason there is this belief that the pathway to a Trump victory takes a suburban off-ramp into the mythical marsh of Black men who don’t listen to hip-hop and who plan to tush-push Trump into the White House.
There are surveys and polls and conversations all supporting this belief that young Black men are going to not only vote for Trump but tip the scales in his favor because young Black men ― or at least a quarter of those surveyed ― somehow find themselves connected to the man who once yelled out, “Oh, look at my African American over here,” during a rally in which the Republican presidential nominee spotted a lone Black face in the crowd.
Make no mistake about it, Trump’s been pulling out all the stops to try and sway young Black voters by getting endorsements from Detroit rapper Trick Trick, former boxer Tommy “Hitman” Hearns, former NFL players Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, and famous celebrity Amber Rose. This is of course assuming young Black male voters even know who these people are.
But let’s not get it twisted. If for some reason Trump wins this election, it will not be the fault of Black men. Not young Black men. Not foreign born, legal voting Black men. Not Black men who still believe that Trump gave everyone $1,200 during the pandemic. (He didn’t, Congress did.) Not any of the Black men who are Black men and who will ever be Black men. No Black man, even those who might vote for Trump, will sway the election.
Period.
But what feels more sinister about this election cycle are reruns of “Black men can’t wait to cast their votes for a man who openly despises them” ― an undercurrent of potential blame toward Black men should Trump make it into the White House.
It feels like enough pieces have been written claiming that “Black voters could play an important role in determining the outcome of key 2024 elections,” as Pew Research claimed early this year ― and that is just not true. Let’s be clear about this, Black women don’t vote Republican. They aren’t just the backbone of the Democratic party, they are the Democratic party.
“For nearly a quarter of a century, an astounding 90% or more of Black women voters have rallied behind the Democratic ticket in presidential elections,” Glamour magazine reports. “In the last election alone, in nearly every state, 80% to 90% of Black voters cast their ballot for the Democratic candidate. It’s a consistency that spans regions and decades.”
So if we aren’t talking about Black women voters, then who must we be talking about when news outlets claim: “Harris and Trump tied amid battle for Latino and Black voters” ― if, historically, Black women don’t ever vote Republican.
They must be talking about Black men. And this narrative, this setup if you will, that’s been spinning for some time that Black men are going to help lead Trump to victory isn’t just false, like much of Trump’s campaign promises, it’s a flat out lie.
“This election is not going to be won or lost by the number of Black men that support or do not support [Kamala Harris], even though it’s going to be probably razor-thin,” Martin Luther King III told USA TODAY. “You can’t go and say, well, it’s Black men’s fault.”
“That’s where it seems like it’s trying to go,” he added.
And MLK III isn’t wrong. For some reason this idea that Black men are planning on voting for Trump or sitting this election out was, unfortunately, perpetuated by former President Barack Obama, who chided Black men that he believed were planning to sit this election out because they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a Black woman.
“You’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody [Trump] who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down?” Obama said, during Harris’ rally in Pittsburgh. “That’s not acceptable.”
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that,” Obama said. “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.”
It was a gotcha moment for the former president that lasted a current news cycle (which is about 10 minutes) in which Black men who never liked Obama in the first place took this as an opportunity to hit social media to lambast the sentiment that there is apathy amongst Black men and voting. Truthfully, it was the murmuring from some Black men who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a woman because Black men still benefit from white patriarchy, but it wasn’t enough to be mentioned. Obama should’ve known this was a trap and avoided it.
Because Black people don’t vote for Republicans. Not even disgruntled Black men. Not in numbers that would even remotely affect an election.
“Nearly a century has passed since a Republican presidential nominee even came close to winning a majority of the Black vote (Herbert Hoover in 1928 was the last),” Michael Harriot, a columnist for the Grio, wrote in January.
“It is asinine, bordering on malpractice, for a journalist to publicly suggest that one of the most vociferously anti-Black candidates could achieve what no Republican has done in the last 96 years. Setting aside the media’s lazy, inexplicably stupid exercise in speculative fiction, one wonders why the mainstream media narrative seems to intentionally avoid the one topic that — when it comes to presidential elections — is more important and more mathematically relevant.”
Harriot continued: “The same organization (Pew Research) that said that thing about the “important role” of Black voters in 2024 knows that 55% of non-Hispanic whites voted for Trump in 2020, while 92% of Black voters, 59% of Hispanics and 7% of Asians voted for his opponent. Political scientists concede that white voters of both parties are more likely to switch parties when the candidate is Black.”
So this planted storyline, this sorry attempt to posthumously blame a possible wayward presidency on Black men is so Trumpian, it could be a page out of Project 2025. It’s completely made up. It’s not actually a thing. This is no mass deportation of Black male voters leaving the Democratic Party to vote for Trump.
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Should Trump make it across the finish line and somehow bring his brand of fascism back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for a second time ― this undoing American democracy as we know it ― it will fall solely on the shoulders of white men and women, but more specifically white women.
Let’s take a trip back to 2020 when President Joe Biden was supposed to win by a landslide because the country was exhausted from all the racial rhetoric, the misogyny, the sexual assault allegations, COVID-19, and the president of the United States throwing paper towels at hurricane survivors. And that’s the Cliff Notes version. White women were supposed to throw all their support behind Biden if for nothing more than to oust the sitting president, and yet, more white women voted for Trump.
According to NBC News, 55% of white women voted for Trump, while 43% voted for Biden. Compare that to 91% of Black women (Black women are y’all tired of holding up America?) voted for Biden while some 8% supported Trump.
Black men, or voters, as the media likes to call them, will not be the scapegoat should Trump make it back into the White House. Should it happen, white women, that’s on y’all.