The Unbearable Whiteness of the Democratic Party...and America
The Unbearable Whiteness of the Democratic Party...and America
Activists, voters and members of the Congressional Black Caucus have expressed frustration at the Democratic Party's apathy on issues that affect Black America.
By
Michael Harriot
There is an open secret that most of your favorite activists know, even if they never mention it during their television appearances:
Black people are on their own.
Throughout the course of American history, most white people have never cared about Black lives. This has nothing to do with Critical Race Theory. It is an indisputable fact. While there are no polling numbers on how Americans felt about slavery, most white people did not participate in the abolition movement. Even after the Supreme Court 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, only 18 percent of whites favored immediate integration, according to the National Opinion Research Center. A 1963 Gallup poll found that 78 percent of white people would leave their neighborhood if many Black families moved in. By 1966, 54 percent of white Americans said that they did not think civil rights demonstrations were justified, even if they “were in the same position as negroes.”
When Americans spilled into the streets during the summer 0f 2020 to protest the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, it was unlike anything we had seen before.
To be fair, blatant racism may not be the sole reason for white people’s inaction when it comes to equality. Many don’t even believe systemic racism exists in policing, criminal justice or financial institutions. In 2016, three out of every four white people believed police used the right amount of force in situations and treated different racial and ethnic groups equally.
Graphic: Pew Research
But 2020 was different. After witnessing a state-sponsored murder from multiple angles in high definition and surround sound, a multiracial, multi-ethnic coalition of protesters took to the street to end the scourge of police violence. The New York Times noted that “many white Americans were showing up for the cause of justice for Black Americans.” High-profile celebrities and corporations who were previously silent about social justice began to use their voices, money and platforms for change. This rainbow coalition collectively promised that they would not rest until there was meaningful reform. They had seen what injustice looks like and now there was no turning back...
Until they turned their backs.
According to a Pew Research report released on Monday, while most Americans still support the Black Lives Matter Movement, white support has severely declined from an all-time high during the Woke White Summer of 2020. In June 2020, 45 percent of white people supported the Black Lives Matter movement. By September 2020, that number had reached 60 percent before it returned to 47 percent, where it has stayed for a year.
Although Pew insists there are currently “wide racial, ethnic and partisan gaps,” in the number of people who support BLM, there’s not. The majority of young people, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Americans from every educational background still support the movement. But after the smoke from rubber bullet launchers and gas bombs cleared, the corporations had done nothing. The woke white allies were lying all along.
Graphic: Pew Research
We now return you to your regularly scheduled America.
There is a secret that all of your favorite Black pundits and even members of the Congressional Black Caucus know.
Black people are on their own.
Black America’s unwavering loyalty to the Democratic Party is as much a function of the conservative racism as it is a belief in the values and ideals of the Democratic Party’s platform. We might not express this apprehension publicly (because why would we give that ammunition to the opposition party?), but we know what white people are going to do. We remember how white abolitionists fought against slavery while stiff-arming full equality for Black Americans. We remember how they supported integration±but not where their kids attended school.
And when it comes to problems that face the Democratic Party’s most loyal base, we know the party is more than willing to compromise our rights for their power. In numerous conversations with The Root, high-level staffers and members of the Congressional Black Caucus have expressed frustration with the Democratic Party’s apathy or lack of urgency on police reform, voting rights and other political issues important to Black America.
No, Black people are not devoted to the Democratic Party; Black people are devoted to Black people (Candace, Kanye and Jason Whitlock excluded).
