New kids on the bloc?

Everybody is worried about Black men… again.

Pity the young Black male voter. The same demographic who turned out in record numbers for the Clinton and Obama candidacies is increasingly less likely to vote, and plenty within it now appear to be “Trump-curious.” 

And everyone’s all upset about it. 

According to Roger Vann, voter engagement expert and chief advancement officer at People For the American Way (PFAW), part of this lack of enthusiasm is by design. Black men became major targets for online disinformation campaigns to sour them on politics and fuel their disaffection. “As a Senate inquiry concluded, Russian operatives and troll farms targeted ‘no single group … more than African-Americans,” he writes in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. 

PFAW’s solution is their Defend the Black Vote program, which focuses on low-propensity Black male voters. “Our rationale for targeting the most exceptionally hard-to-turn-out group is that while they are targeted for suppression efforts, they are often neglected by other GOTV [get out the vote] efforts. Their power as a voting bloc has been ignored and undervalued for far too long.”

Disaffection aside, many young Black male voters have indicated clearly that they haven’t seen enough progress from the Biden/Harris administration to earn a second vote. Will a newly empowered voting bloc influence policies that will meaningfully impact their lives? 

Another organization is hoping to have that conversation, in part by pointing out the peril that lies ahead.

Professor Alvin B. Tillery Jr., professor of political science and the director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University, says that his research shows a very practical reason why Black men are skeptical. “Democrats are not talking enough about the issues that Black voters want to hear about,” he tells Equity Observer. “That alone alienates them from politics and social institutions.” 

An in-depth poll of some 20,000 Black voters revealed that equity, race relations, preserving Black history, and saving democracy are top of mind. “We need to be talking about preventing workplace discrimination, police reform, and protecting civil rights,” he says. “Racial progress is slipping away and they know it.”               

Tillery’s latest effort to engage young Black male voters comes in the Alliance for Black Equality, a mostly volunteer-run 527 Political Action Committee that is both highlighting the danger of a Trump presidency while advocating for the policies that these men find most urgent.

“Project 2025 is a pretty clear blueprint of what Trump is likely to do,” says Tillery. “Overturning the Civil Rights Act will be a disaster for Black communities — making racial discrimination in the workplace legal again, excluding Black customers, stop and frisk? This is coming.” 

The Alliance will be releasing digital ads in key swing states, starting with ones that artfully highlight the harm of a second Trump term on Black communities, focusing on pocketbook and discrimination issues that Black men consistently identify as areas of concern. 

“We want Black men to vote, but that also means voting for an administration that is not anti-Black,” says Tillery. “We want Black men to thrive.”