It used to be that Barack Obama could do no wrong as far as the Democratic Party was concerned.
And after his role alongside former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in forcing Joe Biden out of the presidential race, the former president was once again hailed as a hero in Democrat circles for potentially saving them the country from four more years of another former president: GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
But as it turns out, even some of Obama’s most loyal devotees have their limits, which we found out this week after his lecture at a Pittsburgh campaign office about needing black men to step up and support Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign rubbed some folks the wrong way.
As Legal Insurrection‘s Mike LaChance reported, Obama got quite scoldy with black men, alleging they were engaging in sexism because some of them weren’t showing the same enthusiasm toward Harris as they did for his presidential campaigns.
For those who missed it, here’s what he said:
Some black Democrats, like former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner – an Obama delegate in 2008 and 2012 – were not amused:
Turner expanded on her thoughts in a piece for Newsweek:
As for Black men allegedly being so reticent to vote for Vice President Harris, her lowest numbers are with Black men under 50 years old—72 percent of whom support Harris.If white men supported Harris at 72 percent, they’d be held up as an example of how men can support women. So why are Democratic Party leaders like former President Obama vilifying Black men?It’s simple: The Democratic Party is setting Black men up to take the fall in case Vice President Harris fails to defeat former President Trump in November. It’s that simple.And it is an outrage that they are trying to pin this on Black men. If Harris loses, it will not be on Black men or any other group of voters. The fault will lie squarely with the candidate and the party she represents.
Bloomberg columnist Nia-Malika Henderson, a former senior political reporter for CNN, seemed to suggest it was white voters who were the problem here, not black males who didn’t support Harris:
So eager to prove that he isn’t beholden to Black people — he is the president of all Americans, he would often say — Obama has frequently singled out Black people for reprimanding. This approach only underscores the stereotype of Black Americans as a problem that needs solving.[…]As a candidate, this type of condescending approach to Black voters, who overwhelmingly backed him and still adore him, was a balm to White people, who saw in Obama a figure who could fix the problem that Black America has supposedly posed to the body politic. Columnist Jonathan Alter wrote in 2008 that Obama’s “most exciting potential for moral leadership could be in the African-American community.” Because, of course, Black Americans needed this the most. (Speaking of moral leadership, fast forward eight years to when the majority of White Americans would cast their ballots for Donald Trump, something they are poised to do again.)
MSNBC racial arsonist Elie Mystal largely agreed, saying the problem here was the white guys who vote for Trump, not the black guys:
Actor Wendell Pierce also went off on Obama’s lecture:
Awful message. The party has to stop scapegoating Black men. Black men aren’t the problem. White men and White women are. No other group votes at 87-90% for Dems but Black folk. Men and women. That is a false flag. Black men voting for Trump is insignificant. This accusatorial tone will make some Black men stay home-which is worse. Black men are questioning our party to find out what their loyalty for decades earns them. That’s good. That’s healthy. Democrats have the record to stand on and should embrace the challenge. But after touring this country specifically engaging Black men, I will not let my party leaders speak condescending towards them.
Relatedly, black conservative men who are supporting Trump spoke out as well, with some talking about how disgusted they were with constantly being “reduced to being expected to think with our skin color”:
Others talked about how they were insulted over the fact that they seemed to be expected to ignore the last four years of absolute failures in leadership from the Biden-Harris administration. There are a lot of videos like this circulating on TikTok (language warning):
When I watched and read Obama’s remarks, it reaffirmed my opinion that Democrats are terrified over the fact that there is a slow erosion among some of their key voting blocs – black men and Hispanic men – all for the crime of thinking for themselves and having different opinions.
These are two groups that I should point out actually started gravitating toward Republicans during the Trump years. It’s something that only accelerated when Biden and Harris got into office. So blaming “sexism” and fear of a woman president for this shift is way off base.
That said, in a way, Obama has done what Harris will never be able to do – unite people of all political persuasions against the desperate, condescending ramblings of a powerful leftist demagogue. Thanks, buddy.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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