Opinion | When Patriarchy Trumps Race

For over a year, as I’ve talked to Black men and voting organizers, I’ve picked up on discontent with the Democratic Party from some Black men, but I wasn’t sure what to make of it or how widely that sentiment stretched.Apart from my reporting, polling suggests an erosion of Democratic support among Black men, though I remained somewhat skeptical.But when a campaign unfurls a closing-stretch strategy to reach and retain a particular group of voters, as the Harris campaign clearly has done with Black men, it means that something — whether in public polls or in its internal polls — has raised a very real concern.Even a worst-case scenario — something like the 70 percent of Black men that the most recent New York Times/Siena College national poll found in favor of Kamala Harris — would still mean that Black men strongly support Democrats, and the Democratic nominee, more than men in any other racial demographic group.But that slippage of support from recent past election cycles is worrisome; in a tight race it can make a difference.Barack Obama has come out to give a stern message to Black men.

Harris has put forth an “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” and done a series of interviews with Black male media figures.Time and energy in the last days of a campaign are precious; she wouldn’t be directing all this effort toward the Black male electorate if her team wasn’t worried.Obama attributed part of the potential drop in support for Harris, compared with support for him during his presidential races, to the idea that some Black men “just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.” This kind of misogyny — or misogynoir, the particular form of misogyny faced by Black women — is no doubt part of the issue, but not the whole of it.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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