Democratic elected officials and prominent black male leaders gather during a press conference to voice why black men should vote for presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the upcoming election at I Am A Man Plaza on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024 in Memphis, Tennessee Photo: Stu Boyd II-The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The last time I saw a huge gathering of Black men — straight and gay — was the Million Man March in 1995. They came to the nation’s capital to voice their concerns, and voting was among them. Within a year of The March, over 1.5 million Black men registered to vote for the first time.
On Tuesday, October 29, a week before Election Day, a brotherhood of black men gathered again. The Black Entertainment Television (BET) Media Group premiered The BET Black Men’s Summit hosted by comedian, actor, and radio host D.L. Hughley.
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It was streamed on BET+, BET.com, and across the BET social media platforms. Again, Black men came to voice their concerns on topics important to them. They addressed seven topics:
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Harris’s record
Protecting our community
Confronting sexism
State of the economy
Economic opportunity
Protecting Black women
Call to action
Also, the brotherhood gathered to categorically dispel the disinformation that Black men would not vote for Vice President Kamala Harris for president because she is a woman.
Jockeying for Black male votes
“This is the first time Black men’s votes are coveted,” renowned Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump told the audience at the Summit.
It’s true: Both Republicans and Democrats are vying for their votes. But many Black men contest that both political parties court them only during election time, with Democrats overwhelmingly expecting their votes. While it’s true that Black men are a vital voting bloc, they are not a monolith.
“My vote is transactional,” Hughley told the audience, meaning that he expects concrete policies and support for Black men in exchange for his vote.
However, Stanley Campbell of Albuquerque, New Mexico told The Washington Post what most Black men feel about the Democratic Party: “It has long been a saying among Black men and non-voting Black communities that Democrats show up only when they want your vote.”
When early national polls revealed that Black male voter support had increased for Donald Trump between 2020 and 2024 but was lower for Harris now than it was for Biden in 2020, many assumed the reason was solely because of sexism.
However, Democrats forgot that Black men had overwhelmingly voted for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign by a margin of 81%. She received their support even though, in 1996, she called Black boys “super-predators,” and her husband Bill Clinton’s 1994 “tough-on-crime” bill contributed to the mass incarceration of Black men.
Black men’s vote will play a decisive role in this election. According to a Black male voter study conducted by BET Consumer Insights, 89% of Black men intend to vote in this election.
Ever since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, African-Americans have been voting in large numbers, even though we are still confronted with the various machinations of voter suppression on state and local levels. The strength of the Black male vote has been consistently disenfranchised, with mass incarceration as one of the mechanisms used to nullify their votes.
Confronting sexism
On October 10, former President Barack Obama gave some “tough talk” to Black men concerning their hesitancy to cast their ballot for Harris. His words opened a Pandora’s Box.
“I’m speaking to men directly — 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,” Obama told a group of Black men at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania campaign field office. “That lack of enthusiasm for Harris seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”
None of the Black men at BET’s Summit denied that sexism isn’t an issue.
“There are men who don’t want to see a woman become president, especially a Black woman. However, that isn’t an accurate representation of OUR entire community,” actor Michael Ealy shared with the audience.
Several brothers clapped back, stating it’s more complicated than simply sexist attitudes. Sexism easily masks and oversimplifies issues troubling them, like employment, providing for their families, childcare, health care, mental health, policing, and mass incarceration, to name a few.
Because Black men are persistently policed, the misperception many of them held for decades (until recently) was that, during Harris’ tenure as a California prosecutor from 1990 to 2004, she sent thousands of Black men to prison for marijuana offenses. Hughley repeated this claim and highlighted its falseness during the BET Summit.
Actually, during her tenure, there were 1,956 convictions for misdemeanor and felony marijuana offenses, where 45 were sent to state prison — many of the convicted men weren’t Black. Hughley gave both a public apology and an endorsement of Harris at the Democratic National Convention in mid-August.
The men at The Summit unanimously concurred that voting for Harris for president will not be a problem.
“When you look at Kamala Harris, who’s been a public servant basically her whole life, she is the most qualified candidate to run for president,” Ealy stated.
Meeting the moment
During the campaign, Harris has traveled around the country talking to Black men.
She has sat for an interview with Charlamagne tha God on The Breakfast Club. Harris said she realized Black men’s concerns had been neglected for too long.
Harris’s “Opportunity for Black Men” agenda aims to remedy the persistent challenges Black men face, offering tools to Black Men to build wealth, support their families, and lead in their communities. Her plan marks the first time any presidential candidate has devised an agenda that speaks specifically to Black men.
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