{"id":20385,"date":"2026-08-13T23:44:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=20385"},"modified":"2026-08-13T23:44:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:44:43","slug":"democrats-need-to-talk-more-about-the-economic-crisis-facing-black-men-and-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/13\/democrats-need-to-talk-more-about-the-economic-crisis-facing-black-men-and-boys\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Need to Talk More About the Economic Crisis Facing Black Men and Boys"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kevin Harris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Kevin Harris<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guest Column<\/strong><\/p>\n

Democrats aspire to be the party of working people. But if they want that message to resonate with one of their most loyal constituencies, they need to speak more directly\u2014and more consistently\u2014about the specific economic challenges confronting Black men and boys.<\/p>\n

A new report from the Virginia State University John Mercer Langston Institute for African American Political Leadership provides a sobering reminder of why.\u00a0The Economic State of Black Men and Boys in the United States<\/em>, authored by Dr. Wes Bellamy, establishes what its authors intend to be an annual national benchmark measuring education, employment, earnings, wealth, and economic mobility. Its findings are difficult to ignore. Black men\u2019s enrollment at historically Black colleges and universities has fallen to just 26 percent. Black men continue to experience some of the nation\u2019s highest unemployment among major racial and ethnic groups.<\/p>\n

And Black men earn roughly 77 cents for every dollar earned by White men.<\/p>\n

Yet Black men rarely receive sustained attention in national political messaging from either political party, most notably Democrats.<\/p>\n

Democrats often frame economic inequality through broad discussions of the working class. And too often Democrats operate as though Black voters are not equally apart of the working class as white voters in the South and Midwest.<\/p>\n

The party does not always recognize broad language can sometimes obscure the unique barriers facing Black men and boys. A Black man hearing about \u201ceconomic opportunity for everyone\u201d may not hear an acknowledgment of the distinct obstacles documented in reports like this one.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean Democrats should abandon a universal economic agenda. It means Democrats must recognize targeted problems deserve targeted attention.<\/p>\n

Imagine Democrats talking as frequently about increasing Black male college completion as they do about student debt. Imagine campaign platforms specifically highlighting the need to reduce persistently higher unemployment among Black men, expand apprenticeships and workforce training, strengthen pathways into high-paying skilled trades, and support entrepreneurship in underserved communities. Imagine party leaders regularly discussing why young Black men are disappearing from college campuses and filling up prisons and what policies could reverse that trend.<\/p>\n

There is also a political reality Democrats cannot afford to ignore as well. Black women remain the party\u2019s most reliable voting bloc, consistently turning out at higher rates than Black men and supporting Democratic candidates by overwhelming margins. Women overall have voted at higher rates than men in every presidential election since 1980, and that pattern extends to Black voters. In the 2024 election, exit polling found that Black women continued to support the Democratic ticket at higher rates than Black men, while at the same time Republicans made measurable gains among Black men. Democrats cannot win elections with erosion among Black men. The party is strongest by boosting Black male turnout to match Black women.<\/p>\n

Democrats shouldn\u2019t abandon Black men or assume their concerns mirror those of every other Democratic constituency. If economic data show Black men lagging in college enrollment, employment, wages, and wealth accumulation, Democrats should address those challenges directly\u2014not because of electoral strategy alone, but because they represent real barriers to opportunity. Speaking candidly about these issues, offering measurable solutions, and treating Black men\u2019s economic mobility as a national priority would strengthen both public policy and the party\u2019s ability to win elections.<\/p>\n

Black men remain a cornerstone of the Democratic coalition, but their support cannot be taken for granted. Many Black men have expressed frustration that conversations about race often overlook their economic concerns. Addressing those concerns directly is not about dividing white and Black constituencies or creating competition among coalitions that Democrats equally need to win. It is about recognizing that effective policymaking begins by honestly identifying who faces which challenges and that winning elections requires coalition building.<\/p>\n

The report itself offers evidence-based recommendations to improve educational opportunity, workforce participation, and long-term economic success for Black men. That kind of research should become a more prominent focus of the national policy conversation as well as Democratic messaging.<\/p>\n

Stated more bluntly: Democrats should work as hard for Black male votes as they do to win \u201cworking class white\u201d voters in the South and Midwest.<\/p>\n

Kevin Harris is a Democratic strategist who has advised over 100 campaigns and ballot measures, including the past five presidential elections, served in the Obama Administration, as a cabinet member for two big city mayors and Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Harris Guest Column Democrats aspire to be the party of working people. But if they want that message to resonate with one of their most loyal constituencies, they need to speak more directly\u2014and more consistently\u2014about the specific economic challenges confronting Black men and boys. A new report from the Virginia State University John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,252],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[360],"class_list":["post-20385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20386,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20385\/revisions\/20386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20385"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=20385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}