Photos: Virginia State Homecoming; Obama Blasted After Comments on Black Men; Delta Gala in Hampton
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Photos: Virginia State Homecoming
PETERSBURG, VA — Homecoming events at Virginia State University have been taking place over the last three days.
Moving toward the historic section of Ettrick, the lengthy parade for Virginia State University’s homecoming took place in fabulous weather and with large crowds watching. The parade featured Virginia State University’s Trojan Explosion Marching Band and High School bands from Charles City and the District of Columbia (Ballou H.S,) as well as Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan.
Former President Obama Talks on Black Men, Misogyny and Harris and Gets Blasted
Black men, the number two most dedicated voting block for the Democratic Party second only to Black women, were the focus of a chat in Pittsburgh by former President Barack Obama on Oct. 11. His words focused on Black men and Obama expressed concern that they may not be enthusiastically supportive for Vice President Harris because of misogyny.
Obama’s full remarks can be seen below.
“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” Obama said to a small group of Harris-Walz volunteers and media at a field office in Pittsburgh.
The comments went viral. Did Obama’s words increase Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of winning the presidency? That’s doubtful. As Donald Trump’s increasingly racist, fascist and dystopian rhetoric is downplayed in mainstream media, particularly the New York Times, Democrats find the race tightening and their number one surrogate, the first Black President of the United States, derailing discussion over to a voting block that has been consistently loyal to the Democratic party.
“I have put a lot of people in jail.” Data shows that Black men are the target of some of the most discussed policy issues on the left. These include justice reform issues such as over incarceration, felony disenfranchisement, stop and frisk and the school to prison pipeline. Yet somehow Black men are often spoken of on mainstream media with few if any Black men in the conversation. Vice President Harris has been criticized for her work as a prosecutor in San Francisco but has mostly pushed back on the idea she was overly punitive in her work as a district attorney.
📍RELATED: Sirius XM host Reecie Colbert did an analysis of Harris’ justice reform work and policy beliefs.
But during an Oct. recent interview with Howard Stern released on Oct. 8, Harris said, “I have put a lot of people in jail,” in what appeared to be an attempt to court “moderates” or swing voters. But many are asking a question Stacy Abrams has over the last ten years: Are Democrats speaking to their base? President Biden and Vice President Harris were also silent in the weeks for the execution of Marcellus Williams on Sept 24. Though Williams’ case was a state prosecution and not a federal one, Harris’ stance on the death penalty, which has long been confirmed to be applied with racist application, remains hard to pin down.
RELATED: Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022 - UMichLaw
In 2019, after Ralph Northam became embroiled in a scandal around racist images in his 1984 medical school yearbook, which was then suddenly followed by suspiciously timed never-before-heard allegations directed at Virginia’s second Black Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, Harris deemed the allegations targeted at Virginia’s Black LG instantly “credible” only hours after they became public. Harris did state a need for investigation at first, a rare pronouncement by anyone in a Democratic Party unconcerned with issues of due process in the MeToo era. Black male voters have likely noticed.
Democrats continue to make efforts to bond with police, a subject Republicans have built a brand around, but mute efforts by progressives on justice reform and police brutality only four years after the “racial reckoning” in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. But Black Lives Matter has been an almost non-existent political force after “defund police” backlash. For Black male voters, issues related to justice and treatment by police and the long term impact of incarceration are not theoretical, they are real life government funded hurdles that damage financial viability and, in Virginia and elsewhere, voting participation. Even with that, the fact remains Black men have been a consistently supportive voting block for the Democratic Party, with only Black women topping their support at the ballot box across the board.
“Black men will not be voting for Donald Trump in any significant number,” Rev. and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock told CNN on Oct. 13. “This race is going to be tight all the way to the end,” the Georgia Senator added.
New polling data released on Oct. 13 from NBC shows the race between Harris and Trump tied nationally and within the margin or error in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Michigan.
RELATED: 'Dead heat': Trump pulls even with Harris in NBC News poll
“Black Men have voted for the Democratic Party 80%-95% since 1972 and rightfully so because the party has delivered policy that benefits them. That doesn’t mean we don’t have expectations for better policy and governance.
The idea that large numbers of Black men are supporting Trump is a false flag as strategy to disrupt. Black men want to be heard. Don’t scapegoat us for the lack of support from White women. We only have a little more than 50% of their vote. Misogyny exists and is preventing support of Kamala Harris but any politician out there would welcome the 85% of the Black men vote.
Appeal to their self determination don’t condescend to an important party demographic,” wrote actor Wendell Pierce, a celebrity surrogate for the Harris campaign, on social media about Obama’s remarks.
Pierce’s words were reflected by many online. Several interviews on national TV discussed Obama’s views which mostly took attention away from his main address in Pittsburgh targeted at Trump. Over the next seven days, Vice President Harris has interviews with two Black male influencers who have large Black audiences: Roland Martin and Lenard McKelvey, popularly known as Charlamagne tha God.
With only 23 days left in the election and early voting beginning in several states, Democrats will be working to reset the conversation.
An even deeper more nuanced discussion on the issue of Obama’s statements took place on CNN on Oct. 12:
Hampton Deltas Joined by Rep. Scott, Vice Mayor Gray
HAMPTON, VA — On October 12, at the Hampton Convention Center, Delta Sigma Theta held a 25th Anniversary Gala. Congressman Bobby Scott and Hampton Vice Mayor Jimmy Gray, who is running for Mayor, attended.
Today in Hampton at 1PM
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