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Co-written by Dr. Rahsaan Harris
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The Democratic debate stage on the evening of December 19, 2019, was “melanin challenged.” Andrew Yang was the only candidate of color to qualify to participate. By January 14, the debate stage was “melanin absent” with no candidates of color participating in the debate! As Buggin’ Out famously asked the pizza shop owner, Sal, in Do the Right Thing, people of color are wondering, “How come ain’t no brothers on that wall?" (Sal responded, “This is my pizzeria!”)
Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Andrew Yang are the only people of color that remain in the Democratic Party presidential primary and they aren’t frontrunners in early primary states. Their odds for success are slim. Relatively unknown billionaire Tom Steyer seems to be a more viable candidate due to his massive spending on television advertising and a recent second-place showing in a South Carolina primary poll.
Will voters of color be able to support a candidate that understands their struggle to gain equality in the United States? Does this tell us anything about the current state of the country and people of color’s place in it? The Democratic field of candidates for the President of the United States was once the most diverse in American history. It has become nearly whitewashed as candidates of color exit the stage.
Kamala Harris dropped out of the race for president over the Thanksgiving holiday because her “campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources [they] need to continue.” The latest candidates of color to exit are Julian Castro, who offered "it simply isn't our time" for why he ended his campaign, and Cory Booker, who cited lack of money as the primary reason for dropping out.
In this presidential campaign, big money is the difference maker for the outcomes of two candidates who had strikingly similar views on people of color and the criminal justice. One of those individuals is no longer in the race and the other still is. What is even more telling, one by one candidates of color are being systematically outspent out of the race. A billionaire could possibly win the nomination because of their ability to outspend other candidates!
Michael Bloomberg entered the race for president on November 24, 2019, in his words, “… to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America.” Interestingly, he went on an “apology tour” before he entered the race. Bloomberg explained that he was wrong for pushing the "stop and frisk" policy that disproportionately affected Black and Latinx boys and men while he was mayor of New York City. Reverend Al Sharpton “welcomed the former mayor's remarks but reminded him that ‘it will take more than one speech for people to forgive and forget a policy that so negatively impacted entire communities.’"
Kamala Harris was consistently taken to task for her position as a prosecutor and the impact she had on the imprisonment of Black and brown folk. It will be interesting to see if Bloomberg is challenged in the same way as Kamala Harris was. People of color are disproportionately negatively impacted by the U.S. prison system.
Criminal justice reform is an important issue for Black and brown communities. What may be (or perhaps should be) disconcerting for Black and brown people is the diluting of their collective political power to reject a candidate who is detrimental to their socio-political and economic interests because of the power of money in politics. It is reported that Bloomberg’s first campaign ad exceeded in cost what other candidates’ advertising budgeted for the entire year.
We understand that the Black vote is not monolithic and that voting for someone just because they look like you does not mean that the candidate has the electorate’s interest at heart. For Blacks, it could very well be that Harris was not their ideal candidate because of her views and actions on Blacks in the criminal justice system. She is no longer in the race.
The power of big money in politics should not be permitted to overshadow the will of the people. Bloomberg may not be the candidate of choice for Blacks either because of his similar views and record of support for aggressive policing of Black and brown people. Unlike Senator Harris, he is still in the race.
It is concerning that Bloomberg is able to infuse his campaign with massive amounts of capital to possibly subvert the will of a segment of the electorate. This outcome is a frightening proposition for Black and brown people, the groups most negatively and disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. Big money in politics is a reality. It has the power to dilute the net effect of Black and brown support of candidates who understand issues important to their communities.
As we recently remembered the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., like him, we recognized that engaging in the political process is an important means for gaining equity. He encouraged Blacks “to continue to struggle through legislation and legalism” in his speech at the NAACP Emancipation Day Rally in Atlanta, GA in 1957. Dr. King asked for individual Blacks to “go down in our pockets and give big money for the cause of freedom.” He knew that this path of freedom required financial resources.
Black investment in electoral politics has long been a conundrum. Many people of color believe the vote is impotent to bring about positive change in the lives of everyday people. Removing big money from politics could change that dynamic. Perhaps the solution to the outsized importance of money in elections lies in campaign finance reform that restricts private money. Alternatively, people of color may gain access to more electoral power through increased participation in political giving.
Whatever the path forward, it’s worth exploring ways to ensure more brothers and sisters are on that stage.
