Blacks Do Support Bernie Sanders!
In the Democratic battle for the “Black Vote”, many African Americans are embracing Senator Bernie Sanders and his progressive agenda of reducing income equality, offering single-payer healthcare for all and getting big money out of politics. An often unrecognized stronghold of black voters throughout the country are supporting the Vermont Senator.
Sanders’ progressive platform has had little trouble resonating with young, white, middle class voters. Recent poll numbers in New Hampshire and Iowa show Sanders with a growing lead in both early primary states. These states have low numbers of minority, especially black, voters and many wonder if African Americans are embracing Sanders’ message with the same gusto as whites.
“He’s the candidate that’s actually making me feel like there’s hope for my future and it’s not just about getting into office. I feel like he’s actually trying to work for me, not just trying to get himself a job,” says Rickey Jones of Houston, Texas. Jones is an unemployed engineer in the oil and gas industry that appreciates Sander’s proposals on growing the economy and putting Americans back to work. “I feel like he’s talking to me. When he says ‘the people’, I feel like I’m a part of that, not just a black vote.”
Studies show that many older African Americans still get much of their news and information about political candidates from television compared with younger generations that rely heavily on social media and online media outlets where they can access articles “on-demand”.
“He has had very little media coverage,” LeAndra Baker of Mount Clemens, Michigan says of Bernie Sanders. When asked how she supports the Sanders campaign, Baker says she constantly bring up Sanders’ name in her predominately black neighborhood and asks friends, family and even strangers, who they are voting for. “Most don’t know who he is,” says Baker. She says she has spent a lot of time educating friends and family on Bernie Sanders. Baker believes that once African Americans hear Sanders’ progressive campaign platform and how these policy changes will benefit their community, they quickly become Sanders supporters.
In addition to economics, racial justice has become a hot-button political topic this election season. The Black Lives Matter movement has taken center stage demanding the end to police brutality in black communities as well as an end to the “pipeline to prison” which, many Black Americans believe unjustly incarcerates high numbers of black men in a private, for-profit prison system. Many African Americans believe Sanders’ plans for racial justice are amongst the most progressive and realistic of the three 2016 Democratic candidates.
Despite the recent media attention to Sanders’ lack of support for reparations for African Americans, it doesn’t seem to have deterred support for him in the black community.
“There are other ways to give blacks and Native Americans and other disenfranchised groups a more even playing field and get these groups back to where they can participate in American politics and American society,” says Eddie Williams of Kansas City, Kansas. Williams believes Sanders is moving in the right direction with regards to social justice and applauds his ability to promote new ideas that “aren’t just the same things that didn’t work last time.”
“He seems like he’s trying to give us another New Deal. Money to rebuild infrastructure, put people back to work, stop the prison pipeline and selling kids to the prison industrial complex,” says Williams.
Political pundits have long asserted Hillary Clinton’s “inevitability” as the Democratic nominee along with an apparent faithful backing by black voters. Clinton often recalls two decades of familiarity with black voters, mostly stemming from broad based support for her husband, Bill Clinton. Despite claims of her inevitability in 2008, black voters overwhelmingly cast ballots en masse for Barack Obama.
“I’ve never understood the appeal of the Clinton charm with the black vote, “says Wendy Sejour of Homestead, Florida. Sejour, an African American who grew up in New Orleans’ tough inner city, is a strong Sanders supporter and has never liked Bill or Hillary Clinton. “Every time I hear someone say Bernie doesn’t have inroads with the black voters, I want to sit down with them and educate them.”
A December 2015 poll conducted in South Carolina by YouGov of South Carolina Democrats highlighted Sanders concern about Clinton’s prominence with black voters. Eighty percent of black voters supported Clinton versus 20% of black voters that supported Bernie Sanders. Anyone following the electorate knows that a lot has changed since December 2015.
