The Truth about Black and Latino Trump Voters
One is only 1% of total voters and the other...
When Trump won the presidency in 2016, he had fewer Black and Latino votes than any president in 40 years. This didn’t stop much of the media from implying that Black and brown people were somehow to blame. But, soon, study after study after study revealed that the incredibly obvious reason for Trump’s victory was “racial resentment” or, you know, white supremacy.
Democrats then watched in shock as their favorite “reasonable” Republicans went from speaking out against Trump to falling in line to embracing him ever so lovingly. Then came the Muslim ban and the family separations and on and on. Now is definitely not the time to relive it all, but eventually Dems had to admit the GOP was in fact an extremist party with a moderate fringe instead of the other way around.
Then Biden was elected and the narrative began to change. Republicans weren’t the problem anymore. They’re mostly pretty cool, actually. The real problem was specifically the MAGA faction. Then, actually, it wasn’t the entire MAGA faction, just the “ultra-MAGA” ones. Then, before he got a chance to narrow it down to MEGA MAGA, we had another election.
Normalized and back on top, the Republican Party is now seen by many as moderate with an extreme fringe. While the country tries to figure itself out one more time, the media has returned its focus to Black and brown people and now we’ve got to hear every talking head, op-ed and whatever your neighbor said about Black men and Latinos voting for Trump. Again.
So, in an effort to hurry us along to the acceptance stage of our grief, let’s do a little quick math. According to Pew Research, Black people were an estimated 14.0% of US registered voters. Men only make up 40% of the Black vote, which means Black men are only 5.6% of the total electorate. That’s a whole lot of media attention paid to a shockingly small group—but it gets even smaller! Because according to exit polls, one-in-five Black voters went for Trump. That brings it down to 1.1%. All those podcasts and think pieces and special reports about Trump’s huge jumps in Black support? Yeah. The grand total of votes cast by Black Male Trump Supporters is roughly 1.1% of total votes cast in the 2024 election.
Then, of course there’s the “Latino Vote”, which doesn’t actually exist and it’s not just me saying that. Everyone from Jacobin and Pod Save America to The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal agrees and have for years.
In short, according to the United Nations, Latin America consists of thirty-three countries. Why on earth would anyone expect people from thirty-three different countries of origin—each with various cultures and identities, not to mention separate relationships with one another and completely different immigrant experiences—to vote as one bloc?
I don’t think I need to answer that, but if you’re still unclear, ask yourself why we don’t have a “European Vote” and if we did, would you expect it to turn out any differently than this:
Yeah. That dark blue is pretty telling. But, while the chart certainly provides familiar answers to redundant questions, there is one thing it doesn’t address: Why do politicians and the media always immediately react by blaming Black and brown people for destruction caused by white supremacy, or, you know, “racial resentment”?
Who knows, really? I mean, to answer that, you’d have to first ask if our media would ever repeatedly spread a distorted, hypocritical message scapegoating marginalized people. Next, you’d have to ask if our leaders would ever falsely categorize disparate groups of widely varied cultures and identities into one singular batch of brown enemies, probably weaponized by other enemies. And, third, you’d have to wonder if all of this was some sort of age-old propagandist tactic predictably resulting in white masses uncritically supporting whatever action deemed necessary against already brutally marginalized peoples.
Luckily, that’s just not who we are…
Anyway, after the Declaration of Independence was signed, it was published in newspapers and printed on posters and read publicly throughout the colonies. If you’re not familiar, there’s this whole middle section that’s just accusations against the British King which must’ve been really fun to read in public squares.
The Declaration’s last accusation reads, “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
So, yeah. We’ve been at this a long time, but it doesn’t have to continue. Like James Baldwin said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it has been faced. History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history. If we pretend otherwise, we literally are criminals.”
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/03/latino-voting-history-america/621302/
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/no-such-thing-as-the-latino-vote-hispanics-election-politics-cb7b7551
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/politics/latino-voters-florida-texas-arizona/index.html
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/10/key-facts-about-black-eligible-voters-in-2024/
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/decline-gop/614983/
Yes, absolutely.
After the naked racism and misogyny of Trump and Trumpism,
the top two causes of Harris' defeat were
1) genocide; and
2) massive voter suppression of likely Dem votes in Republican-controlled swing states. (see Greg Palast)
These two are forbidden topics among the pundit class.
Thanks for this Sam. Spot on and completely ignored by the pundits and politicos.