By Vincent L. Hall
The newsflash that announced Donald Trump would campaign in “The Boogie Down Bronx” sent waves through political aficionados.
Why would “Keebler’s Finest” waste any time in a majority-minority New York borough that yielded him less than 20% of the vote in 2020?
The Boogie Down Bronx earned its moniker as the purported birth-place of Hip-Hop.
It is said that DJ Kool Herc’s funk-inspired beats at a 1973 party in an apartment building were the genre’s humble beginnings.
Hip-hop, like Jesus, had no place to be born except on the outskirts of society.
Apparently, the Bronx was to hip-hop what Bethlehem was to Baby Jesus. The Bronx and Bethlehem had the ideal demographics to birth the least, the lost, and the last.
White flight in the early 1970s resulted in a massive influx of Blacks and Puerto Ricans. They didn’t like Republicans then, and the idea that they may be somewhat favorable to “Agent Orange” sent him on a reconnaissance mission.
It didn’t take long to find part of Trump’s logic. The Pew Research headline just days before read. “An Early Look at Black Voters’ Views on Biden, Trump and Election 2024.”
“Today, American voters are about evenly split between the two major political coalitions, both in their partisan identification and in their presidential vote preference.
But Black voters remain largely aligned with the Democratic Party (83% identify with or lean to the Democrats), and 77% of Black registered voters say they would prefer to vote for Biden over Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
At the same time, Black voters are very critical of Trump. Most say he was a poor or terrible president (72%). And many Black adults think he broke the law in his alleged efforts to change the outcome of the 2020 election (65%).”
Those statistics became even more relevant as you understand that swaying just five percent of the voting public could be deadly to the Biden campaign.
“Currently, 83% of Black registered voters identify as or lean Democratic, while 12% are Republican or lean Republican. This share is slightly smaller than the 88% who associated with the Democratic Party in 2020.”
Add to those numbers a growing cast of Uncle Tom’s, Bootlickers, Sambo’s, and assorted derelict “handkerchief head” Negroes in Trump’s echo chamber and voila!
Trump believes he has a chance to win more Black votes, because he knows it won’t come from Black women.
Name three elected or widely known Black women who pose and posture with Trump. It has been said that no demographic votes more wisely or for their interests than Black women. What has me worried is a small segment of Black men who have immersed themselves along with Trump into a silo of male toxicity.
An Al Jazeera headline jumped out at me. “Why are Black voters backing Donald Trump in record numbers? Latest polls show 17 percent of Black voters would vote for former president today – more than twice the number in 2016.”
My conjecture is that there is a correlation between these “Brothers” and MAGAMANIA!
MAGA and Trump are simple when you peel back the onion. MAGA is about Whiteness, White Supremacy, and the need to continue in their role as America’s most populous and most prosperous. Adding a growing number of Hispanics and “others” to “The Blacks,” who have always been a nemesis, is seen as a threat to White domination.
Similarly, some Black men see their power being stripped and threatened by the economic and political rise of Black women. Brothers of all ages feel themselves being erased and emasculated at every turn. That’s why social media is full of outrageous male braggadocio and downright misogyny. Videos like the disgraceful P Diddy meltdown make it harder for all men but especially Black males.
A growing number of Black men feel as though they are being replaced as fathers, breadwinners, and chief protectors of the Black family. MAGA and far too many Black men share the need to “reclaim their place” and dominance. And for that, Trump is the perfectly exalted “demander-in-chief!”
But let me make this clear and do me a favor.
If you are a Black man even thinking about voting for Donald Trump and you don’t owe me money, lose my contact.
I don’t desire to know who you are, and I don’t need any.
A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
