I suspect the black vote is unified around the black victim narrative. I don't think that narrative - regardless of the truth of the history - does members of a group any good. Even when the history is clear.
I don't think it does Jews any good. I don't think it does autochthonous peoples any good. Fortunately, America's colonial peoples haven't blamed their misfortunes on Britain but maybe that is coming....
Adopting victimhood as your stance defines the rest of your message.
And it loses its power to influence listeners over time. Some black people cannot understand why Selma didn't get nominated for an Oscar. It's a tale of black people as victims of white society. Maybe it is because it came right after Twelve years a slave. A tale of black people as victims of white society. The first year you evoke white guilt. The second, meh! That's just human nature.
It isn't that the story is untrue. It's that non-black people aren't going to wallow in guilt trips about black history that repeat themselves over and over. History is complicated. It isn't a story of all non-black people being wicked or all black people being saints. You start in some place and then evolve down history's highway, wherever it leads. The USA started in a bad place from a racial equality viewpoint. But then many Americans of different races fought a civil war that stopped slavery. Many new Americans arrived as immigrants afterwards and so have no responsibility for ancient American crimes regardless of their skin colour. Some non-black people marched with Martin Luther King and cannot be deemed responsible for segregation. The living are part of today's experience and are not going to take responsibility for all past sins. Yes, the story began in a place no one now would defend, but it has moved on from there - not to perfection but to a different place with problems of its own.
I would like to see a change of narrative. Adopt normalcy as a message. If you are always seeking confirmation that you are a victim, if you are demanding reparations, if your aim is to pile guilt onto people whose ancestors may or may not have done harm, you are headed down a blind alley. You'll generate tension rather than progress.
Folks are just not going to accept blame for 200 or 100 year-old mistakes. And if that is your angle, you are just knocking your head against a brick wall with no prospect of breaking through. Current problems - of course. That is a worthwhile conversation. I agree.
If you actually want to improve your condition, if you actually want a society in which people are treated equally ...
Find a positive construction and use that as a foundation. Make people feel bigger than their current situation. Give them an ambition to strive towards rather than sticking a finger into old wounds.
That was MLK's dream. While acknowledging the past, he superseded it. He looked to a future of equality. In my view, this message has got lost in the victimhood narrative. And the racial voting pattern expresses it. It's a shame.
"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."
Vote for policies, not by race. Unless, of course, the candidate actually holds racist opinions. But Bernie doesn't and I feel offended for him that he was treated as if it was a racial election. In spite of preferring HRC.
I would have the same issue where whites vote as a block against a non-racist black candidate. Vote for the policies. One reason I warmed to Obama is that he never played the black victim game. He won the nomination because his message was hopeful.
Why didn't that get across?
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