CHICAGO — The upcoming general election is “our Project 2025,” John Legend told a Black Caucus meeting Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The EGOT-winning musician referred to the conservative blueprint document that supporters of Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again campaign hold up as their BIble.
Actor Wendell Pierce stepped forward at the same event. The Tony Award winner and activist recalled the brutal historical violence committed against Black people in his native Louisiana for simply exercising their right to vote.
“There’s blood on that ballot box,” Pierce said.
Both are among a parade of Black male celebrities and notable people joining prominent Black male elected officials in the push this week to make Kamala Harris president — Spike Lee, Central Park Five member and NYC Councilman Yusef Salaam, Common, and Lil Jon are among them. Much has been written about how Black women have come through and made sure they cast ballots in key elections. But in this election cycle, both major political parties are targeting Black men, especially those under 40, as attainable voters, according to the Associated Press. Black men’s turnout in November could prove decisive for Vice President Harris’ race.
In Chicago on Wednesday, the role of Black male voters was underscored throughout the day, not just in the repeated urgings that Democrats have got to get to work to get Harris elected in 75 days, but also through the participation of prominent Black men in the convention. At the United Center, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., all delivered strong speeches deriding Donald Trump and celebrating Harris as someone who has had their backs at one time or another.
That message, as inspiring as it might be for many, also came with a warning that there is a downside to the new attention being paid to Black men.
Black men are the “most targeted by disinformation and misinformation from foreign agents online and on social media,” Comcast Executive Vice President Broderick Johnson told the convention audience.
Still, Johnson also pointed out that Harris and President Joe Biden have spent tens of billions of dollars to bridge the digital divide, and this will play a role.
“So now that more Black men than ever before have access to broadband internet, it is our responsibility to stop the spread of lies about Vice President Harris,” Johnson said. “Black men have to be responsible for setting the record straight on V.P. Harris”
Delegates agreed with Johnson’s point about Black men and targeted messaging.
One Harris delegate from Ohio who would only identify himself as Dylan told Black News & Views he has had people sit next to him in the barber shop “telling me that Kamala Harris is against Black men and that Trump is the only solution. I asked where they found this information, and the answer was always social media.”
Dylan added, “There were never facts, only speculation. We have to do better.”
Alex Reynolds, a Harris delegate from Indiana, said that a relative told him to not vote for Vice President Harris because she “ ‘is sexually immoral and only cares about white men.’ “
Reynolds continued, “I had no idea where that idea came from, and I don’t really think he did either. But he spoke with a whole lot of confidence for someone with no facts.”
The role of Black men in this election is to not just vote, but speak aggressive truth, many at the convention said.
At the Black Caucus meeting Wednesday morning, John Legend said the White House race is an opportunity to create a government “accountable to the people” in which Americans are “free to use their own voices as citizens and advocates, free to make their own healthcare choices, reproductive choices.”
Legend added, “That’s what we are fighting for.”
