Black Kos, Tuesday's Chile [View all]

[MrScorpio]

By Black Kos
Tuesday Dec 01, 2015 4:09 PM EST

Black Celebrity Endorsements: The Cautionary Tale of Joe Louis’ Endorsement for Wendell Willkie

Commentary by Chitown Kev


Joe Louis campaigned for Republican nominee Wendell Willkie in 1940. Still, ~65-70% of blacks voted for FDR nationwide.

Last Tuesday in Atlanta, rapper and political activist Killer Mike (birth name: Michael Render) reiterated his endorsement of Bernie Sanders for the 2016 Democratic nomination for President. Killer Mike’s introduction of Senator Sanders, in which he explained his endorsement of Bernie Sanders is both passionate and eloquent. Frankly, I think this is a good “get” for Senator Sanders in terms of endorsements for his candidacy.

But I am alarmed by the volume of commentary hoping and hyping that Killer Mike’s endorsement will, somehow, drive up Senator Sanders’ sagging poll numbers among African-Americans. To read much of the commentary on this specific endorsement of Senator Sanders, Mr. Render’s endorsement will unleash torrents of damned-up African American support for Senator Sanders that will allow Sanders to siphon off enough African American supporters of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and sweep Sanders to the Democratic nomination. Historically, gaining black electoral support via black celebrity endorsements is easily said but rarely done, as the case of heavyweight champion Joe Louis’ endorsement of Republican nominee Wendell Willkie in the 1940 presidential campaign shows.

First, let’s just stipulate that in terms of “celebrity”, Killer Mike is not in the same league (or even the same galaxy cluster) as Joe Louis circa 1940. That’s simply an objective fact.

Mr. Louis gave his reasons for supporting Mr. Willkie’s 1940 presidential campaign in his 1978 autobiography Joe Louis, My Life (written with Edna and Art Rust, Jr.):

...I didn’t know too much about Willkie except that he was running on the internationalist wing of the Republican Party out of Indiana. He was real heavy on civil rights. But you know, there was something so sincere and honest about the man that he got my attention. I had started getting involved with politics through Charles Roxborough; he was Roxy’s brother. Charles was the first black Senator from Michigan. Sometimes he’d have me appear at political events and sit me up on the dias. When they’d introduced me, I’d stand up and say “Thank you” and sit right down but I’d listen. I never supported anybody in politics unless I felt that they were giving my people a fair shake.

The rest:

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/1/1454901/-Black-Kos-Tuesday-s-Chile