This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theoryofchange.flux.community
Since the 1964 presidential election, Americans of African ancestry have voted overwhelmingly for Democratic presidential candidates. Republicans in most races usually get in the single digits, according to decades of opinion surveys.
On the surface, it may seem like Black Americans have an undying loyalty to the Democratic party. But when you take a closer look, you see that there’s a much more complicated situation. And that’s because Black Americans are actually no different than any other racial group in having many different ideological groups.
In fact, many Black people are actually conservative and not just on religious matters either, but they don’t want to vote for a Republican party that has a decades long history of empowering and pandering to racists, especially since Donald Trump came on the political scene in 2015. But even that aspect is complicated as well, because Trump actually got more Black votes in 2020 than he did during his first presidential run.
According to exit polling by Edison Research in 2016, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 69 points among Black men. But four years later, Joe Biden had only a 60 point margin. A similar trend happened among Black women. In 2016, Democrats won the group by 90%. In 2020, they won by 81%. This trend parallels a similar movement among Hispanic voters, which we’ve discussed in a previous episode.
And it raises all sorts of questions. Joining us to discuss is Brandi Collins-Dexter. She’s the author of a book that will be coming out in September called Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future. She’s also a former senior campaign director at Color of Change, which is a progressive activism group.
MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS
The full transcript, audio, and video of this episode are available to subscribers. Please join today to get full access with Patreon or Substack.
The deep conversations we bring you about politics, religion, technology, and media take great time and care to produce. Your subscriptions make Theory of Change possible and we’re very grateful for your help.
If you would like to support the show but don’t want to subscribe, you can also send one-time donations via PayPal.
If you're not able to support financially, please help us by subscribing and/or leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. Doing this helps other people find Theory of Change and our great guests.
ABOUT THE SHOW
Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.
Theory of Change on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoryChange
Matthew Sheffield on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield
Matthew Sheffield on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattsheffield
Theory of Change #049: Brandi Collins-Dexter on why Democrats shouldn't take Black votes for granted