A Mugshot For The Black Vote: The Right's New Insult

The day after the infamous mug shot seen around the world of former President Donald Trump began circulating, a new narrative began manifesting on social media out of the mouths (and keyboards) of pundits on the political right about how the “black voting bloc” would suddenly be captured by Republicans in 2024 because of this mug shot.

One tweet in particular was drudged up by Laura Loomer stating “Fani Willis just made Donald Trump the most relatable man on the ballot for the black community.”

She continued, “It’s Donald Trump versus the man that called black people SUPER PREDATORS!!! #Trump2024”

I read this post to my wife, a black woman who doesn’t care for the political world and doesn’t know who Laura Loomer is. I wanted to gain her perspective as a normal and rational black person who isn’t a political partisan to see what she thinks of this message.

“That’s very insulting,” she replied to me. Of course it’s insulting and anyone with a rational mind can see how this is insulting to say, yet my response was met with pushback by irrational and delusional people who will dilute their principles and any motivation to utilize common sense to defend anyone on “their side”.

My response: “If you want to know why black people have a hard time voting for Republicans, here is a prime example. Going to jail apparently makes you relatable to black people. You can’t make this up.”

Surprisingly, one of those people who disagreed with my statement was Dr. Jordan Peterson himself who believed my sentiment was a “stretch”. He’s entitled to his opinion like everyone else but I stand by what I said and there is no stretch involved in my statement.

Part of the problem with the right is that they accept Democrat walkaways, like me, without listening to what kept us from walking away.

Nearly every Democrat walkaway story involves them detailing how the propaganda they were consuming about Republicans, especially through the mainstream media filter, was keeping them from verifying those false narratives themselves.

Why would you attempt to listen to right-wing media or believe a Republican politician if 99% of the media you consume hammers home how they are all racists and bigots? Well, you wouldn’t.

What compounds this issue is that our country doesn’t have much overlap in regional party affiliation. What I mean by this is most cities in America, regardless if it’s a “blue state” or “red state”, tends to be run by the Democratic party. But this isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s been like this for decades or even a century in some places.

This means that in many places, Democratic voters (or even occasional non-affiliated voters) literally don’t know Republicans and their vote has likely never been competed for by Republicans.

They are politically neglected and they have no personal frame of reference to negate bad narratives set by a biased media. They’re able to live in ignorance because there is little to balance these false narratives against.

60% of black Americans live in 10 states and you’d likely know those states based on the large cities that are in them. This means that most black Americans live either in those urban areas or in their surrounding areas, the same areas that Republicans have been hands off with.

The reason I’m breaking this down is because statements made by people like Loomer become the example used by left-wing propagandists to insinuate that this is the mindset of everyone on the right: which is false.

However, this is a tactic that both sides utilize: the worst always becomes the supposed norm of the other side and they will weaponize their opposition’s bad rhetoric against them.

What you don’t do is create the weapons that your enemy will bludgeon you to death with, yet this is what they’re actively doing.

If I am black and already skeptical of the political right, statements made by Loomer and others on the right become the validation to stay put with the devil I already know and the left will put this bad rhetoric on repeat to reinforce this fear.

I know this hesitation is real because I’ve heard this verbalized many times by other black people:

“Yeah, the Democrats suck but Republicans are racist,” or “Yeah, the Democrats use us but Republicans completely ignore us.”

The vast majority of black people are NOT criminals and have zero relationship with the criminal justice system, so it is far from being relatable to black people as a whole. It’s ridiculous that I even have to state this but people are so far down the politics wormhole that they refuse to think logically about their side’s idiotic rhetoric.

It’s insulting to believe that Donald Trump being “falsely persecuted” is a relatable common issue facing even half of black Americans.

I tell people they need to go outside because the internet becomes a propaganda tunnel to validate whatever you want the world to be. If you want to believe that black people are going to switch parties in majority because Trump has a mug shot, then you can find a bunch of videos of random black people to validate this.

I’m going to say this in a blunt manner and I believe people will understand what I mean by this: the right is sharing videos of mostly niggas and niggas aren’t known for voting.

They are highlighting rappers, who are often foolish and will say or do anything to be controversial and counter-culture, as being examples of the typical black person who works a 9-5, pays their taxes and actually votes.

But I’m not a nigga, neither are the people in my family or most black Americans. We play around with the word amongst each other but we know when someone really is this type of ignorant imbecile and no one of any rational mind would take them seriously: yet the right is making this mistake to validate believing they’ve “won”, or better yet, “stolen” the black vote from Democrats.

When Democrats make criminal justice reform appear to be a top black people concern or priority, I find it equally as insulting for the same reasons.

Republican partisans believe they’re somehow different or better than those big bad Democrats who referred to us as “super predators” but believing we are in majority criminally aligned or empathetic isn’t any better.

Republicans complain about how Democrats weaponize empathy to garner black votes yet here they are attempting to do the same thing with Trump’s mug shot.

I may have walked away from the Democratic party but I’m not blindly moonwalking my way to the Republicans, especially if they continue to use similar type of offensive rhetoric and double down on it when one of us attempts to call it out.

If any Republican wants my vote, they’re going to do more than just being photographed.