Voters from the Bronx tell reporter how they really feel about identity politics — and it's bad for Democrats: 'Weird s**t'

A reporter spoke with black and Hispanic voters in the Bronx this week and learned that Vice President Kamala Harris is not going to earn their vote simply because of her gender and skin color.

Reporter Cara Castronuova traveled to the northernmost New York City borough with one question in mind: Are black and Hispanic voters persuaded by identity politics or by policies?

'It's not about race. It's about what they provide for the society. It's what they could do for the community.'

The voters she spoke with left no misconceptions.

"She's using her color. I thought that Martin Luther King said the color wasn't the issue. I thought it was the content of our character that we were supposed to be recognized for," said one voter, a black woman with a thick New York accent. "But if she's going to keep running on that color, she going to have a misconception about how black people really roll."

Another voter said, "If you bring somebody into office that looks like you, but then continues to [be a] detriment your community, what was that for? But if you choose somebody who can raise your community, then you chose the right one. ... I choose Trump."

Here is what other voters told Castronuova:

• "I'm looking for who I think is more qualified to run the country. That's all I'm looking at."
• "Black Latinos are starting to be a little bit more critical. They're fed up of their hard earned money going to illegal, undocumented people."
• "Kamala Harris did not do a good job on the border because from what I know, a lot of people were coming from the other side and doing a lot of bad things to what we call home."
• "I think she's not a good candidate for president because she's with Joe Biden for the past two years. A wreck up in New York."
• "It's not about race. It's about what they provide for the society. It's what they could do for the community."
• "With her putting a lot of black Americans in jail for the marijuana, they're not really going for her."

Another voter who spoke with Castronuova described identity politics and the tendency to emphasize a candidate's race as "weird s**t."

A prevailing political theory argues the Democratic Party has assumed for decades that black and Hispanic voters will always support it. And historically speaking, it is true that black and Hispanic voters have overwhelmingly voted for Democrats.

But somewhere along the way, voters in those minority communities began to realize the Democratic Party's history of empty promises and outreach that happen only at election time.

What has resulted is an ongoing shift in voter preferences, according to the Financial Times, and an America "where people vote more based on their beliefs than their identity," explained John Burn-Murdoch, chief data reporter at FT.

"This is bad news for Democrats," he said.

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