{"id":33339,"date":"2024-10-11T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T00:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33339"},"modified":"2024-10-31T22:24:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T03:24:28","slug":"obama-faces-backlash-for-comments-toward-black-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33339","title":{"rendered":"Obama faces backlash for comments toward Black men"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former President Obama is drawing backlash for recent comments calling on Black men to turn out for Vice President Harris\u2002<\/u><\/a>in November\u2019s election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a campaign stump<\/u><\/a> for Harris on Thursday in Pittsburgh, Obama said that despite Harris raising upward of $1 billion, \u201cwe have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That lag in energy, he added, appears \u201cto be more pronounced with the brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses; I\u2019ve got a problem with that,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause part of it makes me think \u2014 and I\u2019m speaking to men directly \u2014 part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren\u2019t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you\u2019re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite polls showing a generational divide in Black men\u2019s support for Harris, Obama\u2019s remarks have drawn the ire of several prominent Black Americans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner\u2002<\/u><\/a>argued Obama\u2019s comments \u201cbelittled\u201d Black men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy are Black men being lectured to? Why are Black men being belittled in ways that no other voting group?\u201d Turner said Thursday night on CNN. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added she has a \u201clot of love\u201d for Obama, \u201cbut for him to single out Black men is wrong, and some of the Black men that I have talked to have their reasons why they want to vote a different way, and even if some of us may not like that, we have to respect it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnless President Barack Obama\u2002<\/u><\/a>is gonna go out and lecture every other group of men from other identity groups, my message for Democrats is don\u2019t bring it here to Black men who by and large don\u2019t vote much differently from Black women,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a politician, we should be trying to get all voters to vote, and hopefully there are a few good men out there who do care about the stripping away of some of women\u2019s bodily autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Black voters overwhelmingly showing support for Harris, 1 in 4 Black men under the age of 50 expressed support for Trump, a recent poll from NAACP and HIT Strategies found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But actor Wendell Pierce said Obama\u2019s words sent an \u201cAwful message.\u201d<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe party has to stop scapegoating Black men. Black men aren\u2019t the problem. White men and White women are,\u201d Pierce said in a post on social platform X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierce\u2019s latest comments were at odds with a message he sent to Black men during the Democratic National Convention in August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time,<\/u><\/a> Pierce told Black men to remember \u201cthere\u2019s blood on the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny Black man that has an issue with a Black woman rising, they have to look at their own inadequacy,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cWhat would make you so fearful of someone who was so beloved of you, who was so loving to you, like your mother and your grandmother and your aunts and your sisters, that you cannot be proud and embolden yourself when you see someone from your community rise up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Black voters \u2014 including Black men \u2014 voted overwhelmingly for President Biden in 2020, Trump did make inroads with Black men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Obama\u2019s first election in 2008, Democrats\u2019 support among Black men has been slipping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While exit polling shows 80 percent of Black men supported Biden in 2020, that number was down slightly from Hillary Clinton\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>82 percent in 2016 \u2014 which was significantly lower than Obama\u2019s 95 percent in 2008 and his 87 percent in 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Pierce said, \u201cBlack men voting for Trump is insignificant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis accusatorial tone will make some Black men stay home-which is worse,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cBlack men are questioning our party to find out what their loyalty for decades earns them. That\u2019s good. That\u2019s healthy. Democrats have the record to stand on and should embrace the challenge. But after touring this country specifically engaging Black men, I will not let my party leaders speak condescending towards them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President Obama is drawing backlash for recent comments calling on Black men to turn out for Vice President Harris\u2002in November\u2019s election.  At a campaign stump for Harris on Thursday in Pittsburgh, Obama said that despite Harris raising upward of $1 billion, \u201cwe have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1365,2302,2270,1489],"class_list":["post-33339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-black","tag-harris","tag-obama","tag-speech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33341,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33339\/revisions\/33341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}