Black conservative men have responded to former President Barack Obama’s claims that they do not support Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign due to sexism, slamming him for not accurately representing the black community and for trying to shame them into supporting Democrats.
During a Thursday event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Obama made several controversial remarks accusing black male voters of not being onboard with Harris for president.
Complaining that Harris has not seen the same levels of support that he did when he ran for president in 2008, Obama told a group of black men that it “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers”:
According to the former president, the choice for black men to support Harris is “clear” because she “grew up like you, knows you, went to college with you, understands the struggles and pain and joy that comes from those experiences.”
Obama’s controversial speech, made to a small group of voters in a surprise stop to a local Harris campaign office, continued on to say it is “not acceptable” to support Trump.
“You’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down?” he said, according to CNN. “That’s not acceptable.”
The “excuses” to not vote for Harris boils down to being anti-women, he argued.
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that,” Obama continued. “Because part of it makes me think – and I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
His remarks went viral on social media — but not for positive reasons.
Black support for Harris is lower than it was for either Democrat nominee in the 2016 and 2020 elections, the New York Times revealed in a new poll.
Only 78 percent of black voters are supporting Harris at this point in the election cycle, compared to 90 percent for Biden in 2020 and 92 percent for Hillary Clinton in 2016, the data showed when published Saturday.
While just 15 percent of black voters said they are supporting Trump in the upcoming election, that is a significant increase from 9 percent and 7 percent in the last two elections, respectively — and the majority of those black Trump supporters are men.
Former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones (R) called Harris “Madam Lock Up A Brother” and demanded an apology from Obama to black men, “effective immediately”:
“For him to want to come down from his mansion in Martha’s Vineyard and tell black men how we should vote … Really?” Jones said in a video posted to X.
“You don’t even live in Chicago anymore. You left your black community, Barack Obama. You want to tell us how to vote? We’re not having that, and we’re not voting for Kamala Harris,” Jones added.
CJ Pearson, co-chair of the GOP’s Youth Advisory Council, said “we don’t give a damn about what Barack Obama has to say”:
“Barack Obama … believes that black men should set aside our disagreements, set aside our grievances and just ‘take one for the team,’” the young conservative activist, 22, said in an X video.
“Barack, we’ve been ‘taking one for the team,’ when it comes to supporting the Democrat Party, for decades. And what do we have to show for it? Our inner cities are destroyed, violent crime is up, we are living in poverty in far too many communities across this country,” Pearson argued.
Conservative media personality Rob Smith also roasted Obama’s words, saying he will not be bullied into supporting Harris:
“Sorry, Obama, I’m a black man, and I’m voting for Donald Trump for president, and there’s no amount of lecturing, or bullying or shaming that you can do, that is going to make me change that decision,” Smith said in another video posted to X.
“You may be the surrogate black dad for a lot of fatherless black boys that are running around this country, but I’ve got a dad, I know who he is, and it ain’t you,” he added.
Political analyst and author Boyce Watkins also compared Obama to a “deadbeat dad.”
“Barack Obama lecturing black men is like a deadbeat dad not speaking to his kids for a decade and then showing up like he has some kind of authority,” he wrote:
“Dear Barack Obama, I’m a proud Black man, and I am not voting for Kamala Harris,” said former Florida Republican congressional candidate Willie Montague:
Many other social media users chimed in, with posts saying they are “tired of Barack Obama lecturing Black men” garnering thousands of likes and views:
“Obama’s pitch to Black men to support Kamala because ‘grew up like us’ is comical. She didn’t grow up like us and neither did Obama,” another black poster said:
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