Black Leadership Support Gives Clinton An Insulting Pass On Our Collective Struggle

There is an old saying, voiced by famed Mississippi civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer: “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

The recent rise of the need for Black voters to vote for Hillary Clinton and the results of high populated Black states like  South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia have witnessed Black voters mindlessly casting their primary election vote for the already presumed presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton will keep Black People on the political plantation. Blacks are also proving that they are far away from being sick and tired.

Our Black Leadership have given Hillary an insulting pass to our collective struggle for the last 30 years of policies that she has lobbied for that directly effected millions of black families.

The Clinton legacy and past policies have done little to foster positive growth of the masses in black communities; no one should pull the lever without knowing what it truly means for the future of the country and for them.

Unfortunately, Blacks have voted Democratic in a “Blind Faith” or on individual interest for decades. But collectively, we have nothing to show for our votes as a people.

In 2016, Blacks casting their vote for Hillary Clinton will make little sense. Despite the masses of mainstream elder black leadership, young blacks in many urban cities in the United States have not benefited from anything Hillary has done. The fact of the matter is,  young blacks have felt the wrath of an injustice justice system that she herself lobbied for in the 90s when her husband was President.

It is also insulting to the masses of Black people and the Black struggle for Congressman John Lewis and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) blindly give Hillary Clinton credit for any assistance in our struggle for civil rights. Congressman John Lewis and the CBC omitted that in the 60’s Hillary Clinton actively campaigned for Barry Goldwater for President of the United States. Goldwater’s platform was to overturn the Civil Rights Act and re-segregate the south. This is the same CBC who after the aftermath of the militarized police response to Ferguson protesters overwhelmingly voted  to continue the militarization of  police departments throughout the United States.

Also in a bombshell Huffington Post report that detailed the hypocrisy of many CBC members. As the report thoroughly lays out, even though Wall St. systematically targets African-Americans with its mortgage fraud schemes, members of the CBC have been actively doing Wall Street’s bidding, even working to upend legislation intended to rein in the worst offenses of the greediest banks. So it’s rightly so that these CBC members dance to the tune of their masters in defending Hillary whom her opponents has labeled her the Wall St. Candidate.

OUR HISTORY AS DEMOCRATS 

Blacks mostly voted Republican from after the Civil War and through the early part of the 20th century. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president, and the white, segregationist politicians who governed Southern states in those days were Democrats.

The Democratic Party didn’t welcome blacks then, and it wasn’t until 1924 that blacks were even permitted to attend Democratic conventions in any official capacity. Most blacks lived in the South, where they were mostly prevented from voting at all.

Republican nominees continued to get a large slice of the black vote for several elections. Dwight D. Eisenhower got 39 percent in 1956, and Richard Nixon got 32 percent in his narrow loss to John F. Kennedy in 1960.

But then President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing segregation in public places) and his eventual Republican opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater, opposed it. Johnson got 94 percent of the black vote that year, still a record for any presidential election.

THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT NOW IN STYLE IN 2016 ELECTION

So many black people felt proud voting for our Brother Obama making him the first “black” president of the United States. For millions of voters whose ancestors felt painful effects of slavery, seeing someone who looked like them sitting in the Oval Office made sense. Eight years later, we realized as president he could only do but so much within the political process. But at the end of the day, many blacks knew they voted for someone who understood our struggle.

The reality is that our first Black President was treated as an outsider in Washington D.C. and even in his own Democratic Party; not that he was not smart enough, not that he did not have the right agenda for America; he was  treated as an outcast because he was a Black man.

Where was the Clintons, Bill or Hillary defending our Black Presidents legacy when white Democratic Congressmen and Senators wouldn’t even admit they voted for Obama when they faced  midterm elections in many of the swing states? Isn’t it amazing how Hillary Clinton is claiming the first Black Presidents legacy when she is the only Democratic candidate that ran against him in 2008 to deny him of that same legacy.

Now faced with another Democratic primary, blacks need to consider whether they want to vote for someone who assumes they have inherited the black vote from the Obama legacy but, in reality, Hillary didn’t do much to support the platform that she now claims to be the heir apparent to continue his legacy.

Damon K. Jones

Damon K. Jones is an Activist, Author, and Publisher of Black Westchester Magazine, a Black-owned and operated newspaper based in Westchester County, New York.

Mr. Jones is a Spiritual Life Coach, Couples and Family Therapy Coach, Holistic Health Practitioner, First Aid in Mental Health Practioner, Diet and Nutrition Advisor, and Vegan, Vegetarian Nutrition Life Coach.

Mr. Jones is a 32-year Law Enforcement Practioner New York Representative of Blacks in Law Enforcement of America.

Mr. Jones has been a guest commentator on New York radio stations WBLS (107.5 FM), WLIB (1190 am), WRKS (98.7 FM), WBAI (99.5 FM), and Westchester's WVOX (1460 am). Mr. Jones has appeared on local television broadcasts, including Westchester News 12 "News Makers" and Public Television "Winbrook Pride. You can now hear Damon every Wednesday at 830 AM on WFAS at 1230 AM, Morning with Bob Marone Show.