Detroit NAACP President Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony told NPF’s 2024 Election Fellows that the media is giving too much attention to the narrative that young Black men are becoming supporters of former President Donald Trump.
“Black men are not going to vote for Trump in numbers,” Anthony said. However, he predicts 2024 elections will see a greater number of Black men voting “than we’ve seen in a long time,” and it won’t be because of “gold gym shoes and red bottoms … and T-shirts with your picture on it behind a prison wall and bars.”
The NAACP does not endorse candidates, but takes positions on policies, such as health care, voting rights and social security, Anthony said.
He noted that other pastors approach politics differently.
“The Christian nationalists traditionally want America to be a Christian nationalist nation over all of the other religions that are here. I don’t take that position … I think Christian nationalism is more white than right.” But Christian Nationalism is a part of the theme in Project 2025. “America was not founded on Christian nationalism. … It’s not my politics that determines my spirituality. It’s my spirituality that determines my politics.”
Anthony warned journalists that their profession is on the line in this election.
“If Project 2025 becomes the law, then it’s going to change the whole character of the way we do media here … It is targeting the voice of America. It is targeting corporate media. It is targeting those entities that want to have a free press … It wants to take the basic elements of freedom away from you and us, and you have a hard job.”
As the originator of the “take your souls/soles to the polls” saying in 1997, Anthony said the program with its name now nationally focuses on five points: voter education, voter information, voter registration, voter participation and voter protection.
“We want people to act like their lives depend upon it. Our vote is in fact our voice,” he said.
“We used to tell people, your ancestors died for you to have the right to vote. That don’t cut it no more. … It really is a challenge. But I think one of the things that we got going for us now is the candidate because she has stimulated so many young people who are now voting, who now want to get in the game, and the candidate is important.”
Access the full transcript here.
This program is funded by Arnold Ventures. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
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