Benjamin Dixon believes the polls numbers showing overwhelming Clinton support by blacks voters are “erroneous”, a “baked advantage of name recognition” and ultimately, “doesn’t equate to actual support”. Dixon, host of The Benjamin Dixon Show, a progressive news and commentary program hosted on YouTube and other online sites, likes Bernie Sanders’ progressive message and believes that “the issues he [Sanders] speaks on are critical to every community, particularly the black community.”
Dixon says that, “Most Americans are busy and often uninformed about political candidates and don’t have time to get into the minutiae. When asked questions, we go with name recognition.” A Sanders win in Iowa and/or New Hampshire would likely provide the national media attention he needs within black voters. In 2008, Obama’s polling numbers with the black voters increased drastically after he won Iowa.
While African Americans have a history of supporting the Democratic establishment candidate, from Walter Mondale to Bill Clinton to Al Gore, many in the community believe 2016 is the year when black voters will buck that tradition and support a true anti-establishment progressive.
“I think Hillary represents a brand of neo-liberalism that is in many ways harmful to the black community,” says Kimberlee Rackley of Monroe, Connecticut who supports Bernie Sanders. Rackley discusses how the African American community is often duped into supporting Democratic establishment candidates that, once elected, rarely remember the large black voting bloc that was so essential to getting them elected.
“There is a liberal façade of ‘I care, I’m concerned’ but then their actions don’t match their message. This is dangerous politics,” says Rackley, “because these voters don’t realize the people they are supporting aren’t really concerned with what their needs are.”
In 2008, Obama’s campaign brought out record numbers of voters, especially black voters. Does Bernie Sanders campaign ignite the same passion and call to action?
Desria Seay, a Sanders loyalist and African American Army wife in Augusta, Georgia, believes black voters will vote for Bernie Sanders. “Hillary is polarizing and he [Bernie Sanders] is energizing.” She believes that Bernie’s message is encouraging voters to come out to the polls and vote during the primary elections. Seay challenges black voters to look at Sanders’ record. “He has said the same thing over and over for five decades. He was marching with Martin Luther King in the Sixties.”
If Bernie Sanders were to win the Democratic nomination, some Democrats question whether he could defeat a Republican challenger like Donald Trump. “Oh gosh, yeah!” exclaims Jovanka Beckles, “Bernie has a lot more people awake now. People are motivated to get out and vote and I predict we’ll see an unprecedented number of people getting out to the polls.”
Beckles is a Black Latina councilmember in Contra Costa County, CA. In 2014, Bernie Sanders provided much needed support for Team Richmond, the progressive slate of politicians running against Chevron-backed candidates. “I support him because we share the values that corporations are not people. In order for any public officer to truly represent the people they can’t take money from them and then say they are about the people. If I take millions from Chevron, I’m not working for the people. I owe them [Chevron] now.”
Keli Allison an African American musician in Gary, Indiana has Bernie Sanders signs throughout her front yard. Allison says she cares about the future of the Earth and supports Sanders because of his platform on climate change, wealth inequality and foreign policy. She believes that if the Congress enacted Sanders’ economic plans, “my dollar would go further and wages will increase.” She says she also believes she’ll pay lower taxes.
When asked how to increase support for Bernie Sanders, Allison warns, “You don’t want to alienate people. It may take more than one conversation.”
Latino voters are an equally important demographic in this year’s Democratic presidential campaign. Nancy Coleman, founder of Sacramento for Bernie Sanders, says she is finding more minorities engaged in America’s progressive political revolution. “As a Latina woman married to an African American with mixed kids, I’m really interested in [Sanders] judicial platform, tackling racial profiling, racial injustice… all those things that will affect my kids during their lives.”
Coleman grew up in Mexico and has traveled to various countries during her life. “To achieve goals as a community, we need to unite and make things happen.”
It will be very difficult for Sanders to win the Democratic nomination without the “Black Vote”, particularly in southern states. The growing allegiance of “Black Berners” willing to engage in political activism and spread his progressive message of income equality, free college and single payer healthcare, may be better than any media coverage Bernie Sanders could hope for.
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