There was a time, particularly during the height of Cold War tensions and Soviet Empire demise in the 1980s, when Black politicians and their constituents were naturally more focused on domestic community challenges than international clashing between super powers. And, for the most part, the routine barrage of anti-Communist rhetoric, which painted Russians as the “Evil Empire” (phrasing Ronald Reagan) was a bogeyman campaign happily led by White conservatives and Republicans. That, of course, worked with the base. Years later, in the Era of the Black President, and Republicans were more than happy to peg President Obama as being “too weak” in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its shadow invasion of Ukraine.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says he wants an investigation into President Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
In 2017, that script has flipped dramatically. Each day is a new headline about probable close ties between the campaign of the new Republican president and the totalitarian regime of Russian president Vladimir Putin. The president’s own intelligence apparatus quietly investigates how close those ties were, and how deeply the Russians manipulated the 2016 U.S. election cycle. Under pressure, the growing scandal has not only prompted one high level casualty in the resignation of now former National Security advisor Michael Flynn, but it has also caused a fresh, new Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from any Russia-tied investigations moving forward.
Such events have, predictably, aroused the suspicions and very public ire of frustrated Congressional Democrats and progressives. But, in a new twist, no segment of that side of the political spectrum has been as vocally anti-Putin as the Black Electorate. Leading the charge is what was once – during the Cold War – an unlikely and sophisticated coalition of Black elected officials, experts and thought leaders deeply versed in foreign affairs and willing to use that knowledge to push back against President Donald Trump. Black foreign policy and terrorism experts like Malcolm Nance, executive director of the Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics & Radical Ideology, are near household names on cable channels like MSNBC offering scathing, straight-no-chaser analysis of the Trump administration’s conduct throughout the Russia scandal.
“If there are any questions coming from the White House starting today, or anytime in the foreseeable future on how they actually do collections, it means they’re preparing for a cover-up,” argued Nance on MSNBC’s AM Joy over the weekend, pushing back against recent Trump accusations that President Obama wiretapped Trump Towers. “Because they want to know how they’re actually getting this information. This is what happens when a target starts getting buggy because he knows that he’s caught.”
“The Congressional Black Caucus has not stood silent while this White House promotes positions and policies that threaten our communities, and we will not stand silent while this White House condones collusion and conversations that threaten our national security,” Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus , said in a statement last week. “National security should be the top priority of the White House. But time after time the Trump Administration has demonstrated that they do not take this priority seriously. Since they don’t, Congress must.”
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) agreed, adding, “The constant revelations regarding senior officials in the Trump Administration and the Kremlin underscore the need for an independent bipartisan investigation into Russian involvement in our election.”She normally focuses on domestic policy.
Public polling shows a vast split along racial lines on the Russia question. The latest CNN/ORC survey shows most Americans – 55 percent – are troubled by allegations of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. But, in a reversal of sentiments since the Cold War, much fewer Whites view Russia as a “serious threat” compared to “non-whites.” Nearly half of Whites view Russia as “moderately serious threat” while 42 percent of non-whites view it as a “serious threat.” Fewer Whites, 33 percent, are concerned about the Trump-Russia ties than non-whites at 46 percent.
Just under a quarter of Republicans feel Russia is a serious threat compared to 51 percent of Democrats.
In a YouGov poll, there are actually more Black voters who view Russia as an enemy than White voters – by 6 percentage points.
In the meantime, while the general observation of the zeitgeist was that Trump’s Joint Address before Congress was a stroke of political genius and theater; the general mood of many in the Black political and civil rights community was of skepticism. “Sure, if you like great political theater, it was a good speech,” quipped the National Action Network’s Rev. Al Sharpton. “But, here’s where we need to separate the tone from the substance. There wasn’t really any substance.”
“And, everyone is talking about how well behaved he was. He’s like that bad kid in the classroom who’s always getting in trouble and then one day he miraculously stops misbehaving and everyone is like ‘wow, look at that, he’s being such a good boy.’ So, I’m not falling for that act,” Sharpton continued.
Still, others could not help but admit that the president’s performance was a clever departure from his normally erratic, off-script and firebrand style. Most in the Black political space stopped short of saying “he was presidential,” as Black CNN analyst Van Jones said, the response in the mainstream pundit space. But many did note that the president had displayed deft political trade craft in his speech.