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Are Young Black Men Rejecting Obama? One Stat Suggests So.
Pajamas Media ^ | 12/20/2012 | Walter Hudson

Posted on 12/20/2012 7:39:23 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The number of young black men who cast a vote for the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 tripled that of 2008. Hearing this statistic, one commenter quipped, “Is this one of those situations where three times nothing is still nothing?”

No. “Nearly 20 percent of black males under 30 voted for Romney, more than three times what McCain got.” That according to Ann Coulter, who gets her information from Pew Research.

How? Why? Is there a growing number of young black conservatives?

Those stand as worthy questions. Answering them properly would require follow-up polling. Any number of factors could have informed these votes, which deviate markedly from the wider black community. At large, blacks voted 93% for Barack Obama, making it all the more fascinating to ponder why young black men trended toward the Republican candidate.

While we must wait and see if more comprehensive polling provides answers, likely influences upon the black vote hang ripe for analysis. Generally, it makes sense that the proverbial honeymoon is over. President Obama’s second inauguration cannot be as historic as his first. The novelty of beholding the nation’s first black president has faded over time.

Of course, there must be more to our cited trend than that. If fading novelty were the only factor, we would see the trend across the entire black electorate, and not merely among young black males. What do they see that their elders don’t?

For one thing, blacks fared worse under the Obama administration than in previous years. The Wall Street Journal’s Jason L. Riley confirms:

When the president assumed office, unemployment was 12.7% for blacks and 7.1% for whites. Today it is 14.3% for blacks and 7% for whites, which means that the black-white employment gap has not merely persisted under Mr. Obama but widened.

American Thinker’s Chad Stafko adds:

[A report from the liberal Center for American Progress], released in April, shows more dismal economic conditions in the African-American community. It found that from 2009 through 2011, black minimum wage workers swelled 16.6%, while whites had only 5.2% more minimum wage workers. Not only, then, has there been a disproportionate increase in the number of African-Americans who are in the unemployment line, but there is also a greater number of blacks working for minimum wage. This surely wasn’t the change African-Americans were looking for in Obama.

These results shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, the kind of “change” which the president and his ideological ilk continue to propose ignores the source of value, and thus the source of wealth and prosperity.

Workers of any race can earn only what they are willing to and capable of producing. The motivation and skill of the black community have not been fostered by Obama’s leadership. Stafko continues:

During his nearly four years as president of the United States, Barack Obama could have used the bully pulpit of the presidency to make a real impact on the black community and address the underlying problems within it.

An order of operation leads to economic prosperity. A thriving income requires the production of abundant value, which in turn requires rational action informed by a trained mind. Opportunities for such training tend to allude children born out of wedlock with little to no paternal influence. Stafko reminds us:

So long as these social problems go unaddressed, truly progressive economic change will dangle beyond the black community’s reach. Informed by a worldview which sees government as the fountainhead of all moral good, civil rights leaders amidst the black community continue to focus on political activism as the means toward elevating black prospects. However, as The Wall Street Journal’s Jason L. Riley documents, political representation does not correlate with economic success:

Today, Asian-Americans are the nation’s best-educated and highest-earning racial group. According to a Pew study released earlier this year, 49% of Asians age 25 and older hold bachelor’s degrees, compared with 31% of whites and 18% of blacks. The median household income for Asians is $66,000, which is $12,000 more than white households and double that of black households. As with other groups, political clout has not been a precondition of Asian socioeconomic advancement.

The election of Barack Obama four years ago gave blacks bragging rights, but bragging rights can’t close the black-white achievement gap in education or increase black labor-force participation or reduce black incarceration rates. A civil-rights leadership that encourages blacks to look to politicians to solve these problems is doing a disservice to the people they claim to represent.

Asians, for their part, can point to an out-of-wedlock birthrate of just 16%, the lowest of any major group and a significant factor in Asian success. The black illegitimacy rate last year was 72%. Might it be that having a black man in the Oval Office is less important for black advancement than having one in the home?

Whether young black males are increasingly cognizant of this reality remains unclear. However, we do know that a large segment of the overall black community self-identifies in categories which tend to advocate for strong families with both a mother and a father.

Not only has Obama failed to address the sorry state of families in the black community, his policy stances actively undermine the family and leave many blacks feeling less secure. Elizabeth Flock of U.S. News & World Report details:

A new study from Washington University in St. Louis finds that under Obama, many black Americans feel less free than whites when it comes to political participation.

The study found that while the election of Obama initially boosted feelings of political empowerment among black Americans, those sentiments significantly faded in the years that followed—especially among conservative and religious blacks.

These two groups make up a large segment of the black population, with 56 percent of blacks identifying as “born again,” and 39 percent of blacks as “somewhat conservative,” according to the study.

The question becomes whether it matters more that your president look like you than think like you. Perhaps such a query informed the young black male vote this year.

