Blaming 'people of color' is a scapegoat for Donald Trump winning 2024 election
Majority of minority groups voted for Vice President Kamala Harris
Writer’s note: “I Do See Color” has consistently been my largest subscriber base and readership throughout the time I was writing on Medium (no longer there) and immediately picked right back up on Substack. I knew I was taking a chance by creating “One Black Woman’s Vote,” but not everybody who likes IDSC wants to read about politics. For the same reasons I have no interest in writing about religion, I (half-heartedly) understand the anti-politics stance — although it affects your income, your household, your child(ren), your (grand)parents, your job and everything else. Regardless, I strategically separated it for OBWV. However, I never planned to keep OBWV going after Election Day. That was solely for the presidential campaign. This post, however, is so important to me that I am publishing it here instead of OBWV. For those of you who don’t like reading about politics (and as much as that makes me cringe), skip this post.
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The blame game with minorities on Election Day is bothering me
There was a black male reader who picked an argument with me on a past post about using the term “people of color.” At the time, I shrugged it off and thought he just had a bone to pick with Asian people and Latino people. I wasn’t willing to bite. I had a close Asian friend in college and spent eight years studying Spanish, going to high school and college and working with Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and a few Mexicans.
When I’m referring to “black people,” I say just that. But when I’m referring to minority groups as a collective, I had no issue with saying “POC.” He did not like that and felt like using the abbreviation POC was grouping us all into one. I shrugged it off.
Recommended Read: “You, as a minority, can relate to me — but know when you cross the line ~ The invisible line between Hispanics, black folks and racial slurs”
I wish I still remembered his name — and our daylong debate that went from article comments to emails — because he was furious about this. And today I finally see where he’s coming from.
I’m seeing a few too many news reports claiming Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election because of “people of color,” and it’s bothering me more each day. While there were a disturbing amount of black men who were vocal about claiming they liked Trump more than Vice President Kamala Harris, the voting results don’t particularly reflect that.
Recommended Read: “Racism, sexism, idiocy wins with Trump ~ But I still thank Vice President Kamala Harris for trying to save America”
In voter numbers from AP VoteCast and Independent, more than 80% of black people were concerned about Trump’s extreme political views and 86% of us voted for Harris (versus 87% of us who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020). But these reports keep lumping Black people’s voting results with Asians and Hispanics.
Majority of Asians and Hispanics did not vote for Trump
If you just click a headline, you’ll ignore that 53% of Hispanics voted for Harris and 56% of Asians voted for Harris. Is that startling compared to the 65% and 61% who voted for Biden in 2020? Yes. But it’s still not “majority.” And it’s annoying me that the Hispanics and Asians who did vote for Harris are being drowned out by those who didn’t.
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The scapegoat: White people voted for Trump more in 2016, 2020 and 2024
Even in more than half the states with Republicans who made it harder to vote in 2024 than it was in 2020, the majority of Black people, Asians and Hispanics still voted for Harris. The easiest way to place blame on why Trump won is to blame these much smaller groups and playing “Bird Box” with that majority of his voting population.
Majority of white people voted for Trump in all three of the past three elections. In 2024, white people voted for Trump at 55%. In 2020, white people voted for Trump at 58%. In 2016, white people voted for Trump at 58%. Neither majority of Hispanics nor Asians voted for Trump when Hillary Clinton ran for president; Hispanics and Asians voted for Clinton at 65%.
There is this story going around that men and women just can’t fathom having a woman president, but the voter turnout is not reflecting that Asians, Hispanics and Black people cannot imagine this idea. From the stats I’m seeing in these same news reports, we can imagine a woman president, we can imagine an Asian woman president and we can imagine a Black woman president. We are not the ones who cannot see this happening.
Recommended Read: “If you’re not a minority, why are you so sure of your anti-racism tourism? ~ White people, please stop telling me to leave America to escape racism”
While Black people clearly in large numbers can imagine this happening more than any other group — be it a white woman as U.S. president (88% voted in the affirmative) or a black or Asian woman (same energy with 86%) — stop boxing Black people into this group of minorities who voted for Trump. We did not. Stop saying “people of color” voted for Trump. Majority of us did not. Focus on who did consistently vote for him in the last three presidential elections.
Focus on that group’s lack of “imagination” of a woman president. Black people already have our “imaginations” in check.
Did you enjoy this post? You’re also welcome to check out my Substack columns “Black Girl In a Doggone World,” “BlackTechLogy,” “Homegrown Tales,” “I Do See Color,” “One Black Woman’s Vote” and “Window Shopping” too. Subscribe to this newsletter for the weekly posts every Wednesday.
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