New York Times White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs joined CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday’s Inside Politics to discuss why some black men are not so quick to jump aboard the Harris 2024 bandwagon. Kanno-Youngs arrived at the conclusion that they are sexists who have been informed by “gender roles” instilled in them from “colonialism.”
Bash began by gushing over the article that served as the basis for the segment, “This is so fascinating, and you do such an amazing job of really giving the nuance of this to people who read your story, and I encourage people to do that, and I’m lucky you can give it now. So, you call it the elephant in the room. Can you broadly explain what that is when it comes to black men and Kamala Harris or other black women who are running for office?”
Kanno-Youngs recalled that just as there were White Dudes for Harris and White Women for Harris Zoom calls, there was one for black men:
And what I found interesting about this was that it wasn't just a story of, you know, thousands of black men rallying for the vice president after the switch on the ballot. But they also were, sort of, confronting, multiple officials, were confronting what we call the elephant in the room, and that's that there is a history where not all black man, it's not a monolith, we’re not a monolith, but there has been a slice of the electorate that historically has not thought that being a strong black man leader and that, that is somehow at odds with standing behind a black woman leader.
He further lamented, “And that has translated to sort of a lack of black women in some leadership positions, sort of, in the community. This dates back to, we went in the congressional archives and saw that Shirley Chisholm, at one point, was criticizing her peers for not standing with her, black male peers as well, as well as white male peers. We saw that also Stacey Abrams was struggling to gain support with the black man electorate as well.”
Kanno-Youngs then stretched so far for an explanation that it is a wonder he did not hurt himself, “This has a history that, look, dates back to the history of gender roles that were specified in, through colonialism as well and the start of this country, but I think what's key is that it's also those black men that seem to be trying to overcome this sort of uncomfortable truth.”
So much for “nuance,” a reporter thinks gender roles and colonialism are why some black men refuse to back Harris, not that Democrats have been steadily losing ground with black men regardless of who their candidate is.
Here is a transcript for the August 14 show:
CNN Inside Politics with Dana Bash
8/14/2024
12:43 PM ET
DANA BASH: This is so fascinating, and you do such an amazing job of really giving the nuance of this to people who read your story, and I encourage people to do that, and I’m lucky you can give it now. So, you call it the elephant in the room. Can you broadly explain what that is when it comes to black men and Kamala Harris or other black women who are running for office?
ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS: Sure. Sure. We know that there were multiple of these calls happening. You know, there was a white dudes call, there was a white women call, and then there was a black men call too. And what I found interesting about this was that it wasn't just a story of, you know, thousands of black men rallying for the vice president after the switch on the ballot.
But they also were, sort of, confronting, multiple officials, were confronting what we call the elephant in the room, and that's that there is a history where not all black man, it's not a monolith, we’re not a monolith, but there has been a slice of the electorate that historically has not thought that being a strong black man leader and that, that is somehow at odds with standing behind a black woman leader.
And that has translated to sort of a lack of black women in some leadership positions, sort of, in the community. This dates back to, we went in the congressional archives and saw that Shirley Chisholm, at one point, was criticizing her peers for not standing with her, black male peers as well, as well as white male peers. We saw that also Stacey Abrams was struggling to gain support with the black man electorate as well.
This has a history that, look, dates back to the history of gender roles that were specified in, through colonialism as well and the start of this country, but I think what's key is that it's also those black men that seem to be trying to overcome this sort of uncomfortable truth.
