Black voters demand a civil presidential debate

Black voters on both sides of the aisle want to hear two presidential candidates share substantive policies on achieving equity for the Black community, not shouting at the third and final presidential debate Thursday. “I would like to see two adults speak sincerely, tell what their plan is for the American people,” says Black Trump supporter Vernon Parker of Paradise Valley, Ariz.

He says he wants a meaty debate that addresses the need for continued support for higher education and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Parker says he was impressed by Trump's signing of The Future Act, which made permanent one of the main sources of funding for HBCUs and will continue to support the president.

Alaysia Black Hackett a registered independent voter in Richmond, Va., says she’s hoping for a meeting far more civil than face-off between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden earlier this month, but says achieving better health outcomes for Black families is at the top of her checklist for choosing a candidate.

“For me, I actually I don't have the confidence in either of the presidential candidates. I believe that I don't fit into one box,” she says. According to the COVID-19 tracking project at The Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, nationwide, Black people are dying at more than two times the rate of white people. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Black Hackett says she wants a clear plan from either candidate about how to get better personal protective equipment to Black neighborhoods.

Republicans want to cast the race as a choice between two candidates fighting to move the country in vastly different directions. Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, they say, would pursue a far-left agenda bordering on socialism; the Democrats say Trump’s administration will stoke racial and other divides, torpedo health care for people who aren’t wealthy and otherwise undercut national strength.

Oscar Hall, an Indiana retiree of the automotive industry and Black voter who is backing former Vice President Joe Biden says majority Black neighborhoods in the Midwestern Rust Belt were hurting for resources even before the pandemic and that Trump hasn’t done enough. “They outsourced the ways that (people) could have made money for jobs,” he says. In a high-stakes election, the voters all agree that eliminating  voter disenfranchisement tactics is important to ensure every vote counts.