SAGINAW, MI — Damaris Gordon of Saginaw is among the 20 percent of young and middle-aged Black men who polls indicate will vote for Donald Trump, but please do not question his racial awareness.
He says he is going against the grain because he is weary of lip service.
“We are tired of the way the Democrats treat us,” Gordon wrote, in his reaction to reactions to his iconoclast stance. “This is in general, with concerns such as mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex, Cointelpro (FBI CounterIntelligence Program, aimed, in part, at disrupting the civil rights movement, from Dr. King to the Black Panthers).”
His protests have included cases of police misconduct, which he has depicted as racist. He’s not a standard conservative of color.
Among progressive Democrats of all races, in particular African Americans within themselves, Trump loyalists of color have been branded as everything from sellouts to selfish to stupid, plain and simple. President Obama and Michelle have been at the forefront in describing the Nov. 5 choice in terms of honoring one’s heritage. Black male sexism also has been cited.
Gordon says he is not angered by the criticism because it’s “only social media.” He is a “culinary arts instructor” and “digital creator” who enjoys provoking in conversation, especially sports, but he says he’s into Trump to the point that he will encourage his daughter to get involved in politics, so he clearly is not chauvinist.
He says, “We also see Trump as one of us with the multiple charges and cases against him, also with the way the media demonize him, we understand this fully. At least he’s not a career politician.”
And, “My Black-ness is my experience, but all Black people do not think the same or react the same. It’s not always a race judgment, but economic. Upper class, middle class, poverty.”
