WASHINGTON: Barack Obama had frank words for Black men who may be considering sitting out the election.
“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,” he said Thursday to Harris-Walz campaign volunteers and officials at a field office in Pittsburgh.
America’s first Black president touched a nerve among Democrats worried about Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of becoming the second.
Harris is counting on Black turnout in battleground states such as Pennsylvania in her tight race with Republican Donald Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and tried to make inroads with Black men in particular.
Obama’s comments belie that Black men still overwhelmingly back Harris. But her campaign and allies have worked hard trying to shore up support with this critical group of voters — and addressing questions about potential misogyny.
Black Americans are the most Democratic-leaning racial demographic in the country, with Black men being outpaced only by Black women in their support for Democrats.
A recent poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 7 in 10 Black voters had a favorable view of Harris and preferred her leadership to that of Trump on several major policy issues including the economy, health care, abortion, immigration and the war between Israel and Hamas.
There was little difference in support for Harris between Black men and Black women.
But Khalil Thompson, co-founder and executive director of Win With Black Men, said he agreed with what he saw as Obama’s larger point.
“I believe President Obama is speaking to a tangible, visceral understanding of what it means for all men to relate to women in America. Calling out misogyny is not wrong,” said Thompson, whose group raised more than $1.3 million for Harris from 20,000 Black men in the 24 hours after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race in July and made way for Harris.
Win With Black Men has organized weekly calls and events meant to bolster Harris’ standing with Black men. The flurry of activism has focused on combating misinformation in Black communities about Harris, as well as an emphasis on the policy priorities of Black men, which the group found are often centered on greater economic opportunities, safe communities, social justice policies and health care, particularly for the partners and children of Black men.
“We’re not a monolith,” Thompson said. “However, we are just like every other American in this country who wants a good paying job, that we can provide for our children and participate in their lives and the lives of our partner, that we can get them home safely, afford to go to the grocery store, save a little for retirement and have a vacation.”
Harris said she believes the votes of Black men must be earned, like with any group of voters.
Black men “are not in our back pocket,” she told a panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in September.
Harris recently sat down with the “All The Smoke” podcast hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson to discuss her racial identity and policy issues of interest to Black men. On Tuesday, Harris will appear in Detroit for a live conversation with Charlamagne tha God, a prominent Black media personality.
The Harris campaign is conducting a number of outreach efforts to Black voters, including an tour of homecomings at historically Black colleges and universities, a number of radio and TV ads targeting Black voters in key states, and a get-out-the-vote operation engaging Black communities that complements the work of allied groups such as Win With Black Men.
It has also tapped high-profile surrogates, including politicians, business leaders, professional athletes and musical artists, to court Black men.
“Our Black men, we’ve got to get them out to vote,” said former NBA star Magic Johnson during a recent Harris rally in Flint, Michigan. “Kamala’s opponent promised a lot of things to the Black community that he did not deliver on. And we’ve got to make sure we help Black men understand that.”
The Trump campaign and its allies have held roundtables for Black men and conducted a bus tour through swing states that featured cookouts in cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia. The campaign believes the former president’s appeals on issues such as the economy, immigration and traditional gender roles resonate with some Black men.
Trump earlier this year mused that the criminal charges against him in four separate indictments, one of which led to a conviction with another dismissed, made him more relatable to Black people.
“A lot of people said that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he told a Black conservative audience in South Carolina.
Trump’s support among Black, white, and Hispanic male voters worries senior Harris campaign officials as the election increasingly shapes up as divided along gender lines, with Harris stronger with women and Trump stronger with men.
But the debate over to what degree misogyny plays a role in some Black men not supporting Harris sidesteps a broader conversation on how Black men are engaged as full citizens in politics, argues Philip Agnew, founder of the grassroots political organization Black Men Build.
“To be a Black man in the United States is to be invisible and hypervisible at the same time, and neither one of those is a humanizing viewpoint,” Agnew said.
Agnew’s group traveled to 10 cities across the summer, hosting roundtables with Black men and making the case for civic engagement and a progressive politics. Agnew said many Black men throughout those conversations expressed exasperation toward politics, a sentiment shared by many Americans, in addition to a feeling that their political perspectives were often misunderstood or unappreciated.
“The Black men I know are incredibly concerned with the lives of our families and our communities,” Agnew said. “It’s because of an abundance of love for our sisters that we ask questions, not a lack of love.”
Obama’s callout to Black men touches a nerve among Democrats. Is election-year misogyny at play?
https://arab.news/95dwb
Obama’s callout to Black men touches a nerve among Democrats. Is election-year misogyny at play?
