#BTColumn – Ending White American supremacy

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Dominic Hewitt and Arlington Kenneth

I am young but not naïve. My reference to ending white supremacy speaks to electoral trends in America, not the soul of the nation. Everyone recalls in 2008 that many heralded a ‘post-racial’ society only, less than a decade later, to be trumped by a resurgence of racial animus.

Democracy was the huge winner on 2020 Election Day. More than 150 million Americans voted with the highest percentage turnout in over a century. Although Biden can expect to secure the majority vote and a substantial margin in the Electoral College, the contest was closer than pollsters projected and would have been more so had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The other clear ballot winner were ethic minority voters, now decisively positioned to determine who rules America.

The election of an Asian-Black woman to be the next vice president is momentous. However, this is but a small (albeit significant) step in a long and difficult journey to ‘heal’ and ‘unify’ the US. Wounds are still fresh from a presidency marked by racism, sexism, and ultranationalism; one that over 70 million voters endorsed.

Across the US, the share of White (non-Hispanic) eligible voters declined between 2000 and 2020 by nearly 10 per cent but they still comprise 65 per cent of the electorate. Generally, White voters are slightly more inclined to support the Republican Party, but considerably more so among White Southerners who defected after Lyndon B. Johnson enacted Civil Rights legislation.

The non-White voting population has driven the growth of America’s electorate. Between 2000 to 2020, the voter population grew from 193 million to 234 million; Asian, Black, Hispanic and Others accounted for more than three-quarters of that growth.

Beginning in South Carolina with his political resurrection, it is not an exaggeration to claim that Biden’s road to the White House passed right through the Black community. The historically high voter turnout of White voters was matched and, in some instances, exceeded by Black voters, with Biden securing 87 per cent of the Black vote, better than any other racial demographic.

However, it was not just the Black vote but also the mobilisation that mattered, particularly of Black women. The phenomenal organising of Southern Black women like Stacey Abrams and LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, was crucial.

Abrams learnt the hard way that the only way to overcome attempts to suppress Black people’s voting power was to vote in overwhelming numbers, and she made sure they did just that.

As she celebrated her epic historic win, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris acknowledged that minority women – especially Black women – are “too often overlooked but so often prove that they are the backbone of our democracy.”

Black women disproved pollsters and conventional wisdom that the election in battleground states would come down to the mythical all-White suburbs, filled with stay-at-home moms.

Instead, it was decided in racially diverse urban centres and suburbs of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Black people generally make up 40 per cent or more of the population. In fact, once the votes from Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia started to come in, the Republican advantage quickly disappeared.

Notwithstanding all this, the reality is that the social and economic situation for Black Americans will not automatically change for the simple reason you cannot vote out white supremacy. The devaluation of Black lives is part of a legacy of historic discrimination, and the unjustified killing of Black Americans seems to be a way of death.

To honour the support given by Black voters, Biden should implement meaningful policies and programmes that improve the economic, social, and political conditions of Black and other People of Colour.

Latino voters were the largest contributors to electoral registration increases, accounting for approximately 40 per cent of the overall increase of the country’s eligible voting population. Hispanic voters now make up 13 per cent of the overall electorate, nearly double the 2000 figure.

Latinos are by no means monolithic. There’s considerable diversity of perspectives often varying based on country of origin: 65 per cent of Puerto Rican Americans and 59 per cent of Mexican Americans identify with Democrats, whereas 57 per cent of Cuban Americans identify with Republicans.

Nationally, Biden won two-thirds of Latinos votes but lost considerable support along the Texas-Mexico border and South Florida – areas that had some of the biggest electoral swings. Biden won Cuban-dominant Miami-Dade County by just 7.3 per cent, whereas Clinton had won it in 2016 by almost 30 percentage points.

Asian Americans tend to hold more progressive views on health care, the environment, gun control and social security that any other racial group. Consequently, since Bill Clinton, Asian Americans overwhelmingly supported Democratic presidential candidates. Biden was the preferred candidate for 45 per cent of Asian Americans during the Democratic primaries and 63 per cent voted for him for president.

Indigenous American voters played an important role in narrow margins of victory in swing states like Arizona and Wisconsin. Like Black women, Native American leaders and organisations encouraged voter registration and turnout. On election night, prominent news networks graphically depicted voters in the following categories: White, Black, Latino, Asian and Something Else. That “something else” referred to Indigenous and Native Americans, many of whom protested the pejorative classification.

In Arizona, Native Americans were hardest hit by COVID-19, at one point with the highest ratio of cases in the US. Ninety-seven per cent of the Navajo Nation in the state – Apache, Navajo, and Coconino counties – voted for Biden with approximately 74,000 votes.

Although not a racial group, the last demographic of significance are 18 to 29-year-old Americans. Many are too young to drink but eligible to vote, and they did. Energised by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the under-30-year-old turnout was 53 per cent, besting the previous 2008 high of 51 per cent.

Of the more than 25 million Gen Z and Millennials votes cast, exit poll data indicated the under 30s favoured Biden by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Young Black voters favoured him by a 76 per cent margin; Asian voters by a 69 per cent margin; and Latino voters by a 51 per cent margin. Young White voters favoured Biden by only six per cent.

In terms of political mobilisation among young voters, the most notable was their involvement in the June Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Democratic-supporting TikTok teens and K-pop fans made more than a million bogus ticket requests.

The multiracial and multi-age coalition that led Biden to the White House is a victory for democracy. All of us may have been created equal, but the vote is the most powerful non-violent means available to ensure equality. When we vote, our voices are heard; it is the means to wage war for social change without injuring anyone. As Abraham Lincoln stated, “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”

For those waiting to exhale, last week CNN opined, “Donald Trump is the clear front-runner for the 2024 nomination.” The global news leader reported that “Trump is not just the dominant figure in the party (and among the party’s base) right now; he is the only face of the party…”

Notwithstanding, deep in my heart, I do believe that Black and People of Colour shall overcome someday, soon.

Dominic Hewitt is pursuing postgraduate and professional studies in law and is passionate about politics, aspiring to be a political commentator. Arlington Kenneth is trained in political sociology.