Squires: Black America's 'marriage before carriage' movement will require a divorce from Democrats

A recent tweet depicting Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Ketanji Brown Jackson is, ironically, a perfect template for anyone interested in rebuilding the black family.

Why?

Because the black family would be far stronger if black men and women showed as much fidelity to one another as we do to Democrats.

The journalists and pundits who brag about the fact that over 90% black women supported Joe Biden in the 2020 election see that type of loyalty as a sign of cultural strength. When it comes to race and politics, progressives are completely against divorce and would never think of cheating on the party black people have been with for decades. And even though the relationship has challenges, they are always willing to stand by their “man” because they don’t want to destroy the life they’ve built together.

While Democrats loudly proclaim their affection for black women, the party of Pride – politically speaking – definitely goes both ways. A recent opinion piece in the Root went so far as to say that conservatives are trying to “steal” the black male vote, something the Democrats who believe they “own” black men won’t allow without a fight. The belief that black men might vote for Donald Trump in 2020 prompted a similar backlash from progressive politicians and intellectuals who have made the slogan “vote blue no matter who” a litmus test for racial solidarity.

The type of loyalty black voters show Democrats should be reserved for the marital covenant, not for a political party. This rejection of the natural order is exactly what you get when the government undermines men’s roles as providers and incentivizes women to “marry” the government.

The welfare reforms of the 1960s did exactly that. Now 60 years later, there are entire neighborhoods in some cities where more women rely on Uncle Sam than on a husband to provide food and shelter for them and their children.

But there is another element to this marriage of political convenience that makes a divorce extremely difficult. Democrats have moved their support of black women beyond social programs for poor mothers to political patronage for their most loyal supporters. This is why activists demanded that Joe Biden pick a black female for vice president. It’s also why Biden pledged to appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court. The irony is that as a nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson couldn’t even define the word “woman,” but that didn’t stop her from benefiting from the left’s political spoils system.

Democrats never speak about black men as the “backbone” of our democracy or their party. The reason the progressive politicians talk so much about men like Jacob Blake is because the role black men play in their political ecosystem is primarily as victims of systemic racism and white supremacy. Black lives that can’t be used for political purposes are of little value to the left.

The tragic case of Jazmine Barnes makes that crystal clear. Barnes was a 7-year-old black girl who was fatally shot on December 30, 2018, in a Walmart parking lot in Houston. The initial description of the shooter was a white male in his 40s. That prompted Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, attorney Lee Merritt, and Bernice King to label the incident a hate crime.

At one point, activist Shaun King tweeted the name of the white man he believed committed that crime. A few days later the police caught two black suspects and charged them with capital murder. No celebrities corrected their initial statements. The man King accused of the crime took his own life in 2019.

Progressives jumped on the Jazmine Barnes case for the same reason they still claim Michael Brown was killed with his hands up. They need black victims of racial violence to demonstrate how oppressive the country is, which they use to convince black voters to remain loyal. Black Democrats dutifully obey, and the party responds by promising black women positions of power and leadership.

As is often the case in marriage, there are friends who do their best to support this union. One tweet from USA Today in May 2022 captures how corporations and activists have enabled this toxic relationship.

After George Floyd's death, corporate America pledged to improve diversity in hiring. But two years later, deep racial inequities still exist when it comes to who gets the jobs with the most pay, perks and power — especially for black women.

This is the twisted relationship between race, gender, and politics that is easy to see but rarely discussed. The notion that black women deserved cushy jobs because of George Floyd’s death reflects BLM's impact on American politics. The organization's co-founders only think of a black man as a "provider" when it comes to three things: his sperm, his vote, or his corpse.

Democrats have adopted the same mindset. This is why their black male engagement ramps up around election time. It’s also why they don’t talk about marriage and intact families being necessary building blocks for improving social and economic outcomes in the black community. They float the idea of reparations while claiming black women are “victims” of pro-life laws. They want black voters to focus on generational wealth while telling them to destroy our next generation.

In some ways their priorities make perfect sense. Many of the left’s political priorities, from social welfare spending to the sexualization of children in schools, depend on a weakened family structure. But at some point, black voters need to ask ourselves a simple question: What would do more to secure our social and economic interests for generations to come, 90% support for Democrats or 90% of black babies being born to married parents?