On The “Big Mamas”, “Tee Brendas”, “Sister Glorias” & “HBCU Tashas” Democrats Rely On To Save Them

Last night (Dec. 12) Doug Jones became the first Democratic senate candidate from Alabama to win a senate race in over 20 years. In a narrow margin of victory (1.7%) he beat out Roy Moore, a first-class deplorable who is an accused pedophile & has an affinity for the simpler times of slavery. Moore, the Pied Piper of Politics, was well on his way to victory until votes from the most heavily Black populated parts of “sweet home Alabama” poured in. Montgomery, Mobile, Selma and a few other smaller Black towns pushed Jones across the victory line. CNN exit polls told an unsurprising story: that over 95% of Black women in Alabama voted for Doug Jones and over 60% of white women in Alabama voted for Roy Moore. If those numbers sound like familiar math of recent history, there’s a reason for that. A similar thing happened in the 2016 presidential election, except in that case the bigoted sexual predator won & created a signal boosts for the Roy Moore’s of the world. The common thread of each storyline: the Black woman vote bolstered the Democratic Party in ways that no other voting demographic did. Because, Black women in the US voting against their marginalization is not only historical but paramount to their engagement in the political process, even more so than Black men’s. Because racism x sexism x classism.

When Hillary Clinton was on the presidential campaign trail, it was Michelle Obama’s stomping for Hillary that majorly coerced skeptical Black women voters. When Barack Obama was encouraging the “Pookies and nem” to get out & vote, it was the “and nem” faction (i.e. Pookies’ grandmas, aunts, godmothers etc.) that steam engined the Clinton campaign in ways incomparable to their white women counterparts. 13% of Black men voted for Donald Trump. 98% of Black women said “hell nah” to that idea. Whether you’re talking the Women’s March or the #MeToo movement, you can always find scores of Black women leading the charge towards political/social equity, because the absence of said equity penalizes their identity the most harshly. The Democratic Party is well aware of this based on data. Which is why as my brother Marcel P. Black once said, “Democrats treat Black people like a booty call”. And to take that analogy one step further, Democrats treat Black women specifically like a last resort prom date that’s just waiting to get some “action” from the flaccid peen of white male liberalism. Oftentimes not acknowledging that the same Black women who constitute the fasting growing educated demographic in the country, are always readily mobilized, organized & tactical in their efforts to sway the vote in the favor of ALL disenfranchised peoples.

The Democratic Party would do best to begin to acknowledge the work of the loyalest of its core base (i.e. people of color and most specifically women of color), if for no other reason than the ingenuity of that base. Because should the day come that Black women voters specifically decide to collectively break the political binary, Democratic politicians will be up shit’s creek. The progression beyond the Angela Ryes & Kamala Harrises & Maxine Waters of the world, is a revolutionary subset of Black women (& men) that are past the point of waiting on the Democratic Party to come through on its deliverables. The tension among Black voters with the Democratic Party has been quietly growing for a while now. Doug Jones better consider the largest portion of his voting bloc once he officially takes that Senate seat. As should every other liberal politician that rides a wave of Black Girl Magic into office. Because the thing about magicians is that they can make you disappear quickly.