The Truth about African-American Politics

Why black voters matter, and the black vote doesn’t

Once again America is engaged in selecting a president. And once again the importance of “the black vote” is being highlighted as the key for Democratic candidates and the overall chances for defeating Republicans and Trump. For Pete Buttigieg who is polling at less than 3% amongst African-Americans the narrative is he needs to address the problem quickly, “to have any hope of contending for the Democratic nomination.” For Biden the black vote is seen as his ‘ace up the sleeve’ considering polls indicate he is the, “overwhelming favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination among black Americans.” Even Bernie Sanders is caught up in the narrative of the African-American vote as many believe his only real chance of defeating Biden rests in moving African-Americans to his camp.

But throughout the modern history of American politics there is a truth that these narratives have covered up: black voters matter, but the black vote doesn’t. Black voters matter because of the traditional contest between conservative and liberal white voters. “Black voters make up about 20% of all Democratic voters… about the same percentage of Democrats who identify themselves as ‘very liberal’.” Interestingly, that number is also about the same as the number of white Democrats with a college degree. It is the…