Real Brother: Why Hillary Clinton Deserves the Black Vote

“Fifty percent of Whites will vote for the Republican and fifty percent for the Democrat… while Blacks decide who wins” ~Malcolm X

*While the above quote is a paraphrase of the iconic Black activists plea to get Blacks to take our vote more seriously-its a refrain that can be echoed today as we seek to determine the course of a Nation dumbfounded by the success of its first African-American(yes he’s Black, sorry there’s no such thing as biracial), President.

Author Michelle Alexander published a piece in the Nation Magazine detailing why she feels Hillary Clinton should not get the Black vote. I beg to differ and write this article to address the points Alexander raised-in making my argument that Hillary has earned our vote and will be the 45th President of the United States baring an unspeakable tragedy.

“Democratic politicians making black people feel liked and taken seriously. Doing something concrete to improve the conditions under which most black people live is generally not required. ” ~Michelle Alexander

While I can’t argue-prior to Obama’s election-the above was not true, I will argue that it worked because for as lame as Democratic outreach to Black voters was, it was ten times better than Republican outreach-which was a [big fat]middle finger. As Blacks we don’t want any group to take our votes for granted, but giving our vote to Republicans as reward for hating our guts is much worse.

“…Bill Clinton seemed to get us. When Toni Morrison dubbed him our first black president, we nodded our heads. We had our boy in the White House. Or at least we thought we did.” ~Michelle Alexander

I disagree both with Mrs Alexander & Morrison. The idea that Blacks can only accept Bill Clinton if we think he’s Black is insulting if not asinine. For as much as Black women would want and expect Black men to hate White people for four-hundred and fifty years of Slavery, Racism, Discrimination & Oppression based on our race, we don’t.

If we want to accept and embrace Whites who show a sincere interest in our race and culture it doesn’t mean we think Eminem is Black. Clinton acknowledged aspects of our Culture-including some that would lead to his impeachment-that the brothers admired and we need not apologize or be insulted for that.

Would now be a good time to bring up the fact that what Bill Clinton did had nothing to do with Hillary? Sure she was his wife and yes she was White and I’ll even grant she thinks-as all Whites do-that Blacks are degenerate, inferior and nobody Black will ever be President-if they do somehow luck up and get elected they won’t succeed.

Alexander goes on to mention Bill Clinton’s Three Strikes legislation and disproportionate sentencing for Black offenders as opposed to Whites committing the same offense. I concede that these policies were supported in speeches by Hillary, who I truly believe supported them wholeheartedly.

That said, Hillary would pay for her beliefs in 2008 when she put them to the test in her battle with then Senator Barack Obama. To argue that she’s the same person who thinks Whites superior and Black men “Super Predators” after being soundly defeated by Obama is to be dishonest.

Hillary was asked by Chris Hayes of MSNBC why she didn’t handle the email server thing better-she knew she was running for President? When she answered, “No, I hadn’t decided whether or not I was running for President”  You could see the smirk on Hayes’ face.

Hayes assumes Hillary knew she was running and is once again being less than honest. A charge, which is at the heart of the fake scandals the White-98% Conservative owned media-is saying is her number one flaw.

I look at it another way. If in fact Hillary believed in the myth of White supremacy and that nobody Black could beat her and become President.  Would she be able to maintain that belief if she wanted to run again-after the Black President who beat her, becomes the most successful in U.S. History?

So yes no question, Hillary contemplated running for President but she’d have to abandon the White supremacist beliefs that cost her in 08′, beliefs that her entire life to this point had been based on.  Giving up White Privilege is not a decision anyone White- especially democratic royalty gives up lightly.

“This time she’s facing a democratic socialist who promises a political revolution that will bring universal healthcare, a living wage, an end to rampant Wall Street greed, and the dismantling of the vast prison state—many of the same goals that Martin Luther King Jr. championed at the end of his life. Even so, black folks are sticking with the Clinton brand.”

~Michelle Alexander

This is a meme being played out in our media and it speaks to how insulting White people can be. Just as our embrace of Bill Clinton wasn’t because we thought he was Black, its because he reached out to Blacks when very few Whites and no White Republicans have or do.

That Bernie Sanders is playing on the same myth of White Supremacy that Hillary had to abandon to gain the support of President Obama, is not the same thing as President Obama beating Hillary because she thought she could win simply by being White.

“Yes, but James Earl Ray marched with Dr. King too it doesn’t mean you get to trick Blacks into making you President” ~RB