Source: Joe Raedle / Getty
Today the former New York City mayor is running for president and he’s trying oh so hard to win the Black vote. However, people have not forgotten his most infamous policy, stop and frisk law which legalized and legitimized the profiling and arrest of Black and brown people in New York City because of the color of their skin and suspected probable cause. The billionaire has secured Congressional Black Caucus endorsements and has used his surplus and fortune to pander to Black people. It’s quite pathetic because to say he doesn’t have the best record with African-Americans is an understatement.
So, in the event you run into Bloomberg’s campaigning antics, here are four examples of his pitiful pandering you should be aware of.
Apology Tours
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Let’s begin with his claim to fame: Stop and frisk. While Bloomberg served a questionable three-year term as NYC’s mayor from 2002 to 2013, he set this policy in place. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, New Yorker’s were stopped and interrogated by police more than 5 million times under the Bloomberg administration. In 2011, more than 685,000 people were stopped. Of that total, 88 percent were innocent, 53 percent were Black, nine percent were white, and 51 percent were between the ages of 14 to 24.
To atone for his controversial policies, eight years later, the billionaire went to a Black mega church in Brooklyn to apologize for a law that still breathes heavily within the NYPD to this day.
“I now see that we could and should have acted sooner, and acted faster, to cut the stops,” he said at the Christian cultural center, according to The New York Times. “I wish we had and I’m sorry that we didn’t, but I can’t change history, however, today I want you to know that I realized back then that I was wrong and I’m sorry.”
In short, boy bye.
Positioning himself in Black spaces
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Although African-Americans make up a little more than 13% of the country, they are and have always been vital to the democratic nomination. When Jimmy Carter won the nomination in 1976, it was the Black vote that pushed him over. In 2017, it was that same voting power, specifically of Black women, that put Democrat Doug Jones in the Alabama U.S. Senate seat. And in the 2018 midterm election, 92 percent of Black women voted which gave Democrats back control of the House of Representatives.
The point is, the Black vote is powerful, especially in regions where Black residents are the majority. So to say the least, Bloomberg has been going pretty hard funneling his billions of dollars to wedge his way into Black communities. He has strategically participated in events that are vital to securing the Black vote like the Alabama Democratic Conference and Detroit’s Greenwood Initiative. The billionaire is making his rounds and has even opened offices within predominately Black neighborhoods with large percentages like Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina and cities like Flint, Michigan.
Many critics recently pointed out that Bloomberg could help eradicate the water crisis with his campaign funds, but we digress…
Paid Ads
After almost a ten-year career of enforcing racially targeted policies like stop and frisk, and redlining, which was a housing practice that kept banks from giving mortgages in low-income, predominately minority communities, Bloomberg’s desperation for the black vote has oozed into his campaign ads, which he is paying for himself. Through paid media, he is targeting African-American communities and promising to rectify wrong less than ten years ago he helped create.
His ad titled, “Justice For All” talks about his commitment to reforming the juvenile justice system, a system he helped fill with young Black and brown men through stop and frisk. He even went so far as to use a prominent New York organizer of color named Abdul M. in his ad, to push his narrative further.
A second ad, “Greenwood,” focuses on his plan for economic justice which is a concept he assisted in butchering through his redlining efforts. Bloomberg unveiled his Greenwood Initiative in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as the location of the Tulsa race massacre, where Black businesses were was burned to the ground by a racist white mob in 1921. The ad promises to address the bias and disparities that have kept Black people in America from reaching their full economic potential.
According to Kantar Media/CMAG, Bloomberg has already spent more than $400 million on ads. A recent NBC News report shows he spent $3.5 million on ads in Black media markets.
Endorsements
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The only thing more disturbing than that the gross amount of money Bloomberg is willing to spend on the Black vote are the black lawmakers, mayors, and people of influence who have endorsed him. An endorsement from the right person can sway the decisions of many and although endorsements aren’t always a sure thing, it weighs differently for marginalized communities who already lack strong representation in government. Bloomberg obviously knows this and has taken the time to secure prominent Black figures from the Black Caucus to lawmakers. The list of skinfolk who fail to be kinfolk include:
Congressional members
It’s also important to keep in mind that many of these endorsements came through a day after a 2015 audio recording resurfaced of the former mayor upholding stop and frisk laws. In the audio, he is heard saying, “95 percent of your murderers — murderers and murder victims — fit one M.O. … They are male minorities, 16 to 25.” This was two years after stop and frisk was deemed unconstitutional.
Black Mayors
Mayor Lovely Warren of Rochester, NY,
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore, MD
Mayor, Muriel Browser of Washington, DC
Mayor Vi Lyles of Charlotte, NC
Mayor Don Hardy of Kinston, NC
Maryor London Breed of San Francisco, CA
Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston, TX
Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin, Columbia, SC
There is power in our decisions and throughout this election process, it’s important we’re critical and understand the difference between genuine and desperate candidates. When it comes to the future of Black America, those are factors that will make all the difference.
So, all in all, Bloomberg you’re not slick. We see you. And the Black vote is priceless and isn’t worthy of just anyone.