Challenge: Try Actually Listening to a Working Class Black Republican.

You highfalutin Black liberals need to check your egos, shut up, and listen.

Yesterday, on my bus ride back from work I did my favorite activity. Doom scroll on TikTok. However, yesterday was different. I opened the app, saw the above video and immediately locked my phone.

If you haven’t watched it, there are three black politicos, one of which (on the left) is a Trump supporter who spouts that “This race is between house African-Americans and field African Americans, and the field African-Americans are going for Donald Trump.” The other two commentators, who I presume are Democrats voting for Kamala Harris begin to berate him with their own projections of what is respectable and offensive.

This video makes me want to peel my skin off and stack it over my eyes and ears for many reasons but let’s get the obvious one out the way first. Donald Trump is a fascist narcissist who has done nothing for Black people as a marginalized class, and will continue to not do shit in the future.

Right, now that we got that out the way I want to talk about the more frustrating part of the video. The other two commentators (I refuse to look up anyones name because I want to forget that I ever saw this video as soon as I publish this piece) refused to hear the essence of what the Trump supporter was saying because of their own ethical egos. Ethical hubris wrapped up in a coat of white respectability.

Once the Trump supporter has finished, the woman speaks first and immediately projects her bruised sense of self as a white collar politico and asks, “Are you denigrating African Americans who are professionals who work in white collar jobs?” To which the Trump reporter immediately replies with a simple “No.” Because that’s not what he said. He said there was a difference between the groups of people voting for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, which is quite literally the case. Demographics of all sorts tend to have certain similar experiences that shape their moral values which then inform the people they vote for.

After this, the man on the right, who I presume is a supporter of Kamala Harris repeatedly says “I’m just tryna understand,” before asking “are you the house negro or the field negro that you’re refering to?” To which he gives no space for an answer and continues to speak. This is where the real problem sits for me.

You’re not tryna understand, you’re tryna create a witty soundbite.

He was in fact not trying to understand anything. He was attempting to fit this other man’s statement into his already crystalized understanding of what politically acceptable beliefs Black people should have. He was never trying to understand the point the Trump supporter was attempting to make. The point being class identity as a nuance of racial politics in America. And he’s not wrong!

While there are still working class Black people, especially women, who consistently vote for Democrats, there is a growing sentiment amongst working class people that actually, that shit isn’t working anymore! They’re putting Democrat after Democrat in office and ain’t shit shake for ‘em. Now, especially Black men, are looking over at the only other *seemingly* viable option and going, “hell, might as well give it a try.”

Working class women and queer people are far less likely to do this because they have issues like bodily autonomy, children’s education, and sexual/gender rights that are being explicitly attacked by Republicans and *partially* protected by Democrats. They have much more to lose under Republican leadership.

However, when you look at this from a lens that is more strictly class based, we’re seeing Black people who went through higher education, who own small businesses, who work at offices, or are even at the point of celebrity giving lashings to poor people who are tired of being poor and aren’t being helped by the Democratic leadership they unshakingly support.

Kamala Harris has made it abundantly clear that she wants to help the American middle class continue to live they have. What the hell is that gonna do for people on food stamps? People who don’t have insurance through their workplace? People who don’t have access to class mobility because of their disability? What about the 35% of people that consider themselves working class and the 40 million people below the poverty line? Personally, I feel that should be the political focus rather than the 5 person family who own a house and two cars.

“Are you the house negro or the field negro that you’re referring to?”

This question was the real trigger for me, because it goes against a principle I KNOW that man would abide by in a plethora of other situations. In asking this, he was looking for a “gotcha!” moment that was absent from their grainy zoom conversation. The question looks to other the Trump supporter from the people he wishes to represent, but instead it highlights a misunderstanding of empathy and solidarity.

Don’t get me wrong, the empathy and solidarity I hope to see lives far away from Donald Trump. On top of that, the represented Trump supporter’s status as a commentator means he makes money off of the misguided masses he represents. Nonetheless, you absolutely can fight for groups of people who don’t have the privileges you have been afforded. In fact, we must be able do this. That privilege is a bullet in the chamber for a cause that will also benefit those given privilege. I bet they all understand this when it comes to receiving support from white people.

For example, I was raised in an upper-middle class household, which means I was surrounded by people who are just like the Harris supporters in this video. They believe they hold the keys to blackness and are the solution to Black struggle. They take their fancy organizations that one can only access through higher education or accomplishing what they feel is of esteem. They cheers to the farce of Black excellence that white people told them they accomplished by assimilating to their systems. I have decided that I want nothing to do with the self-serving nature of these groups and instead choose to utilize my privilege for what further marginalized Black communities actually need from me. I choose to write, speak, and teach skills that I am being asked to share in hopes that liberation won’t just be a radical dream, but a tangible reality.

I’m not special in this, anyone at any point in time can choose to do the same and plenty of people have in the past. Our babe Angela Davis is a prime example. I know you’re tired and have so much to do, but maybe if you focused less on those things that aren’t actually serving the people around you, you could muster up some time to rest before you redirect yourself! It takes time, but I know it can be done. I believe we can all rehabilitate ourselves through being in community and working to understand each other.

All of this to make clear that working class issues are not only the responsibility of working class people. We must all take responsibility for the injustices that we take part in. Whether we chose to or not (I know it’s not fair but neither is not having stable housing, nutritious food, or a steady income).

What do we make of this?

Black Democrats I’m finna hold your hand when I say this…

You are not better than Black Republicans.

I know, I know, just sit with it for a moment. Breathe for me. One breath in, Hold it, then let it out. Now say it with me:

“I am not better than any Black Republicans.”

We are not each others enemy, the government is. We are all being played by Amerikkka, even if we think we’ve done a pretty good job to make it. Think about the distance you have to place between yourself and other Black people to do this most of the time.

If Donald Trump gets elected, things will likely get much worse very quickly, and if Kamala Harris gets elected things will likely get worse at the same rate we’re currently moving. This is why, strategically I would prefer Kamala Harris to win, because it does give us more time to organize ourselves in a time of growing political consciousness. This does not make me a Kamala Harris “supporter”.

If what you truly want is Black liberation, then you must work for the liberation of alllll Black people and take it from the hands of power. That’s the Republicans, the Democrats, the incarcerated, the ones living in Palestine, and so on and so forth. As long as your Black liberation stops at the people who come to NAACP meetings, or seeing more Black faces in “corporate America” you’re contributing to the problem.

It’s time for us to put our egos to the side and talk to each other with the compassion and understanding we deserve. It will be arduous. It will take more empathy than the world has traditionally given us, but we owe it to ourselves and each other.

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