Stop Scapegoating the Black Male Vote

Now Black men matter, huh? 2020 is wild — things can change in the blink of an eye.

Seems like just a few months we were being murdered in the streets, protesting and pleading for our lives. Now, in the midst of the highest voter turnout in a presidential election since 1876, the powers that be are fighting for our support — and what it means. GTFOH.

Before I get upset, let me back up. Black people make up 13.4 percent of the population. Of that 13.4 percent, 48 percent are male, which means we’re roughly 7 percent of the population in the U.S. Twenty-two percent of that 7 percent are under the age of 18, bringing the number of Black male voters down to 5.5 percent of Americans. Of that group, only 63 percent are registered to vote. If I did my math right, that leaves us with about 11 million voters overall.  

Now, I’m not saying that our vote doesn’t matter, because that’s not true at all. The margin of victory in the 2016 election was right round 2.5 percent. So if Hillary would have gotten all of the Black male vote, she probably would’ve pulled it off, depending on what states all those votes came from and what that would mean to the electoral college, but that’s a whole other video. Let’s keep things in the right perspective. If either candidate won all the votes from, say, white men, or white women, who each represent roughly 71 million voters, the election would be an unprecedented landslide. And nobody would give damn about the Black male vote. So relax.

More to the point, Black men are no longer here to take credit or be blamed for what ails America. Throughout the country’s history, we’ve been categorized, stereotyped and falsely labeled. From Sambo the happy slave in the 1700s, to blackface minstrel shows in the 1800s, to the hypersexual savage of the early 1900s, to Jim Crow. In our generation, it’s being “responsible” for most crime and violence. I could go on and on in regards to stereotypes of Black men and how we are the “problem” in American society. 

With that in mind, as of 2020, I am declaring that Black men as a group are absolved of all irrational moral judgment, malicious criticism and scapegoating of any kind. At 7 percent of society, we’re in no way, shape or form responsible for the sum total of any of  America’s problems. We just don’t have the numbers.

Besides, in this year’s election, if we’re gonna blame a race of people for the continued fascination with Donald Trump… whites, this is all you. The numbers speak for themselves; after all, you’re 73 percent of the population. And in 2016, 54 percent of that 73 percent voted for Trump. That’s a lot of people, bro. What I’m saying is, if it comes down to a vote, all white people need to do is convince people who look like you. But that’s only if we are placing blame on a group. 

The thing is, in reality, voting and elections have never solely been judged or won by monolithic groups of any kind. That’s because feelings and emotions are involved and things get tricky. Also, you’re your own person — never more so than when you’re by yourself filling out your ballot. So placing blame on a single demographic for the results of an election is ridiculous. We’re all Americans, it’s up to all of us. We all have a role to play, so that means taking responsibility and the blame together.

But if you must? It’s the whites.