Khalil Abdullah. Ethnic Media Services. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
While minority electoral blocs combined to hand the presidency to Biden, African-American voters remain the Democratic Party's most loyal electorate in the presidential election.
In a survey on the eve of the elections on the African-American vote, designed and executed by the African American Research Collaborative under the direction of Executive Director Henry Fernandez, African-American voters - women in a 92% and men in an 86% - indicated their support for former Vice President Joe Biden.https://electioneve2020.com/poll/#/en/demographics/black/)
President Trump's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic became the main motivation for African Americans to vote for the Democratic Party, according to Fernandez, who spoke at an election-eve briefing organized by America's Voice. That was true for men and women of African descent in roughly equal numbers.
The secondary motivation was his perception of Trump's disrespect for his community and the fact that it allowed for an increase in overt racism in America. The third most important reason for his pro-democracy votes was concern about the economy in general, with greater variations among African-American voters by age.
Overall, 84% of all African-American voters, men and women, agreed that "President Trump ignored the early warning signs of the coronavirus and due to his mismanagement, millions of Americans became ill and more than 220,000 died.
While the fact that people of African descent have been disproportionately affected by the crown virus is now well documented, the survey revealed that the burning reality of personal loss and the extent of collective loss to the community and the country were paramount in the minds of participants committed to voting in the 2020 elections.
On the issue of racial animosity, the gulf between the perceptions of African-American voters about Trump versus Biden was equally evident. About 59% of the African American respondents felt that Trump did not care about their interests and 22% felt that he was hostile; only 8% felt that Trump really cared. In contrast, 88% of the respondents felt that Biden cared about them.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who was one of the survey's sponsors, was asked how he interpreted the doubling of support for President Trump among African-American women voters from the 2016 elections from 4% to 8% and from 13% to 17% for men of African descent. Johnson responded that the African American vote was not monolithic, nor was it expected to be. He said the 86% rate is a clear testament to the loyalty of the Democratic Party and, more importantly, the numbers and polls show that "white supremacist behavior will not be tolerated" by this electorate.
Like Johnson, Fernandez noted that men of African descent, at 86 percent, are a core constituency for Democrats, more so than even white women who, as exit polls show, voted for President Trump in greater numbers in 2020 than in the 2016 election. As one panelist put it bluntly, "White women are not a Democratic constituency.
Predictions that President Trump's signing of the criminal justice reform legislation, the First Step Law, would bring about a significant shift from African-American male voters to the Republican Party were refuted by the poll, Fernandez said.
The survey showed that people of African descent, and the other ethnic groups surveyed as well, are very concerned about current criminal justice policies, community policing and their intersection with racism. These Americans support reform through multifaceted approaches, including reducing mass incarceration, providing educational opportunities for those in prison, and increasing job training and access to mental health services for their communities.
However, as Johnson noted, when speaking of people of African descent, it is a short-sighted and ill-informed view of history to focus on criminal justice as if it "is the sum total of our existence in this country.
Beyond the three main motivators, the survey also showed that people of African descent, like the other groups surveyed, largely disapproved of President Trump's anti-immigrant policies and initiatives, particularly the separation of children from their parents. With an 81%, African Americans supported the design of "a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living and working here" as well as the design of a process to accommodate legal entry into the United States.