- America’s first Black president touched a nerve among Democrats worried about Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of becoming the second
‘Cake not hate’ campaign spreads love amid far-right rhetoric in UK
- Joshua Harris, 12, who is autistic, hands out cakes at mosques
- His father, Dan, tells Arab News they are welcomed by Muslims
LONDON: A 12-year-old boy, who is autistic and non-speaking, is visiting mosques across the country and handing out cakes to promote love and solidarity amid the rise of far-right rhetoric in the UK.
Joshua Harris, or “Joshie-Man” as he is known to his social media fans, has handed out hundreds of his baked treats to congregations in London, Leicester, Luton, Birmingham, and his home city of Peterborough.
The “Cake not hate” campaign came to life after an Islamophobic attack on a mosque in Peterborough in October this year.
The perpetrator, Alexander Hooper, 57, entered Masjid Darassalaam and abused worshipers preparing for the Fajr prayer, and physically assaulted a female police officer who arrived on the scene. Hooper later pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment and assaulting an emergency worker.
Harris’ father, Dan, is the founder of global charity Neurodiversity in Business, and told Arab News that soon after the attack, they both visited the mosque with cakes that Joshie-Man had baked and distributed them to worshipers.
“We gave them to the imam and said we want you to know that this guy (Hooper) doesn’t represent Peterborough nor the great British public,” Harris said.
“So they really warmly received that and then they gave us contact details for the other five or six mosques in Peterborough.”
Harris said he received backlash and threats from far-right individuals after posting videos of Joshie-Man handing out his cakes. And this prompted him to think of how their racism is affecting Muslims.
“If me as a white middle-class guy in a nice part of the world could get this kind of hate from the far right, how bad must it be for a Muslim, a female Muslim, an immigrant Muslim, or a Muslim who doesn’t have English as their first language?
“They must be incredibly intimidated,” he said.
Harris said the Muslims he met told him that they do not go out at night or let their children walk home from school alone for fear of being attacked. They are scared of abuse if they wear traditional dress or speak a foreign language.
“This is not the Britain I want to bequeath to my child. I don’t want him growing up in a Britain which is really divided and I’ve always been proud of Britain being a really tolerant place which is very respectful,” he said.
Harris and his son also visited a mosque in Luton, the town where far-right activist and anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson grew up.
He said it was “really profound” to meet Muslim children who said they had been attacked and shouted at by racists and Islamophobes.
Harris and his son are due to embark on a northern tour later this month to visit 12 mosques in three days. On Christmas Day, they will help cook meals for people who are lonely or need help at a Peterborough mosque, which will open its doors as a part of an outreach event.
Harris said the Muslims he met have “conducted themselves with a lot of humility and kindness. That message has been lost because the far right are now saying that Islam is something to be feared.”
He added that Joshie-Man loves baking and distributing his cakes: “You only have to look at the video to see how he’s jumping with joy when he goes into these places.”
Harris is no stranger to far-right hate and had previously received abuse after speaking out against groups painting St. George’s cross and Union Jack flags on zebra crossings and roundabouts across the UK over the summer after anti-migrant protests.
“I put a post out on social media around how the far right in the UK need to stop painting over zebra crossings.
“Because there are a number of people in our community, the visually impaired, learning disabled, non-speaking autistic or even the colorblind, who find it harder to use zebra crossings if they have the England flags painted on them.
“Joshie certainly did,” Harris said.
“The post was innocuous but the far right went a bit crazy on me and then started targeting me, calling Joshie a retard, talking about eugenics, and saying that the government is wasting money on his education.”
Harris said the comments were “quite hurtful” and he found it “absolutely abhorrent that Reform UK are targeting disabled children.”
“They are some of the most vulnerable in our society. The far right are going after them and they are whipping up a fury in people who think the disabled kids are here for the perks.
“Families that I’ve met and who live in councils controlled by Reform UK are telling me that since they’ve come to power, their interactions have been all around how do we remove your legally enshrined rights.”
Supporting children with neurodiversity is a cause close to Harris’ heart.
After seeing how using a computer with augmentative and alternative communication software transformed the way his son was able to communicate, Harris has led a campaign that raises money to provide these aids to families who cannot afford them.
He has been to several countries, including Mexico, the US, and Brazil, giving away computers to children who are autistic and non-speaking. The next stop for father and son is Dubai, where they will be giving away 100 computers in January.
“We accept the fact that this is a drop in the ocean given how many kids need them, but if we create a bit of noise and get this on the radar that that’s a big win that people can continue with locally,” he said.
“The Middle East is such an important part of our world and over the next 50 to 100 years, it’s going to be absolutely key. Some of the countries, governments, and royal families have actually got a really forward-looking and innovative outlook on this topic.
“So I felt like this is our first chance to put a footprint in the Middle East and God willing, we will achieve some success in new relationships and go to other countries later on.”
