Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., is seen outside the U.S. Capitol after the last votes before the August recess on Thursday, July 25, 2024. | Source: Tom Williams / Getty
Democrats’ renewed focus on Black male voters came to a head on Sunday when New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman publicly called out a rapper with a history of pro-Black lyrics who has been sharing sentiments opposing Kamala Harris and questioning her established Black heritage.
Bowman posted a video on social media where he openly wondered why Lord Jamar, of the iconic Afrocentric ‘90s rap group Brand Nubian, wouldn’t support Harris’ historic candidacy and chalked it up to “the manifestation of white supremacy.”
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The video posted by Bowman was in response to one of the handful of recent clips from an interview in which Lord Jamar – who’s earned a reputation in hip-hop, particularly over the last decade, for his polarizing commentary about race – made sympathetic comments about Donald Trump while claiming Harris isn’t Black, all while using conspiratorial language.
In the clip that Bowman responded to, Lord Jamar said Democrats are “trying to scare me into thinking that [Trump’s] so bad that I should just vote for” Harris, who he dismissed as “this broad.”
Lord Jamar went on to threaten to vote for Trump and rejected what he called a Democratic-led campaign of trying to fearmonger and “shame” Black people into voting for Harris, whom he incorrectly claimed is “not Black” and is only Indian.
Another clip from the same interview made the rounds on social media over the weekend and showed Lord Jamar questioning Harris’ Blackness based on her practice of washing collard greens in a bathtub and he accused her of code-switching depending on her audience.
Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian performs during the “Dj Cassidy’s Pass the Mic Live” at Radio City Music Hall on July 21, 2023, in New York City. | Source: Richard Bord / Getty
It was in that context that Rep. Bowman had clearly had enough of what he called Lord Jamar’s “colonized Black mind.”
Bowman said he couldn’t believe that Lord Jamar – who has repeatedly rapped that the “Black man is God” – is “rocking with Donald Trump over a Black woman.”
Bowman asked his viewers of Lord Jamar’s comments: “You wanna see the manifestation of white supremacy?”
Bowman encouraged Lord Jamar and any like-minded voters to look at Trump’s “policies” and his personal history before attacking “a Black woman who could be the first woman president in U.S. history.”
Bowman conceded that the “entire political system needs to be revamped, revised, destroyed and rebuilt” before asking if people really “think Trump’s gonna do that?”
To be sure, Harris is of mixed race with a Jamaican father who is Black and an Indian mother. Harris has identified as a Black woman throughout her entire career in public service and graduated from Howard University, widely considered the nation’s flagship historically Black college (HBCU).
Bowman, who is Black, lost his Democratic primary in June to an accused Democrat in name only whose campaign received record funding from a powerful conservative, pro-Israel lobby in a race that was replete with racist dog whistles and attacks. His loss came months after the U.S. House censured him for pulling a fire alarm in the U.S. Capitol when a session was being held.
Bowman called out Lord Jamar following a speech in which former President Barack Obama challenged Black men , in particular, to rally around Harris’ campaign in a message that critics suggested shamed a loyal Democratic voting bloc when other key demographics (read: white voters) have supported Trump in the past two elections.
Notably, Obama said during a speech in Pittsburgh on Thursday night that Black male voters are “coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses” not to support Harris’ candidacy, adding later that he’s “got a problem with that.”
Prior to the speech, Obama met with a group of Black male voters in Pittsburgh and suggested they “don’t have enough sense of what’s at stake” with the election and said they were “lucky” his wife, former First Lady Michele Obama, wasn’t there speaking with them instead of him because “she talks serious about this stuff.”
Obama’s speech ignited a debate on social media about whether he was “scapegoating Black men.”
“This accusatorial tone will make some Black men stay home-which is worse,” actor and political activist Wendell Pierce posted on X , formerly Twitter, in response to reports about Obama’s comments.
Pierce added: “Black men are questioning our party to find out what their loyalty for decades earns them. That’s good. That’s healthy. Democrats have the record to stand on and should embrace the challenge. But after touring this country specifically engaging Black men, I will not let my party leaders speak [condescendingly] towards them.”
An NAACP poll conducted and released last month found that 25% of Black male voters support Trump for president. That’s nearly double the percentage of overall Back voters (13%) who support Trump’s candidacy. It’s also a 5% boost among Black male voters compared to 2020.
On Sunday, Harris’ campaign kicked off its “Souls to the Polls” initiative to help ramp up support among Black voters in battleground states with less than 30 days until Election Day.
And on Monday, Harris released what she calls her “ Opportunity Agenda ” for Black men that places an emphasis on entrepreneurship, education, finance and health.
“This agenda is a further realization of Vice President Harris’ Opportunity Economy,” Congressman and Harris-Walz Campaign Co-Chair Cedric Richmond said in a statement. “An economy where people don’t just get by, but get ahead. Where Black men are equipped with the tools to thrive: to buy a home, provide for our families, start a business and build wealth.”
Richmond added later: “While Vice President Harris is promising to equip Black men with the tools needed to pursue our dreams and aspirations, Donald Trump is promising Black men in America a national nightmare.”
The election is on Nov. 5.
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