Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
There’s lots of talk about Black voters shifting over to Trump but it’s just talk. The leading scholar on Black Republicanism, Leah Wright Rigueur of Johns Hopkins University, the author of “The Loneliness of the Black Republican,” says most Black people “will not choose the Republican Party because, one, they believe Republicans are racist and racially antagonistic, and two, there are no [Republican] policies that they see affecting their day-to-day lives for the better.”
Many thoughtful political analysts think Trump will end up with around 12-18% of the Black vote, which is around what Republican presidential candidates have typically gotten when they weren’t running against a Black presidential candidate. But, as disgusting as it seems, that means just under one-fifth of Black voters are Trumpers. As much as we might look down on them, they exist. Now I refuse to talk to them outside of Twitter (I will never call it X) because they’re anti-Black. So I’m going to talk about which famous Black fictional characters might support Trump, and I’ll use some of Rigueur’s research to help explain why. I’m doing it that way because if I talk too much about real Black Trumpers I’ll probably vomit.
- Alonzo Harris from “Training Day,” played by Denzel Washington. Harris was law enforcement and Trump support is strong among the pigs, excuse me, I mean, among officers. That’s one part of why they say ACAB. Trump’s enthusiastic support for the police and their right to be violent has been made clear. Plus, for Harris, as someone who bases his life around toxic masculinity and masculine displays of strength, Trump’s cartoonish display of hypermasculinity would be attractive. Trump’s performance of masculinity is a big draw for many of his supporters.
- Roc Emerson…
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