OPINION: Keep Black Folks Out Of It

The 2024 Election results are in. Before anyone steps up to shape their lips to speak or their fingers to type any suggestion that Black folks are somehow included in the blame for this, save it. The think-pieces and opinions are already in the content mill and are being released saying that “We need to stop pretending that Trump is not who we all are.” I call bullshit and loudly say no we are not.

Trump is not me. He does not represent me, a person who cares for her community and what the landscape of it will be like when his violent, virulent, vitriolic policies negatively impact it. I care about how my daughter and her generation will be educated when he dissolves the Department of Education. I care about how I and my neighbors will afford their healthcare when he repeals the Affordable Care Act. I care about his harmful rhetoric and policy choices against the disabled community. I care about the environment, as it's been a steady stream of 75+ Degree days here in the Philadelphia area in the end of October and now into November and Trump still denies climate change. I care about the harm that will happen to my LGBTQ+ family and neighbors when his homophobic policies are enacted. I care about my immigrant neighbors who fear his anti-immigration policies. I care about the remainder of the horrors that will be enacted under Project 2025.

It is a gross mischaracterization for any news outlet to lump Black folks, who overwhelmingly voted against Trump into “he is who we all are.” I think not. Not Black folks, who have continually and consistently showed up for democracy. Not Black folks, who showed up to protect what few rights we as a people have left. Not us. Not ever.

What this moment is is an indictment on who this nation is. Black folks, who represent only 14% of the population, were never going to turn the tide alone. We thought that overwhelmingly, non-Black women would show up to protect their bodily autonomy. That didn’t happen. We thought that other People of Color, after Trump’s bigoted commentary and policy choices, would have stood up. That didn’t happen. We thought non-Black Gen Z, as loud as many of them have been about the world they want to see and how our nation is not that, would have shown up. That did not happen. The data is clear. More folks believed in one of the worst presidents in modern history than in a Biracial, Black and South Asian woman with a stellar resume and recommendations who worked in all three branches of government and who was overqualified for the job. That is the indictment.

So keep Black folks out of your “this is who we are” narratives. This is who YOU are. This is who YOU have always been. The data does not lie and neither will history once this chapter is written.