Written by Michael Thervil
Photo by Jack Forbes, Alex Wong, & Getty Images
When it comes to Black American Voters by the numbers in the United States, it appears that they don’t matter. Considering that Black Americans make up roughly 14% of the total population in the United States, it’s no wonder why many Black Americans feel as if they are part of a permanent underclass. Statistically, Black Americans are residing at the bottom of every major category that is worthwhile in America for the exception of sports and entertainment. Although the question of the day is why; the secondary question is what does Black Americans being at the bottom of every major category have to do with elections presidential or otherwise?
According to the Pew Research Center, “Black Americans are projected to account for 14.0% of eligible voters in the U.S. in November”. For anyone to expect any kind of significant change that specifically targets a demographic this small that can barely form any kind of Super PAC (Political Action Committee), until recently by the Alpha Phi Alpha Sorority Incorporated in light of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the U.S. Presidency should not be taken seriously. From a cultural perspective despite Black American’s historic contributions to American society, it seems that the adversity that Black Americans politically face in modern times stems not necessarily from the obstacles placed before them from other people – but from the obstacles that they place in front of themselves.
While many Black Americans will cite systemic racism as the reason why they seem to not only be failing to advance politically in American society; there is a growing segment of Black Americans that that hold the belief that the number reason why Black people are struggling both socially and politically is because of the high levels of abortions that Black American women are undergoing. This is important to know that Black American women have performed over 20 million abortions in a matter of several decades which significantly stifled and essentially regressed the population growth of Black Americans since the normalization of abortions amongst Black American women.
But there’s more to the plight of Black Americans politically than meet the eye. The issue of Black Americans to put their differences aside amongst themselves and come together is another barrier that routinely rears its ugly head every election cycle. When we say Black American struggle to “put their differences aside amongst themselves”, we are talking about their internal war of the sexes that permeates throughout the Black American demographic in America. Black American women feel as if they have a different set of political issues than that of Black America men.
Photo by Getty Images
One would think that Black American men would lead the decision-making process within their demographic, ironically it appears that it’s the women that lead the political decision making within this demographic. According to the Pew Research Center, Black American female voters lead Black American male voters by roughly 6 points as of January 2024 (47%-53% respectively). Again, the question is why? In the case of Black American men, the reason why they tend to vote less is because they perceive that they get nothing in return for casting their vote, especially for those that have casted their vote for any candidate of the Democratic Party.
For those men that casted their vote for a Republican Candidate, they too perceived that their vote didn’t matter. The reason for this is because Black American men (and the Black American demographic in general) don’t vote enough and they contribute next to nothing to the Republican Party which means that the Black American Demographic is “invisible” to the Republican Party.
In sum it’s a numbers game. Politically, the more people a particular demographic has population wise, the more economic power that demographic will have. And it’s that variable along with some others that will determine if they can motivate and capture the attention of politicians to embark on political measures that will directly benefit them as a group. By Black Americans allowing their women to basically chop their own hands off, it's no reason why Black Americans cease to have the hands needed to effectively hold politicians accountable for their inability to specifically bring legislation and laws into fruition that directly benefit Black Americans.
With the inability for Black American men and women to come together and stop the cultural normalization of abortions within their group, in conjunction with Black American men taking control over their women in a way that steers their political decision-making; which can only be achieved by stopping Black American women from thinking that they political needs differs from them, than Black American Voters will never matter.
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