African American women always prefer to vote Democratic

For decades, black women have been staunch supporters of the US Democratic Party, and during the last presidential election they voted for the then Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, by 92%, against the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, who won the election.

Since 1972, overall black support for Democrats has remained at around 90% during presidential elections, with African-American women voting more for Democrats than black men, and no other female demographic has maintained this level of loyalty that black female voters have for this political party. always.

The British newspaper The Guardian spoke to two leading political experts on black women’s voting behavior to analyze why they continue to participate in supporting Democrats.

The analysis, the results of which were recently published, proved that even in light of the shortcomings of the system and the racism that plagues the party, the Democrats’ support for fair programs and policies was the reason for the loyalty of black women to it, and the loyalty is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.

Organizing voters

“For years, black women have been the most loyal subgroup to Democrats, when these groups are broken down particularly by race and gender in the United States,” said Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University.

She added that black women’s decades-long support for the Democratic Party is mostly consistent with the significant realignment of black voters in the mid-1960s, noting that about a century before that period, between 25% and 30% of blacks supported the Republican Party, as it was linked to The party was largely influenced by former President Abraham Lincoln’s abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865.

civil rights

But black support for the Republican Party took a major hit after 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act “on liberal grounds on the grounds that blacks would not support it,” Gillespie said. Goldwater’s decision to vote against the Civil Rights Act reinforced perceptions that the Republican Party was uninterested in civil rights issues.

Democrats, on the other hand, supported such legislation, risking that Southern Democrats would not support them.

Democratic President Lyndon Johnson eventually signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, assuring black women voters that Democrats took civil rights seriously.

Since then, the idea of ​​Republicans’ callousness in dealing with race issues has kept blacks en masse from supporting them.

Gillespie explained that there is a cognitive flaw among Republicans regarding their supposed sensitivity to civil rights, which may have actually worsened further in the past decade, noting that blacks overall would have been very unlikely to vote for Trump otherwise.

Wages and health

Gillespie confirmed that American women of color are indeed more likely to support Democrats, who are seen as the best party for the “economically weak,” adding: “However, this is a category that black women are more likely to fall into because of the disparity in wages.”

She continued: “If women make less money than men, then black women make less money than white women, right? “So they may be more interested in these economic and wage policies, because they will benefit more.”

Gillespie also pointed out that access to health care and quality education are among the main priorities for black women voters, and these are issues that Democrats have long defended. On the other hand, Republicans have developed public strategies on ways to increase the privatization of education and expand private health care.

Equality

In turn, Nadia Brown, professor of governance and head of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University, said that Republicans also engaged in anti-black rhetoric and passed racist policies, adding: “Look, for example, at the Republican Party and President Richard Nixon as they promote the restoration of the racist system, and the administration of the president.” The late Ronald Reagan set about squandering civil rights gains through neoliberal policies.”

“Black women have supported other, more left-wing political parties, including Marxist organizations and progressive third-party candidates,” Brown continued, “but in general, black women have aligned themselves with Democrats because of the ‘core ideology’ of wanting to support equality.”

Brown expressed her belief that this does not mean that black women are committed to the Democratic Party, but rather that they are practical and understand that the United States is a two-party system, and they also know that if they want their issues to be heard, perhaps the best way to do so is to work within the system.

Reproductive justice

Brown agreed with Gillespie that while black women may be interested in or drawn to the Democratic Party platform because it addresses issues related to education or health care, they are more reliant on the public issues these platforms raise.

Brown stressed that reproductive justice, a feminist issue and a key tenet of health care, also fuels Black women’s support for Democrats.

She said, “The importance of the medical care that black women receive when they have children, and the support that families receive from the government to have healthy children who are able to live a healthy life, is what confirms the loyalty of black women voters to Democrats,” but at the same time she pointed to Democrats’ historical support for health policies such as Increased access to Pap smears and mammograms.

Economic policies

Despite black women’s interest in economic policies for marginalized people, discussions in the Democratic Party that took place during the recent election largely excluded the working class.

Brown stated that she is still puzzled by Kamala Harris’ lack of outreach to low-income voters so far, saying: “I think what has happened is that voters prefer Republicans and men to lead the economy and talk about the economy, so I think the work that Harris and President Joe Biden has done on “The economy was not right.”

She showed that, in contrast to other groups, black women are not usually influenced by the belief that Republicans and men are better at managing the economy because they already realize that the economy “is not well equipped to serve them,” citing the theory of political scientist Nyamby Michelle Carter, who says that “because of their social position and dealing with… “With racism, sexism and classism, Black women have a deeper understanding of marginalization and the way white supremacy manipulates markets.” About the Guardian

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necessity

“In general, for black women, participation in the electoral system is not a luxury, but a necessity,” said Nadia Brown, professor of governance and head of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University, citing historian Martha Jones, who said that “black women know They don’t have a choice, right? They have to participate in the system, otherwise the system will eat them up.”

. Black support for Democrats has remained at 90% during presidential elections since 1972.

. Republicans suffer from a cognitive flaw in their supposed sensitivity to civil rights, which has worsened over the past decade.