In a Friday piece for The Intercept , journalist Murtaza Hussain argued that Donald Trump’s gains with minority voters should not be taken lightly by the Democratic Party.
The columnist noted that Trump gained more support from Black and Latino voters than he did during his 2016 race against Hillary Clinton, and also secured approximately one-third of all Asian voters. Hussain claimed that conservative rhetoric on specific issues — including crime, immigration, and policing — appears to resonate with some minority voters as much as white conservatives.
“Both groups, along with a significant chunk of Asian Americans, also lean conservative on some issues, particularly religion, compared with white progressives who make up much of the Democratic voting coalition,” he wrote.
“All this, though, has not translated into majority support for the Republican Party — at least not yet — but it should be a serious warning sign to Democrats about taking nonwhite voters for granted.”
As reported by FiveThirtyEight in October, recent data suggests that Trump is gaining support from young Black and Hispanic voters. Interestingly, he appeared to be on track to lose backing from Caucasian voters — a trend that seems to have come to fruition in the election, per Reuters .
Musa al-Gharbi, a professor of sociology at Columbia University, argued that liberal elites believe they are the defenders of people of color in the war on racism. However, he opined that these individuals often approach their role in a way that undermines their understanding of the issue.
“White elites — who play an outsized role in defining racism in academia, the media, and the broader culture — instead seem to define ‘racism’ in ways that are congenial to their own preferences and priorities.”
These upper-class individuals, he argued, focus on gaining cultural and social capital as opposed to empowering people of color or making genuine attempts to dismantle racist systems and structures.
According to Hussain, electoral politics complicates this perception due to the fact that many accusations against Trump are leveled not just by educated elites but regular Americans, including minorities.
CNN commentator Van Jones pointed to Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year and suggested that it was a warning shot directed at liberals. Notably, the African American commentator pointed to the president’s focus to double down on reaching out to the African American community. He warned Democrats that the president’s appeals to the demographic — including criminal justice reform, school choice, and funding for struggling Black colleges and universities — could be effective at gaining their backing.
