Obama’s appeal to Black men causes a stir among Democrats. Is election year misogyny at play?

WASHINGTON (AP) – Barack Obama spoke truthfully to Black men who could also be considering postponing the election.

“Part of it, I think, well, you just don’t feel comfortable with the idea of ​​a woman being president, and you come up with other alternatives and other reasons,” Harris-Walz campaign volunteers and officials within the Pittsburgh field office said Thursday.

America’s first black president has stirred emotions among Democrats concerned about Vice President Kamala Harris’s probabilities of becoming the second.

Harris is counting on Black turnout in battleground states like Pennsylvania in her tight race against Republican Donald Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races AND he tried to barge in especially with black men.

Obama’s comments indicate that Black men still overwhelmingly support Harris. But her campaign and allies have been hard at work trying to increase support from this critical group of voters and address questions on potential misogyny.

Black Americans are essentially the most Democratic-leaning demographic within the country, with support for Democrats trailing only black men.

A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center found that about 7 in 10 black voters had a favorable opinion of Harris and preferred her leadership to Trump on several major policy issues, including the economy, health care, abortion, immigration and the war between Israel and Hamas.

There was little difference in support for Harris between black men and black women.

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But Khalil Thompson, co-founder and executive director of Win With Black Men, said he agreed with what he considered Obama’s most vital point.

“I believe President Obama speaks to a tangible, visceral understanding of what it means for all men to connect with women in America. Calling out misogyny is not wrong,” said Thompson, whose group raised greater than $1.3 million for Harris from 20,000 black men within the 24 hours after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July and made way for Harris.

Win With Black Men hosts weekly calls and events designed to empower Harris among black men. The wave of activism has focused on countering misinformation about Harris in Black communities, in addition to highlighting Black men’s political priorities, which the group said often give attention to greater economic opportunity, secure communities, social justice policies and health care, especially for partners and kids of black men.

“We are not a monolith,” Thompson said. “Yet we are just like every other American in this country who wants a good-paying job so that we can provide for our children and be involved in their lives and our partner’s lives, so that we can take them home safely and afford a trip to the grocery store, save some for retirement and go on vacation.”

Harris said she believed Black votes should be earnedlike all group of voters.

Black men “are not in our backseat,” she told a panel organized in September by the National Association of Black Journalists.

Harris recently participated within the “All The Smoke” podcast hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson to discuss her racial identity and political problems with interest to black men. On Tuesday, Harris will appear in Detroit to speak live with Charlamagne tha God, a outstanding black media personality.

Harris’ campaign includes a variety of outreach efforts targeting Black voters, including tours of homecoming ceremonies at historically Black colleges and universities, a series of radio and tv ads targeting Black voters in key states, and a “Get Out the Vote” campaign engaging Black communities , which complements the work of related groups corresponding to Win With Black Men.

He also uses influential surrogates, including politicians, business leaders, skilled athletes and musical artists, to court black men.

“Our black men, we need to get them to vote,” former NBA star Magic Johnson said at a recent Harris rally in Flint, Michigan. “Kamala’s opponent promised many things to the Black community that he did not deliver. We need to make sure we help Black men understand that.”

The Trump campaign and its allies hosted roundtables for black men and arranged a bus tour of swing states that included meals in cities like Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia. The campaign believes the previous president’s appeals on issues corresponding to the economy, immigration and traditional gender roles are resonating with some black men.

Trump also tried to capitalize on Obama’s comments, writing on social media Friday that Obama “admits to having a complete lack of enthusiasm for Kamala, especially for black men.” On Saturday, the Black Men for Trump campaign advisory board released a statement condemning Obama’s remarks as “offensive.”

“It is demeaning to suggest that we cannot evaluate a candidate’s accomplishments — especially when Kamala Harris has done more harm than good to Black communities,” the group wrote in a letter signed by Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., Wesley Hunt, R-Tex., and former state lawmakers and longtime Trump allies, including former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose prison sentence for corruption crimes was he commuted by Trump in the ultimate hours of his administration.

Earlier this year, Trump mused that the costs against him in 4 separate indictments, certainly one of which resulted in a conviction and the opposite dismissed, made him more relatable within the eyes of black people.

“A lot of people said that’s why black people like me, because they’ve been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and in fact they saw me as discriminated against,” he told a black conservative audience in South Carolina.

Trump’s support among black, white and Latino voters worries senior Harris campaign officials because elections are taking shape divided by gender, with Harris being stronger for ladies and Trump being stronger for men.

But the talk in regards to the extent to which misogyny plays a role in some black men not supporting Harris ignores a broader discussion about how black men engage in politics as full residents, says Philip Agnew, founding father of the grassroots political organization Black Men Build.

“To be black in the United States is to be both invisible and hyper-visible, neither of which is a humanizing point of view,” Agnew said.

Agnew’s group visited 10 cities over the summer, hosting roundtables with black men and making the case for civic engagement and progressive policies. Agnew said that in these conversations, many Black men expressed irritation with politics, a feeling shared by many Americans, in addition to a sense that their political beliefs were often misunderstood or undervalued.

“The Black men I know are incredibly interested in the lives of our families and communities,” Agnew said. “It is because of the abundance of love for our sisters that we ask questions, not because of the lack of love.”