Black Solidarity is a Myth
It is extremely hard for me to say this, but I am now fully convinced that Black solidarity in politics is a joke.
Unless this solidarity is class conscious, it can never solve the issues that predominantly impact Black people. After all, Black Americans — especially native-born Black Americans — are more likely than white Americans to live below the poverty line.
However, Black celebrities and leaders often push a form of Black solidarity that is not class-conscious.
I was inspired to write this article because of Yvette Nicole Brown, an actor from the television sitcom “Community.” She shared the hashtag “#Temperamentmatters” in a quote tweet supporting Shontel Brown for Ohio’s 11th District as opposed to Nina Turner, who is a vocal supporter of raising the minimum wage, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and many more progressive policies.
The sentiment behind the hashtag is based on respectability politics that often target Black people, especially Black women. More specifically, it referenced the “angry black woman” trope.
This form of respectability politics has been used to justify violence and discrimination towards Black people, so seeing another Black woman perpetuating this form of respectability politics was beyond disappointing, but unfortunately it was not surprising.
The article “Understanding Respectability Politics and How it Informs Sociopolitical Change” by Jenny Dorsey and Emily Chen addressed the thought process behind respectability politics. They note Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham’s book, “Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920,” which discussed how Civil Rights marchers changed the way they dressed to convince white people that they were worthy of voting rights. However, as Higginbotham stated, “how [the marchers are] dressed should not interfere with their right to vote. The truth of the matter is white people can dress any kind of way and have a right to vote.”
Nina Turner’s advocacy for working-class Americans should not be influenced by the perception of her so-called “temperament.” As a matter of fact, we need more Black women who are unafraid of standing for what is right. After all, Black people, especially Black women, have every right to be angry under a political system that fails to support them and their communities.
This is barely different from the treatment of progressive Black women in the region where I live. After all, respectability politics were used to dismiss my state representative Cori Bush who still is continually smeared by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, national mainstream media and even other Democrats for standing by her voters. Similarly, Mayor Tishaura Jones also is continually smeared in the same manner. These smears are even addressed in a letter to the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s editorial board.
However, the most nefarious aspect of respectability politics relates to how it is used by Black leaders and celebrities to further justify anti-Black and anti-poor perceptions. After all, journalist Don Lemon essentially blamed the murder of Trayvon Martin and black youth on sagging and saying the “n” word. He is not the only Black celebrity or leader to use respectability politics to smear other Black people either.
Even Malcolm X addressed how Black celebrities are often puppets for agendas that are antithetical to the black community.
Working-class Americans are more concerned about policy, not respectability politics. As a matter of fact, respectability politics often isolates the working-class. This is likely why many working-class white people felt heard by Trump in his initial election — despite the fact that he did not have their best interests in mind.
Black celebrities may be looked to for guidance from other Black folks; however, they cannot relate to most black people. For example, Yvette Nicole Brown has a net worth of over four million dollars. The average net worth of Black families is about seventeen thousand dollars. It follows that her political priorities would look very different from those of the average black person.
Furthermore, we cannot trust celebrities to give unbiased political views that will benefit Black Americans or even Americans in general. After all, Majid Padellan was revealed to be paid off by Democrats to influence his followers on Twitter to stir up anti-Bernie and pro-Biden propaganda. It was only after this news broke that he shared this information in his Twitter bio. It would not be surprising if other celebrities were paid off to do the same thing in the race between Nina Turner — who is supported by Bernie Sanders — and Shontel Brown — who is supported by Hillary Clinton and Fox News.
After all, Shontel Brown has begun a smear campaign against Nina Turner with outright lies. Turner has always been an advocate for Medicare for All, fifteen-dollar minimum wage, and the Green New Deal, but Shontel Brown’s campaign ads suggest otherwise. Furthermore, Brown’s campaign faked endorsements.
Despite disagreeing fundamentally with Candace Owens on most politics, I sympathize more and more with her metaphor in which she refers to the Democratic party as a slave plantation. After all, it seems Black celebrities are acting as modern-day slave overseers who aim to influence marginalized lower classes in the Black community. Ironically, I feel this applies to Candace Owens in the Republican party as well. After all, she receives money from conservative organizations to tell Black people not to seek handouts or social welfare.
Black folks feel ignored by politicians regardless of political affiliation. Democrats continue to promise the world and give us nothing. After all, they continue to fail in the fight for DC statehood (which would enfranchise the residents of a historically Black city), the fight against voter suppression, and the fight for Black reparations. This is despite having both majorities in the congressional houses and the presidential seat. On the other hand, Republicans rarely even pretend to support policies popular among Black folks.
Certainly, I view the Republican party as undoubtedly the worse party, and as a current university student who is Black, queer and atheist, I ultimately will choose even a centrist Democrat over a Republican. However, the Democratic party is more concerned with superficial changes and symbolism, than it is with changes that improve the well-being of working-class and poor Americans. It seems anything that materially improves the lives of the working class will always be considered as too radical.
For example, LGBTQ youth will still suffer. A study from the Williams Institute at UCLA states that “between 20% and 45% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, at least 2 to 4 times more than the estimated percentage of all youth who identify as LGBTQ.” Needless to say, this percentage is higher among Black trans folks and other trans people of color.
Empty displays of solidarity do not protect those who are disowned or rejected by their families from poverty or homelessness in a meaningful way. Fighting to make housing a right and not a privilege will materially change their lives.
According to the Black Census Project, most black people are concerned about health care affordability, sustainable wages, higher education costs, and affordable housing. Most support making college free to all who want to attend and increasing the minimum wage to fifteen dollars. Furthermore, the study finds that black folks support ending qualified immunity — an unfair practice which protects government officials from taking responsibility constitutional violations.
Also, marijuana legalization must be done as step to federally protect Black people from the racist legacy of the so-called “War on Drugs,” and this legalization should not include limits on the amounts of marijuana individuals can have as states with limits still disproportionately punish black folks for marijuana.
However, the best Democrats could do for Black people was make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Joe “You Ain’t Black” Biden and other Democrats can thank Black voters for coming out in droves to support them, but this gratitude is useless if they are not pushing policies that benefit Black people (which in turn inherently improves the lives of all Americans). This means they have to really fight tooth and nail for us just as many Black organizations fought in the South to allow Black people vote.
Black celebrities or influencers who praise the Democratic party (or the Republican party) for doing the bare minimum are no allies to Black people. They are just socially acceptable versions of Candace Owens.
They sell Black solidarity to the lower classes, but they themselves rarely show solidarity with lower classes. They fail to support policies that uplift us because it benefits them side with superficial politics than with class justice. That is where the money resides. When we demand economic justice, we are considered too radical, or we are not deemed respectable enough.
Unfortunately, these celebrities have wealth and privilege which grants them the ability to have political influence that working-class Americans lack, so when they fail to side with the needs of working-class Americans, they prove that they only believe in class solidarity with elites.
If Black celebrities want true Black solidarity, they must call out Democratic and Republican leaders for failing to address working-class concerns. They must also call out Democratic and Republican leaders for favoring corporate interests over the people.
Otherwise, their only role in politics is to keep Black people begging for crumbs when we deserve a whole pie.
