Updated 1 year ago
Why do they tend to support middle of the road, left of center whites? We’ll leave Jesse Jackson out of this one, as well as antisemitism – to them, generally, Jews are simply yet more white people albeit slightly Uncle Toms in a sense – see James Baldwin’s excellent New York Times column from 1967 for more on that – but the best quote in it is:
“[The Jew] is singled out by Negroes not because he acts differently from other white men, but because he doesn’t. His major distinction is given him by that history of Christendom, which has so successfully victimized both Negroes and Jews. And he is playing in Harlem the role assigned him by Christians long ago: he is doing their dirty work… A genuinely candid confrontation between American Negroes and American Jews would certainly prove of inestimable value. But the aspirations of the country are wretchedly middle-class and the middle class can never afford candor. “
Putting aside antisemitism, let’s explore the civil rights divide. Being socially liberal has overlap with civil rights, but they are not the same.
In my experience, social liberalism – as opposed to economic progressivism – skews toward the privileged and educated. The bourgeois, if you will.
Also in my experience, economics ultimately trump social issues. A Marxist would surmise that the lumpenproletariats want government largesse, but also believe in only two genders.
Lumpenproletariat: (especially in Marxist terminology): the unorganized and unpolitical lower orders of society who are not interested in revolutionary advancement.
A Marxist would also assert that Donald Trump has reinvigorated the white lumpenproletariat, who form much of his base. And if Bernie were able to capture this demographic, he would landslide.
A Marxist might also accuse blacks of being foot-dragging lumpenproletariats. Polls indicate the “average black voter” is somewhat more “realistic” and interested in jobs, affirmative action, the Medicare/Medicaid/safety net and upward mobility and MUCH less interested in issues like LGBTQ rights, which they might even have reservations about. Generally, the older blacks get, the more religious and socially conservative they are. (I’m not sure if that applies to other races, but probably.)
Consider the stereotype of the homophobic young rapper finding Jesus at some point and becoming a Southern Baptist minister. At no point in that spiritual evolution does specific tolerance for LGBTQ ever enter his lexicon.
Blacks, in general, seem to want a proven macher, someone in the middle that can actually Make Things Happen. Someone like Bill “It’s the economy, stupid” Clinton. They have been lied to for so long by slick politicians who promise them the sky, only to deliver the same old same old. They want tangible, solid progress.
There is a counterargument, that real change only happens when blood is shed, as happened in the Labor movement and in the Civil Rights era. But that train seems to have left the station, for now. This is primarily because the economy is ostensibly doing good, so blacks aren’t super motivated this election.
People who really hate or really love Trump are the rabble-rousers this time around – Young white urbanites vs old white country folk. White people being white.
I obviously don’t speak for black folks, I’m as white as they come, I even had to replace ‘cottoned to” to ‘warmed to’ in the title because sensibilities.
I fully expect someone to include all of Bernie’s plans for economics, how he fought for civil rights, how people know blacks who support Bernie, yadda yadda but ultimately I think it’s black people, not me, that need convinced on how democratic socialism AKA welfare capitalism has a snowball’s chance in hell outside small lily-white homogenous rich nordic countries with cultures of honesty, thrift, work, and respect for their governments.
It will take time. But the next economic downturn will happen far sooner, and that will probably unite all the downtrodden.
