Discourse in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election was marked by former President Barack Obama’s stern message aimed at Black men. Instead of scrutinizing the vice-presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, on the basis of her policies, Obama judged the lack of support for her down to doubts held about a female president. Here, Obama painted a picture of Black men as being guilty of moral misgivings, which seemed rather peculiar considering the consistent support that this demography has offered the Democratic party over the years, with Black women holding the record for maximum loyalty.
Despite this, Obama was surprisingly muted regarding the overwhelming support Trump received from key demographic groups such as Hispanic and young White men, who displayed stronger support for Trump compared to Black men. This was made evident on election night when Trump celebrated his victory. Looking at the numbers, we found that Kamala Harris received votes from about 74 percent of Black men and 89 percent of Black women, the highest percentage from any racial group.
One would think that Obama, a multiracial person himself, would appreciate the subtle delicacies of racial demographics. Yet, he seemed proud to present an unrefined perspective on Black men’s political preference. The rise in Trump’s popularity among nonwhite male voters pushes us to question deep-seated issues such as sexism and racism, especially anti-Black sentiments. However, the real issue here is our failure to dig deeper into the diverse factors influencing the voting choices of these racial groups, which include, but are not limited to, white and nonwhite Americans.
The real trouble arises when we make an attempt to force extremely diverse racial identities into oversimplified classifications. Consider the general label of ‘Black Americans’. This broad term includes generational African Americans, descendants of U.S. slavery, and multiple-generation residents, as well as recent immigrants from areas like the Caribbean or sub-Saharan Africa. It’s also important to highlight that many immigrants come to the U.S. with a strong educational background, which may lead to them having different perspectives and experiences than those who were born in the U.S.
We can see similar patterns among Latinos too. This overarching label includes people hailing from Caribbean islands such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, as well as individuals from Central and South American countries like Mexico, Venezuela, and Honduras. Each coming from differing histories, migratory patterns, and racial classification systems.
Reducing these groups into overarching, simplified categories such as white, Black, Hispanic/Latino, or Asian may provide an easy visual representation, but it undermines the diversity within each group. Each group has a rich tapestry of ethnicity, national origin, and unique responses towards U.S. political stances. For instance, the white Cuban immigrants in Miami, who escaped from Fidel Castro’s regime, find the Republican Party’s anti-communist stand appealing, while Puerto Ricans in New York, often dealing with issues common to African Americans like unemployment, poor housing, and police brutality, lean towards the Democratic Party due to their support for social welfare and racial equality.
Moreover, it’s crucial to consider critically nuanced elements when examining the voting behaviors of Black and Latino Americans. A poll in the month before the election by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which surveyed 1,100 registered Black voters, suggested quite significant disparities in voting patterns based on ethnic lines; this critical detail is usually overlooked in popular discussions about voting behaviors.
The complexity of racial identities among Latinos further challenges attempts to fit this diverse community into traditional U.S. racial categories. Based on a 2019 Urban Institute report, in the 2010 Census, over half of Latinos identified as ‘white’, 36.7 percent chose ‘some other race’, and a mere 2.5 percent termed themselves as ‘Black’.
My research, supported by findings from Brookings, underscores the importance of considering aspects such as ethnicity, heritage, and national origin for a comprehensive analysis of voting behavior. As Pew Research polling indicated, in the U.S., the perception of Black identity has undergone significant transformation. Since the turn of the millennium, foreign-born Black population has nearly doubled, primarily from Caribbean or African origins.
While Black Americans, due to their African-linked physical features, may appear similar, each ethnicity brings distinct historical experiences that shape their policy preferences and political behavior. The same applies to Latinos. The increase in individuals from Latin America brings a plethora of diverse experiences, the nuances of which are blurred by broad racial categorization.
Such overarching racial labels like ‘Black’ and ‘Latino’, despite enabling demographic sorting, fail to fully capture the details of these rapidly changing electorates. The distinctive ethnic identities within these broad racial categories often go noticed.
As election data continually demonstrates, white voters are never treated as an indivisible bloc; their voting trends heavily influenced by factors such as region and social class. Likewise, treating Black and Latino voters as uniform entities without acknowledging their ethnic distinctions could lead to drastic errors and oversights in future electoral tactics.