The Disgraceful 2022 Senate Race in Georgia

The 2022 Georgia U.S. Senate race taught us a great deal about Black victimhood in elite and otherwise electoral processes in so  many disturbing  though instructive ways. The most expected lesson learned was how   two celebrity Black men, one formerly  in  elite sports and one in elite  public ministry  were exploited by elite  White politicians in both parties more interested in achieving their power  control and amenities games than being concerned with the plight of the massive poor ;especially poor Black people. 

After all, the former celebrity  athlete was so confident in the  conservative White vote he would receive, he publicly  denied racism existed and did not bother to reach out to  Black communities, poor and otherwise .And following the  2016 Trump script , assumed his soiled past with women would not hurt him, in fact strangely it would help him as did Trump who received the lionshare of the  White women vote in that Presidential election year.Though he forgot he was a Black man running  for office, especially in a deep southern  state where Black men used to be   lynched for just  not crossing the street when a White woman passed.

 And in  a paradoxically similar vein, his  seemingly  progressive opponent is pastor of a celebrated Black church, where incidentally,   I was once a member , renowned for letting White  and other camera toting cut off blue jeans tourists in for Sunday morning worship services . Church leaders would provide early morning food for the Black  poor living around the corner but did  not welcome them into the same morning services as the White tourists were allowed to roam around  taking pictures of worshiping parishioners, such as myself. What matters  to his White party sponsors as a reliable Biden administration supporter  as a single issue Senator ,is that he gives inspirational Congressional floor speeches about voting rights and beloved Black  Atlanta civil rights icons. And back home in Atlanta,   like his defeated  lacky opponent he  will  more than likely not stand in the way of the planned bipartisan breakaways of Buckhead and other affluent white metropolitan Atlanta areas thus  stripping the inner city of vital revenue for public and social services. 

In the Georgia  Senate race,to be a Black minister claiming to be from such a humble background as a Black man  with such monumental party financial backing: making  public fun of a maligned Black male opponent with the assistance of a former Black male U.S. President with his own identity issues and patronizing views about poor Black people ,took the meaning of Black victimhood to another unprecedented level. Or perhaps it meant , to a gleeful dominant White media,we Black folks finally have arrived in indulging in well financed Black male on male media induced emotional violence rather than taking a high moral road and refusing to destroy a human being already down for the count.

And the pathetic tragedy of the whole grotesque theatric performance of racist victimhood electoral identity politics at its lowest possible level was  the deadening indifferent silence of elite Black women political maneuvers like Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harris with their own Black male issues and as well ,  the  strange silence  or perhaps blacked out Black male advocacy organizations as the disgraceful  Black on Black male degradation  Senate race in Georgia advanced  on prime time. And let us not forget the silence of mainstream Black  media talking heads and the NonBlack  progressive ones who just stood by or joined in on the taunting fun of two Black guys going at it.

Once the data is more fully in and analyzed it will more than likely  demonstrate Georgia as an illustration of the error the American left like the left in other  African Slavery Legacy Societies such as Brazil has made in dismissing the relevance of evangelicals and otherwise deeply religious voters who are Black and otherwise NonWhite as well as White. It is one of the reasons why the 2022 Senator race was so close in Georgia as well as in the recent Presidential election in Brazil where many Afro-Brazilians voted for the religious sounding right wing incumbent rather than for his seemingly secular leftist challenger as if voting against  their interests though not  entirely when it comes to their most fundamental  moral – religious values. The conservative Republican Georgia  Senatorial candidate, when on focus,  was appealing not only to Whites with deep religious  beliefs but also Blacks who were turned off by the  highly secular Black minister  Democrat  candidate with no authentic ties to poor black communities.

  It is the reason why on the national level in 2020 Trump as the Republican  Presidential candidate received more Black votes than his predecessors since 1960.This was  in large part due to Trump’s appeal to Black and Latino evangelical and other deeply religious conservative voters who view themselves as victims in a secular nation increasingly infringing on their religious rights.

Or/ and  there is the tweedy dee tweedy dumb syndrome which contributed to the Black  Georgian nonvote among the deeply religious. 

Until left seeming parties in  African Slavery Legacy Societies  such as Brazil,  South Africa, and USA figure out how to attract deeply religious voters rather than writing them off to seemingly right wing religious oriented parties, winning elections will continue to be close if not lost; especially in the more conservative areas in their societies such as the American deep south.

The end result of this most perplexing matter at hand is the wonderment I have regarding how much all we Blacks were morally lynched by what happened in Georgia. And so has the rest of America been shamed for allowing such a pathetic show to occur on the world stage. 

No matter the party affiliation,  Georgia deserves Black representation in the Senate which is solid as a rock rather than representation by tweedy dee or tweedy dumb. And for those who ask why should we expect Black Senators from Georgia to be any different than  past  pathetic Georgian White male  and female predecessors  or  embarrassing  White male and female  Senators presently representing other States like Arizona, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, or West Virginia. Surely that is a good point. 

But we must start somewhere such as in Georgia that when Blacks are put up by any party with winning potential, competent competitive  Black candidates not afraid to be independent and speak their minds get the nod rather than  those feeling beholden to patronizing White bosses such as Donald “I Love Kanye West ” Trump or Joe ” You are Black Only If You Vote For Me ” Biden.

Especially young Black voters of major winnable parties must start raising their voices about being tired of being used and victimized and then ignored and dropped once an election is over even when White beholden Black clowns  are elected to office. And this can be done now like no other past  time  due to the nation’s changing demographics in electoral politics like in other areas of American life. 

We no longer have to allow parties to use patronizing styles of racialized identity politics to put up Black clowns.And when they do,  we must hotly criticize them and refuse to vote for them. Even if it means not voting at all if no party on the ballot offers suitable candidates. 

Irrespective of our ancestry,age , socioeconomic status, or political persuasions, those  of us who know what time in America it is, need to let the Trumps and Bidens of the world and the parties they lead with so much patronizing racial identity politics baggage to step aside so their parties can transform into more authentically inclusive institutional instruments of democracy or wither away as we create more viable parties for a more genuine interacially  inclusive democracy .

  The Presidential election year 2024 must be a transition year seeing the waning of  arrogant patronizing White male/ female electoral power and assure something new emerges  in the   2028  Presidential year with  more effective representatives of all hues valuing the building of a multiracial American democracy in need of finding its way authentically rather than evading and denying its inclusive essence due to White Supremacy painfully  wobbling  on its last leg.

Prof. John H. Stanfield II
Prof. John H. Stanfield II
Director ASARPI: The Institute for Advanced Study of African Renaissance Policies Ideas Mauritius and South Africa former University of Mauritius SSR Chair of African Studies