In The Black Community, It’s Not Voter Apathy

By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III (Trice Edney Wire) – Public Politics is the negotiating process between interested constituencies regarding the access to and distribution of limited resources and the resulting outcome or policies pertaining to those resources. One of the popular narratives that was disseminated in mainstream America media to explain Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign loss to Donald Trump was post-Obama voter apathy in the African American community.  According to the Washington Post, “In 2016, a seven-point drop in black voter turnout was perceived to have cost Clinton the election. Political commentators often cite black voters’ “enthusiasm gap” as the primary reason for low turnout. This short-sighted perspective fails to consider that Mrs. Clinton ran a terrible campaign.  She took the African American vote for granted and failed to craft a message that spoke to the needs and interests of the Community. Blaming the Community played into a stereotype that labeled African Americans as uninformed and monolithic in thought, instead of being introspective and recognizing her own short-comings. Her campaign ignored a simple reality…African Americans are as “political” as the rest of the country and there are real and substantive political interests that motivate the Community.  Two substantive...