142 SHARES Share Tweet

It’s August 2016 in Mississippi. Forty-five (Donald Trump) stands at a podium and said one of the only true words he’s ever spoken, “Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.” He perfectly sums up the relationship between Democrats and Black America, which isn’t at all based on unity and racial equality as many have been brainwashed into believing. Instead, black people have become pawns in a political showdown.

The Democrats.org website mission statement states, “Democrats will promote racial justice through fair, just, and equitable governing of all public-serving institutions and in the formation of public policy…We will push for a societal transformation to make it clear that black lives matter and that there is no place for racism in our country.” That’s nice but a closer examination of Democratic policies and our community’s undying loyalty to the Democratic Party, despite such policies, makes such statements suspect.

According to Matthew Delmont, who wrote the article on “When Black Voters Exited Left”, it was “JFK’s endorsement from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., coupled with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, that made black Americans abandon the party who freed the slaves and cemented them as a loyal democratic voting bloc.” Simultaneously, these events sent racist, white southern democrats running into the arms of the GOP, effectively eliminating our choice and enslaving black Americans to a party that’s never stood by us. Delmont then calls out the Democrats so-called promotion for racial justice via public policy. “…There is a gulf between what black Americans hoped the legislation would achieve and what Democratic politicians actually delivered. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped end apartheid conditions in the South…” yet did nothing for the racist policies of the North that left blacks more segregated from quality housing, jobs and schools than in the South.

This shadowy betrayal has become intrinsic to the Democratic Party. The Civil Rights Act made the playing field look even. Subsequently, any further legislation attempting to fix the act’s flaws gave one the impression that white politicians and voters were trying to help African-Americans. This lead to a 50-year backlash that is known as the platform of the GOP and because black people have made some small advances at the expense of white people, the electorate vote has slowly moved right and Democrats have been happy to follow.

Furthermore, past Democrat Presidents, such as Bill Clinton, have performed less than favorable acts against black people. Clinton won over 80% of the black vote and is still considered “the first black president” by many black people. However, two major legislations of his administrations were both catastrophic for black America. Welfare reform made many black families homeless, pouring black children into “the system” where, in many ways, they were likely to reside for their lifetimes. Though Clinton has since apologized, the 1994 Crime Bill made mass incarceration a goldmine, creating a school-to-prison pipeline that has cursed generations of black people to a grim future. There’s a reason prison developers look at 8th grade reading levels within a hundred-mile radius of any prison being built-in order to determine bed numbers.

Even more troubling is the Democrats “colorblind” approach to solving racial inequality with minimal knowledge about racism itself. The following statement, “I see people, not their color” imposes whiteness onto everyone. In order to “not see color”, you have to pretend that anyone not white looks just like you. In the article, “How Colorblindness Is Actually Racist” Dani Bostick states, “Your default culture for sameness is white culture. When you encourage your child to be colorblind and view everyone as ‘the same,’ you are projecting white on people who aren’t white, negating their experiences, traditions, and uniqueness,” ignoring vital histories of oppression and assuming that everyone has the same experience’s. Democrats apply colorblind racism to legislation, using neutral language that makes devastating racial inequalities seem a normal consequence of free-market competition or bad personal decisions and not historic, continued systemic racism.

Ultimately, the question then becomes, who can we turn to for help? The Republican Party? Every year the National Urban League sends out an annual meeting invite to the White House, Senate and House leadership. According to their CEO Marc Morial, the Republicans have declined every meeting invitation since 2008. When they do come to the table, their complete ignorance of black lives is insulting. “It was like being teleported into some version of Mayberry. They had no idea about our lives. The worst part was I think they saw themselves as good-intentioned, which was scary,” said Jackson during a meeting with a Chicago Republican organization.

Yes, Democrats are clearly better than Republicans at tackling many of the injustices black people endure on a daily basis, but this is only because they do something over nothing. Other groups vote mostly Democratic and aren’t ignored by either party. Without fear of losing their broader base, both parties use Israeli relations to make strong pleas to Jewish voters. However, making appeals to black America makes every candidate fearful of losing voters. They all recognize the innate racism of this country, yet stand by and do nothing. Our Republic is in chaos like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Black lives still suffer from many post-Reconstruction issues, but voting Republican isn’t the solution.

Copyright ©2018 The Black Detour All Rights Reserved.