Commentary: Clinton must step up outreach to black millennials

By Kevin C. Peterson

While Donald Trump's support is seemingly surging among Republican and disaffected white voters, Hillary Clinton is gradually realizing she has a problem among the black electorate, particularly post-Civil Rights movement African Americans.

That could spell disaster for Clinton in November, because to win she needs a robust turnout from black Americans in all generational demographics - from John Lewis' to John Legend's, from Marian Wright Edelman's to Mary Mary's.

A recent CNN poll showed Trump leading Clinton nationally by two points, 45 percent to 43 percent. Given all of Trump's gaffes and public reversals, those poll results - in a normal political milieu - would sound surprising. But if there is any consistency about Trump, it is political stamina and Teflon manner amid controversy.

But the looming Clinton problem is that she is stuck in the political past when dealing with a new generation of black Americans.

The current generation of blacks is less wistful about the Civil Rights Movement. They are decades removed from the bombing of the four little black girls in a Birmingham church. Selma represents bygone days made into a movie starring Oprah Winfrey and Common, the rapper. Not pap for black millennials, but just the past.

Clinton has never made herself known to young black voters in any demonstrable way. A new wave of black activism has surfaced around race in America during the last four years, starting with the murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida in 2012.

Since then, there have been a series of police murders of black men and women - prompting a new black movement pushing for accountability.

Clinton stumbled on this issue right out the starting gate.

When asked about fostering empathetic racial change by a Black Lives Matters protester in New Hampshire last spring, she snapped:

"Look, I don't believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws. You change the allocation of resources. You change the way systems operate."

That's one reason a recent poll taking the measure of black youth support for Clinton reflects on her poorly. Young black voters are unmoved by Clinton's appeals to black America. Moreover, they apparently mistrust Clinton, finding her dissembling in her ways, duplicitous in her attitude.

In focus groups with black millennials last month in Ohio and Florida, feedback about Clinton was as blunt as it was blistering. Presented by black pollster Cornell Belcher, and reported in the New York Times, young African American voters were palpably clear.

"[Trump] might be the devil, but [Clinton] has been in bed with the devil, why vote for any of them?" said one millennial college grad in Cleveland, Ohio.

"I gave them both a five. I mean I wouldn't actually vote for either one of them but at least I know what I am getting with him. [Hillary] will say anything to get elected," added a non-college grad male from Jacksonville, Fla.

For young African American voters, it doesn't seem to matter that Clinton has offered specific policies for the black community, where Trump has offered no clear solutions.

During Black History Month earlier this year, Clinton, in Harlem, promised $125 billion to create racial equity. She has also incorporated the grief being suffered by the mothers of slain black men and boys into a powerful narrative in her campaign.

But to no avail among black millennials.

Clinton will have to try harder in attracting young black voters with more direct appeals in the months ahead. That will mean finding outreach tactics that go beyond traditional voter mobilization among the young black electorate.

She will have to engage black youth credibly on issues of mass incarceration, which disproportionately impacts the black community. She will need to effectively communicate that she's committed to strengthening the public education system so that blacks are lifted into the middle class over time.

Finally, she must convey that her commitment to black Americans transcends generations and she is earnestly focused on bridging the racial gap.

Kevin C. Peterson is a senior fellow at the Center for Collaborative Leadership at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and founder of the New Democracy Coalition. newdemocracycoalition@gmail.com