Obama’s Advice to Black Men Ignores a Deeper Problem for Democrats

Barack Obama speaks during a rally for Kamala Harris on Thursday, October 10, 2024.Mother Jones; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty

With less than a month to go until Election Day, Democrats are scrambling to persuade Black men to cast their ballots for Kamala Harris amid polls showing Donald Trump gaining momentum among Black voters. This week alone, the vice president’s campaign introduced the “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men,” a set of policy proposals that marked the Harris campaign’s most overt attempt at appealing to Black men yet.

So it landed as somewhat of a surprise, or at least a risk, that Barack Obama, ahead of his first campaign appearance for Harris last week, chose to blame sexist attitudes among Black men for any reluctance they may have in backing Harris. “Y’all know some of those brothers,” Obama said, quickly drawing backlash. “Demeaning,” is how the “Black Men for Trump Advisory Board” described it.

But it wasn’t just pro-Trump voters who found Obama’s remarks problematic. Plenty of Democrats took issue with what they saw as unfair scolding, including former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner.

“I was disappointed that the former president would talk to Black men like that, especially given the statistics showing that Black men are the second largest voting bloc in the Democratic Party,” Turner, who is Black, told me in a phone interview. She added: “In a representative democracy, people have the right, even Black men, to vote with their conscience.”

As Turner points out, Black voters, and especially Black men, have drifted away from the Democratic Party for years now, a trend the Trump allies have tried to capitalize on through various efforts that include cognac and cigar-themed events. Placing such outsized emphasis on sexism, according to those disappointed by Obama’s remarks, is misguided, especially when Black voters remain one of the most reliable Democratic voters compared to other demographics. To Turner, the Democratic Party would be far better served by focusing on the working class.

“My party keeps talking about joy,” said Turner, referencing the theme of the Democratic National Convention this summer. “Well, there is no joy when you can’t afford gas and food and the rent is going up. There’s no joy with 60 percent of American people saying they live paycheck to paycheck.”

Still, some welcomed Obama’s remarks as a rare willingness to call out longstanding issues of sexism among Black men in their communities, even if the delivery may have been botched. After all, Obama specifically acknowledged that Black men were far from the only racial group to hold such sexist attitudes.

“The tone was off and undeserved, but the message was there,” Andi Pringle, the executive director of Registration Nation, said. “The point he was trying to make was yes, men may have issues, but you need to get past it because what’s on the other side is worse. There is no choice here.”

To Pringle, the trend of Black men leaning more conservative than previous generations is not an anomaly but rather a symptom of deep-rooted sexism in America.

But while responses to Obama’s pointed speech may have been split, many agreed that Harris’ proposals—which include programs to forgive loans for small businesses, legalize marijuana, and increase access to cryptocurrency—are a step in the right direction for Black male outreach.

“I think [these proposals] are a really good sign,” said Turner. “African American men should be approached like any other demographic: With policies that help to enrich and lift their lives, make their lives better. Why? When you make Black men’s lives better, you definitely help lift the Black community.”

“Black men need to be encouraged, seen, and given space to have a voice. Right now, we’re all about mobilization,” said Pringle. “We don’t have time for much else.”

Such urgency is warranted considering the historic levels of support among Black conservatives supporting Trump’s return to the White House. My colleague Garrison Hayes explores this rapidly expanding movement in the following video, “I Spent a Week with Black Republicans,” and will be discussing the issue further in an upcoming episode of Reveal. Stay tuned.