Obama faces backlash for comments toward Black men

Former President Obama is drawing backlash for recent comments calling on Black men to turn out for Vice President Harris in November’s election. 

At a campaign stump for Harris on Thursday in Pittsburgh, Obama said that despite Harris raising upward of $1 billion, “we have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running.”

That lag in energy, he added, appears “to be more pronounced with the brothers.”

“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses; I’ve got a problem with that,” he said. “Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”

Despite polls showing a generational divide in Black men’s support for Harris, Obama’s remarks have drawn the ire of several prominent Black Americans. 

Former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner argued Obama’s comments “belittled” Black men. 

“Why are Black men being lectured to? Why are Black men being belittled in ways that no other voting group?” Turner said Thursday night on CNN. 

She added she has a “lot of love” for Obama, “but for him to single out Black men is wrong, and some of the Black men that I have talked to have their reasons why they want to vote a different way, and even if some of us may not like that, we have to respect it.”

“Unless President Barack Obama is gonna go out and lecture every other group of men from other identity groups, my message for Democrats is don’t bring it here to Black men who by and large don’t vote much differently from Black women,” she said. “As a politician, we should be trying to get all voters to vote, and hopefully there are a few good men out there who do care about the stripping away of some of women’s bodily autonomy.”

Despite Black voters overwhelmingly showing support for Harris, 1 in 4 Black men under the age of 50 expressed support for Trump, a recent poll from NAACP and HIT Strategies found. 

But actor Wendell Pierce said Obama’s words sent an “Awful message.”

“The party has to stop scapegoating Black men. Black men aren’t the problem. White men and White women are,” Pierce said in a post on social platform X.

Pierce’s latest comments were at odds with a message he sent to Black men during the Democratic National Convention in August. 

At the time, Pierce told Black men to remember “there’s blood on the ballot box.”

“Any Black man that has an issue with a Black woman rising, they have to look at their own inadequacy,” Pierce said. “What would make you so fearful of someone who was so beloved of you, who was so loving to you, like your mother and your grandmother and your aunts and your sisters, that you cannot be proud and embolden yourself when you see someone from your community rise up?”

Though Black voters — including Black men — voted overwhelmingly for President Biden in 2020, Trump did make inroads with Black men. 

Since Obama’s first election in 2008, Democrats’ support among Black men has been slipping. 

While exit polling shows 80 percent of Black men supported Biden in 2020, that number was down slightly from Hillary Clinton’s 82 percent in 2016 — which was significantly lower than Obama’s 95 percent in 2008 and his 87 percent in 2012. 

Still, Pierce said, “Black men voting for Trump is insignificant.”

“This accusatorial tone will make some Black men stay home-which is worse,” Pierce said. “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 condescending towards them.”