By voting for Biden, black Americans hoped for laws to improve their lives. Biden’s approval rating has plummeted in recent months, owing to concerns over inflation, immigration, and Covid-19.
Black Americans continue to approve of Biden at a higher rate than the general public. According to a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll of 1,998 voters, 58 percent of Black voters approved of Biden’s job performance as president, compared to 43 percent of all voters.
However, Biden’s support among Black voters has dwindled over the year. In November, 48 percent of Black voters believed Biden was addressing their needs, compared to 66 percent in June, according to a HIT Strategies poll.
According to the results, the poll had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Black Americans are particularly concerned about the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. These became centerpieces of Black-centered legislation that have yet to reach the Senate floor after passing in the Democratic-controlled House this year.
Nonetheless, even his detractors admit that Biden has several accomplishments that serve their best interests while not unique to Black people.
The Biden Wins
According to Marc Morial, president, and CEO of the National Urban League, Biden has done some significant work that has influenced Black Americans. He claims it has largely gone unnoticed.
“I’m going to push back very forcefully on the idea that the Biden administration hasn’t done enough for Black people,” Morial added. He and seven other civil rights activists met with Biden twice this year to set out a platform of issues they wanted the administration to address to aid African-Americans in the United States.
Morial cited Biden’s racially diverse Cabinet and the “significant number of African American judges” nominated federal courts. According to the Brookings Institution, Biden’s Cabinet features 22 Black individuals, including Michael S. Regan, the first Black person to manage the Environmental Protection Agency. There were three African-Americans in Donald Trump’s Cabinet, compared to 34 in Barack Obama’s.
“The president was asked in the American Rescue Plan to include racial equity provisions and to make sure that there was money going to cities, not just states, where we have Black mayors,” Morial added.
“The president and his team and Congress did that. The president was asked to put together a broad infrastructure plan with racial equity provisions, including broadband, including water systems, so we could address issues like in Flint, Michigan. The president and his team delivered on that.”
Last month, Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a historic achievement that will have a massive impact on clean water, roads, and bridges, and internet service in impoverished Black areas, as well as better health care and job prospects.
He also signed the American Rescue Plan into law, a broad statute to provide emergency help in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The strategy also aimed to increase Black communities’ access to wealth creation through small-business ownership. Biden asked federal agencies to expand purchases from small, disadvantaged Black-owned firms by 50% using government contracting authority.
Another component of the strategy, according to the White House, is to adopt a strict regulatory change to help Black Americans own and stay in their houses as a result of the pandemic’s impact.
In October, Biden signed an executive order to expand and improve educational opportunities for African-Americans, from early childhood to college. It also advocates removing barriers to education by abolishing discriminatory practices and improving financial aid to historically Black schools and universities.
“Since Day One, the Biden-Harris administration has taken a whole-of-government approach to advancing racial equity and enhancing the lives of Black families across the nation,” said Erica P. Loewe, the White House director of African American media.
“The president and vice president have already delivered on their promise by increasing investment and economic opportunity in Black communities, improving health outcomes, providing historic support for HBCUs, taking action to reform our criminal justice system, and using executive authority to protect voting rights.”
Biden’s score would be a “B+ at this point, considering the circumstances,” according to Floyd L. Griffin, the former mayor of Milledgeville, Georgia, and a Democrat running for Secretary of State in Georgia.
“My problem with the Democrats is what’s going on in Congress and especially in the Senate and not coming together with the president’s agenda,” Griffin explained.
“Over the last 11 months, President Biden has been implementing the platform he ran on. But he’s having a rough time getting it done, especially from the Senate, and he can only do what he can do. The legislative branch has ended up not doing what they are supposed to do, and especially the Democrats.”
The Biden Loses
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., dealt Biden a setback over the weekend when he stated that he would not support Biden’s centerpiece bill, the Build Back Better Act, which includes comprehensive social safety net elements as well as strategies to address climate change. He effectively ended the bill, which had no Republican backing.
Similarly, the Lewis voting and Floyd policing legislation, which is the administration’s trademark measures for Black people, has stagnated due to a lack of support.
The Lewis bill would reinstate the 1965 Voting Rights Act and compel states and localities with a history of enacting discriminatory voting rules to seek special permission from the Justice Department before doing so. The Floyd bill aims to minimize racial bias in policing, officer misbehavior, and police use of excessive force. The law, which passed the Democratic-controlled House on a largely party-line vote, was blocked in the Senate by Republican opposition.
“The next couple of months are going to tell a very important story,” Morial said. “I’m not going to give out the MVP award at halftime. The administration gets a B+ overall but an incomplete on voting and police reform. I am as impatient as anyone. But we have to be very seasoned and mature and understand that the reason we’re in this situation is because you have a couple of Democrats not supporting the president and the Republican obstructionists on the other side with the filibuster. It’s not that the president isn’t fighting for these bills.”
Is he, however, battling hard enough? Moore, an Illinois woman, stated, “I will say that he made a lot of speeches and remarks about getting the infrastructure deal done. You could feel how important it was to him. I’d like to see that same enthusiasm for the bills Black people want to see passed.”
According to a Democratic strategist, Black people’s complaints revolve around feeling forgotten or taken for granted after being a driving force in the election and the party’s Senate victory.
“I do think there is a frustration that you asked us to go above and beyond and show up in the middle of a pandemic and amid all the voter suppression, and not only did we deliver, but we also delivered the Senate,” the strategist said. “And what did we get for it? We get a lot of evasiveness about the filibuster, a lot of excuses about Joe Manchin and being patient.’”
Martin Luther King III, the late civil rights icon’s eldest son, has announced that he will lead demonstrations in Washington, D.C., to press for the voting bill to become law on his father’s birthday next year. His dissatisfaction with Biden was palpable.
According to Loewe, the White House African American communications director, the administration is adamant about achieving its goals for the voting and policing measures.
“The president and his team are fighting to deliver voting rights legislation, which he has called a ‘must-pass,’ urgent priority to fight disgusting attacks on the constitutional right to vote and the rule of law based on a dangerous lie,” she said, referring to Republican-backed propaganda that the 2020 election will be rigged. “He’s also fighting for police reform and was deeply saddened that after Democratic negotiators worked hard to find common ground with their counterparts and won the support of leading law enforcement organizations, Republican lawmakers have stood in the way of crucial progress.”
A Messaging Problem
Many Black voters are uninformed of what the Biden administration has accomplished, indicating that the administration has a message problem.
“It seems to me they didn’t make a big deal out of the things they have done,” Moore added. “And that’s unfortunate, because it impacts how people look at the administration. The achievements so far aren’t as big to us as the crime bill and voting bill. But they matter because it’s helping us, which is what we all want.”
The Democratic strategist thinks the White House will have to calibrate carefully their response messaging to Black voters. Black people care about getting Donald Trump out of government, restoring the economy, and dealing with Covid. Still, rising dissatisfaction with the party’s specialty concerns will excite the party’s base of African American support.
“Biden has an enthusiasm challenge for 2022 and will eventually in 2024, and Black voters are a key part of the enthusiasm strategy,” the strategist noted. “If you can animate and keep good faith with Black voters, there is a lot the president can do.”
“The administration is ready to fight,” Harris told Charlamagne Tha God. She stated, “There is a whole lot more work to be done. And it is not easy to do, but we will not give up. And I will not give up.”
