Obama accuses black men of sexism for not supporting Harris to the degree he desires

Probably not a way to help Kamala

In this Washington Post op-ed, Paul Butler, a left-wing black law professor, attacks Barack Obama for his attempt to shame black males into voting for Kamala Harris.

There’s a fair amount of score-settling in Butler’s piece. He’s unhappy with Obama for the former president’s past criticism of black males and for not doing enough as president on behalf of blacks generally. Obama’s sensible (and I would say non-controversial) statement that “I can’t pass laws that say I’m just helping Black folks. I’m the president of the United States” still seems to bother Butler.

There’s plenty about which to criticize black American males — the disproportionately high volume of crime they commit and the disproportionately high number of children they sire but do not help take care of, for example. Obama deserves credit for those rare occasions when he called on black males to behave more responsibly.

But Butler is probably right to maintain that trying to shame black males into voting for Harris is misguided and counterproductive:

In remarks last week at a Harris campaign field office in Pittsburgh, the former president told the mainly Black workers there that he wanted to “speak some truth” about why “all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities” weren’t showing the enthusiasm for Kamala Harris that they did for his own historic run. Obama said the issue “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers” who are “coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses.” Obama offered a theory: “You just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”

Butler shows that Obama’s theory lacks factual support:

According to a recent New York Times poll, 70 percent of Black men plan to vote for Harris. It’s true that Obama won an even higher percentage of their vote, but so did Hillary Clinton.

It seems, then, that to the degree “the brothers” are resisting Harris, it’s not because they aren’t “feeling” the idea of having a woman as president. It's because they aren’t feeling the idea of having Harris as president and, conceivably, because some are feeling the idea of Donald Trump as president because they liked what he did when he held that office.

But even if a meaningful portion of black male voters were resistant to the idea of a female president, calling black men out over this seems like a strategic mistake:

It’s difficult to imagine any group other than Black men being put down in an effort to win their support. Harris is actively campaigning for the Polish vote in Pennsylvania and the Latino vote in Nevada and Arizona. It would be political malpractice for her operatives to suggest that bias is the reason that some in those groups are reluctant to support her. Even if it’s true, it’s just not the way to win their votes.

Full disclosure: I have criticized Jews for their slavish loyalty to Democrats. But when I do, I’m not trying to persuade liberal Jews to vote Republican — a hopeless endeavor. I’m just venting.

Butler concludes his column by imploring Harris to make promises to black men. He notes that Joe Biden helped revive his 2020 campaign for the nomination by making promises to black women during the South Carolina primary.

Perhaps Team Harris was listening. In an interview with Charlamagne Tha God, Harris promised to decriminalize marijuana in order to help black men. She stated:

As president I will work on decriminalizing it because I know exactly how those laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain populations and specifically black men.

Harris denied prosecuting blacks for possession of marijuana while she was a California prosecutor. “I would not send people to jail for possession of weed,” she insisted.

That’s probably true. Few prosecutors send people to jail for mere possession.

Harris also told “Charlemagne” that she’s open to reparations for blacks. “On the point of reparations, it has to be studied,” she said.

Trying to win black male votes by dangling weed and cash at them is arguably racist. But it’s a better approach, and probably less racist, than accusing black males of sexism.

Still, “studying” reparations should strike people of all races as a cop-out. It shows that Harris is too timid to risk losing white voters and too opportunistic not to dangle another shiny object at blacks. It smacks of more of the exploitation of black hopes that has characterized Democratic politicians for so long.

For black men who believe they were better off materially under Donald Trump than they are now under Biden/Harris, talk of decriminalizing marijuana and studying reparations may not be an effective message.

We’ll see.