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Commentary: Organized black communities can change the political dynamic

By Rashad Robinson 'Look at my African American over here." When Donald Trump pointed out a black man at a California rally, social media erupted: Here was a man running the most racist campaign in decades trying to use the language of diversity for electoral gain.

Community reaction in Chicago after the release of the 2014 video of Laquan McDonald being shot by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.
Community reaction in Chicago after the release of the 2014 video of Laquan McDonald being shot by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.Read moreTNS

'Look at my African American over here."

When Donald Trump pointed out a black man at a California rally, social media erupted: Here was a man running the most racist campaign in decades trying to use the language of diversity for electoral gain.

But here's a dirty little secret: Trump's contradictions when it comes to black people are the norm in American politics.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have long used black communities as pawns in their political chess game, each capitalizing on the symbolism of "blackness" to serve their parties' electoral needs. But then they fail to adequately address our communities' needs once in office. But what's different this election season is the emergence of a new model for black political power that could change what happens once the candidates elected in November take office.

Celebrating that black rally-goer, Trump was employing the same contradictory strategy used by countless Republicans before him: Telling voters about his black best friend and touting the inclusiveness of his campaign while making racist appeals to white Americans and proposing policies that would devastate black communities.

With Democrats, black communities have long been at the crux of a different contradiction: The party is utterly dependent on black votes, and promises to feel black communities' pain, but too often voids its contract the day after an election. Just this year, we've seen Louisiana's Democratic governor enact a law against police accountability; Chicago's top prosecutor, a Democrat, help cover up the police killing of a black teenager; and Democrats across the country patronize black voters for voting "against their interests" in the presidential primary instead of listening to what black people's interests really are.

Hidden in this tangle of contradictions is a hard truth: There are life-and-death consequences for black communities when elected leaders use black people as political props but don't follow through on addressing the systemic inequalities that imperil us.

To drive progress for black Americans, we need a different kind of power - an autonomous black political force, fiercely independent of political parties and their contradictions but powerful enough to resolve them.

What does this independent force look like? It's nimble and picks smart battles, targeting not just obvious enemies but also leaders we might typically consider allies. It's one that uses smart and creative strategies, marrying the traditional with the digital. It's one that can leverage the power of backroom conversations, street protests, and online action in tandem with each other. Bottom line: It's black communities holding elected officials accountable by picking strategic battles and winning iconic victories that can have a broad impact.

Look at the recent campaign to oust Chicago's top prosecutor, Anita Alvarez. Because she was implicated in the cover-up of the death of a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, by police, black grassroots and community organizations there led efforts to vote her out in the Democratic primary.

Savvy activists used traditional voter-engagement tactics but also created the hashtag #ByeAnita and a website showing how Alvarez put Chicago's black community in harm's way by repeatedly refusing to bring charges against police officers involved in fatal shootings. We won. Alvarez was defeated by Kim Foxx, who made criminal justice reform the centerpiece of her campaign. And ousting the top prosecutor of one of America's biggest cities has nationwide implications. It not only reshapes Chicago's criminal justice system by installing a reform-minded prosecutor but also puts prosecutors across the country on notice that there are electoral consequences for crossing black communities.

When black voters go to the polls this November, we'll be casting votes for prosecutors and judges, school board and city council members - and, yes, the next president of the United States. As Obama said in his speech this week, there is no question that this election is deeply consequential, and black people must go to the polls and vote for the candidates who will fight hardest for the community's priorities.

But black people also need to keep organizing past November, picking strategic battles and deploying the black community's power to remind the officials we put in office that we are not political props or votes they have in the bag.

The community's progress is guaranteed only if we organize in ways that make candidates for office, and other government and corporate decision-makers, nervous about disappointing black people - nervous enough to think twice about blaming black people for the problems decision-makers created, prioritizing their own gain over the black community's safety and progress, putting off until "next year" what black people need most, and disinvesting in black communities or cozying up to the industries that target black people for rampant, systemic abuse.

Without taking action, black people can't expect to be anything but "my African American over here."

Rashad Robinson is executive director of Color of Change (www.colorofchange.org). robinson@colorofchangepac.org