Regardless, the reality of the Obama presidency presents an unprecedented opportunity to engage the black community and explore the roots of its political loyalty. How many cycles must pass without marked improvement in the lot of black Americans before they question the methods which their leftist patrons propose? In fact, many minorities and first-generation immigrants do question those methods and are hungry for alternatives.

In recent years, an increasing segment of the conservative community in Minnesota has recognized the need to reach outside the traditional Republican comfort zone and start a conversation with minorities and immigrants about their principles and values. The effort began within the state’s Republican Party, with the blessing and support of then chair Tony Sutton, and was led by former state representative Dan Severson.

Unrelated turmoil within the party undermined the success of that effort, and it was officially scrapped when the cost of employing the staff to support it could no longer be prioritized. Undeterred, Severson continued to develop relationships in minority and immigrant communities. His liaisons cast light upon a reality that starkly contrasts with the mainstream racial narrative. Whether talking with Somali immigrants, Hmong refugees, or multi-generational Americans of any ethnicity, Severson found a shared value of liberty and socially conservative convictions.

After integrating his outreach into a bid for the MNGOP endorsement to challenge Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, Severson has gone on to develop the Minority Liberty Alliance, a non-profit startup poised to expand engagement in minority and immigrant communities while empowering prospective leaders with the training and support necessary to drive truly progressive change. (This author serves on the board.) While it remains a newly incorporated glimmer in its organizers’ eyes, the Minority Liberty Alliance has attracted support from an impressive cross-section of diverse interests. There exists a need in these communities which has gone long unfulfilled.

For black Americans, the advent of an alternative to vampiric institutions which thrive on perpetual black poverty should be welcome news. Leftist non-profit organizations which claim to serve the black community and advocate for “progressive” change succeed only so long as their constituency continues to fail. Were blacks to meet with actual success, become better educated, deeply motivated, and increasingly wealthy, many of these left-leaning non-profits would be out of business. That truth prompts Minneapolis-based conservative activist and black commentator Don Allen to label such groups as “poverty pimps.”

Perhaps further analysis of the 2012 election results will shed a brighter light on whether young black males are tired of getting slapped around by these organizations’ empty promises and false premises. In the meantime, conservative and libertarian activists must dare to venture into minority domains and present a true path to prosperity.

*****

More from Walter Hudson at PJ Lifestyle:

8 Ways Blacks Perpetuate Racism and the Only Way to Thwart It

Why You Should Take the 2012 Apocalypse Seriously

Tread Upon: What’s Next for the Tea Party?

6 Green Lies Threatening to Starve You



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: 2012polls; bho2012; blackconservatives; blacks; blackvote; obama; race
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1 posted on 12/20/2012 7:39:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Who the heck cares?????

The inauguration is next month. It's over. Popular support? That stuff is for suckers. He means to rule over us, and he doesn't care what you think, and he doesn't care what Lamont on the projects thinks either.

2 posted on 12/20/2012 7:41:25 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Republicans have made themselves useless, toothless, and clueless.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I think there is a subset that is highly embarrassed that the First Black President is doing such a lousy job. These guys admire fantastically successful black men (RG III, Michael Jordan, Will Smith, etc.) Obama by comparison is a fustercluck, and I think at some level it embarrasses them.


3 posted on 12/20/2012 7:44:05 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

2 things. Whatever, I’ve seen the statistics. and too late even if it mattered.


4 posted on 12/20/2012 7:45:01 AM PST by vpintheak (Occupy your Brain!)
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To: SeekAndFind

So what if they are? Damage is done. There’ll be plenty of “rejection” and “buyers remorse” in a few months. These articles are a nuisance more than anything.


5 posted on 12/20/2012 7:45:31 AM PST by albie
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To: SeekAndFind
Some black men may have figured out a seat in a lifeboat is better than sitting with the band.


6 posted on 12/20/2012 7:50:02 AM PST by fattigermaster
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To: SeekAndFind

Who cares?
Obama is already re-elected and most of them will still support the next Democrat commie-pinko to come along.


7 posted on 12/20/2012 8:00:26 AM PST by Little Ray (Get back to work. Your urban masters need their EBTs refilled.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Having lived in the Virginia suburbs of DC for several years, I can tell you that there is a segment of black youth that grew up middle class to upper middle class, never have known racism, and don't understand or buy into the racial demagoguery and allegiance to the democrat party from their parents and grandparents generation. Are they a significant enough number to actually make a difference or will they be cowed “back onto the plantation”. Who knows, time will tell...
8 posted on 12/20/2012 8:01:56 AM PST by apillar
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m the product of a single-parent household. My mother raised my brother and me through our entire young lives, and despite her best efforts, we both took different paths in life.

I endeavored to not be in the same situation as my mother when I was older. I wanted to be the best damn father I could be, because my father wasn’t. I endeavored to be better-educated, better-employed, and overall a better person than what my upbringing would’ve normally provided. I eschewed the statistics, graduated from college, worked through my career, and I’m a successful 32 year old man with a newly-wed wife and a great life ahead of me.

