There is a major difference between loyalty and ownership. While many black Americans have a sense of loyalty to the Democratic Party, the party has translated black voters’ constancy into a rightful racial bloc of ownership. But much like any useful possession, it becomes incredibly easy to take it for granted the longer you possess it.
Charlamagne Tha God just expressed something similar in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. “The Breakfast Club” radio host made headlines in 2020 when candidate Joe Biden irritably told him that “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or [Donald] Trump, then you ain’t black.”
When Fox asked about Biden’s 2024 chances and his feelings about Democrats, Charlamagne stated: “They feel like, ‘Hey, black men, black women, they’re our most loyal voting bloc, and they show up for us no matter what.’”
He added that the black vote is “just something that I don’t think the Democratic Party can take for granted anymore because everybody wants tangibles. Everybody wants something that is gonna benefit their community specifically. People are voting their interests, nothing more, nothing less.”
Charlamagne’s sentiments are very similar to my reasons for no longer blindly supporting the Democratic Party. I’d notice Democrats would show up on radio shows like Charlamagne’s making promises that sound appealing to a black audience — but they’d never deliver.
They’d make a conscious effort to summon black elitists like Kamala Harris to talk about their college weed habits instead of their voting record. Democrats would deploy black celebrities to leverage their racial identity standing on their soapboxes and demanding we show our voting unity as a people while they pretend our class interests are the same.
While I’m not the only one to notice Democrats’ increasingly condescending nature, the difference is that many continue to vote for them because they believe they’re the lesser of two evils. No matter how conservative many black Americans’ personal values are, the major hurdle for blacks to switch parties has nothing to do with a specific policy but a specific narrative: Republicans are racist.
My own introduction to politics came with an overt statement of how Democrats are for black people and Republicans are racists. Once you’re married to this narrative, no matter what Republicans do from a distance, you’ll interpret it as being maliciously motivated. As little as Republicans believe that Democrats are providing for black Americans, our strong belief in this narrative is why we are willing to stay loyal to the Democratic Party.
Democrats, however, continually misplay us choosing the lesser of two evils by not seeing themselves as an “evil.” And the longer they take us for granted, the more resentment that we will build against them.
Charlamagne even recognized the emptiness of Biden pardoning people with simple marijuana possession in federal prison as a political move that was supposed to especially benefit black people. As the host said, “guess what? There is nobody in prison on a federal level with simple, simple possession.”
The Democrats have mastered do-nothing racially symbolic gestures — and we’re supposed to be appreciative they even shouted us out.
Joe Biden can define if I am black or not in public based on whether I support him, yet I’m not supposed to expect anything tangible from him? It’s because we’re a demographic bloc with expected obedience, and any deviation from our Democratic lords’ and masters’ wishes shall come with a demotion in our racial identity.
Sixty percent of black Americans live in 10 states that include the most populated cities in America. Many of these cities are Democrat-controlled and feature some of the nation’s highest crime rates. Instead of taking this new progressive mantra of defunding the police, the Democrats could make crime a central issue and do something about it. That would highly benefit many black Americans. It would also improve these areas’ economics because without the expectation of safety, businesses will choose elsewhere to flourish, resulting in stagnation in job creation — making these communities even worse off.
Democrats treat black Americans like a vehicle they refuse to properly maintain while expecting us to be reliable enough to consistently drive them to their political destination. The black voting bloc is no longer treated like people with aspirations of a functioning government that appreciates them but a possession they can shine off every election cycle like memorabilia.
The Democrats feel that they own us already, so why pay twice for an item?
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on Substack: adambcoleman.substack.com.