Contrast that to my brother who got mixed in with the wrong crowd in high school despite being an exceptional athlete. His grades faltered, he barely got his GED, he started drinking heavily, smoking pot, and then got into pills. Now he’s coming up on his 30th birthday, is in the county jail detox for felony trafficking of controlled substances and has a very long, rough road ahead of him to right his life.

I think despite the statistics, there are black men and women out there who strive for everything they can to be better people. Society might put them down for their race, they’ve been doing it for centuries, but they push and they push and they continue to persevere until they are fine, upstanding citizens with just as much respect and admiration for their lives and their families as any white, Asian, or Hispanic man.

These are the men and women who I see leaving Obama: the men and women who don’t believe the pablum being puked by this race-baiting huckster, and who want to live lives free of government intervention and free to make decisions for themselves. Obama doesn’t represent freedom. He’s the Pied Piper leading a bunch of rats with a fife song of “Merrily We’re Entitled” as he dances them all back to the shackles so many of their predecessors worked their entire lives to reverse.

Not all of them are living with their eyes closed. For many blacks, I believe, they see that not only are they worse off than when Barack the Magic Negro took office, they’re destined for slavery to the government.


9 posted on 12/20/2012 8:08:25 AM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is good news. In 10 more election cycles, Mr Obama may receive a minority of the black male vote and his presidency could be in trouble.


10 posted on 12/20/2012 8:16:33 AM PST by lurk
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To: SeekAndFind
Maybe young blacks see Obama as a white liberal elite - that's how I see him...
Obama ‘talks black’ in the same condescending way that Biden does... Except since Obama looks black, he can pull it off easier...
11 posted on 12/20/2012 8:22:19 AM PST by GOPJ (Detroit should be renamed 'Michael Mooresville'...)
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To: SeekAndFind

Whoop te doo.....Like everyone else Obama has used and will throw under the bus they will only come to realize and regret helping him to power later. Sadly I think the people in CT will only realize they were a pawn to Obama’s gun control obsession too late. Why people keep trusting Barry when they should see the long line of people he has stepped on to get where he is confuses me....


12 posted on 12/20/2012 8:23:26 AM PST by jakerobins
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To: SeekAndFind
Nearly 20 percent of black males under 30 voted for Romney

I do not believe this. I would like to see some evidence for this statement.

13 posted on 12/20/2012 8:26:27 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: SeekAndFind

Juan Williams’s sons are republican. Jesse Jackson’s son is in the looney bin probably driven crazy by his dad’s race baiting. Could be that the kids are embarrassed by their folk’s racism. They hear it, but they don’t see it.

Even the French are figuring out that taxing the rich isn’t the utopian answer.


14 posted on 12/20/2012 8:32:54 AM PST by A'elian' nation (Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred. Jacques Barzun)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

It is probably that not many black males under 30 voted at all, so those who actually bothered to do so are a bit more politically astute than their peers. If young black male turnout matched overall black turnout, the percentages of Obama and Romney voters would be the same.


15 posted on 12/20/2012 8:33:45 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: SeekAndFind

This past summer I traveld extensively in the south on business. I was shocked by the number of younger black men who were very conservative in their outlook. I met many who were outright hostile towards Obama. I cannot describe these guys as anything other than black rednecks. The redneck type who has a family, works hard, drives a truck, and is independent. They also tend to be men of faith and are active in church.

I have to say I was shocked by the number of blacks and whites hanging out together after work at redneck sports bars.


16 posted on 12/20/2012 8:41:52 AM PST by FreedomNotSafety
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To: ClearCase_guy

ridiculous.. didn’t he win the black vote by 95 % or close?

I don’t buy one single bit of any of these polls or stats from now on...

they are all agenda driven to sell a point of view of the person requesting the poll.

last election proved just how useless they are.


17 posted on 12/20/2012 8:58:07 AM PST by Chuzzlewit
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To: rarestia

Thank you for your insightful comments. We desperately need more people like you, and guys like Tim Scott, RGIII, Loyd Marcus, etc.

I have long wondered where such men are and why they haven’t been more vocal. America needs you. The Black community desperately needs you.


18 posted on 12/20/2012 9:07:01 AM PST by Obadiah (How do you know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a muzzle flash?)
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To: Chuzzlewit
ridiculous.. didn’t he win the black vote by 95 % or close?

The Pew Poll, where all these numbers are based had Obama winning 93% of the black vote over all.
98% of the black female vote under 30
And 80% of the black male vote under 30.
I think I remember that in the over 30 crowd there was very little gender gap among blacks.

19 posted on 12/20/2012 9:09:57 AM PST by NeoCaveman (SMOD 2012)
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To: SeekAndFind

http://www.runawayslavemovie.com

Support this movie, share with others, break the narrative, and welcome our fellow home Americans homes.

In every devisive, conservatives need to welcome the conversation and clearly state the truth. Truth is what matters.


20 posted on 12/20/2012 9:12:20 AM PST by Dead Dog
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