African Americans Voters in Wisconsin Face Tough Choice Amid Widespread Frustrations

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2020) Growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 1970s, Deborah Tyler Haywood began to take part in local protests over fair housing for the African Americans living in the city at the time.

"We did a lot of protesting for fair housing when landlords didn't let people into different housing. In the late 1960s and 1970s, black people were only allowed to live on the north side of town. They weren't able to go to south side. So we marched against that," Haywood, a 50-year-old African American who teaches black history in a local high school today, told Sputnik during a phone interview.

When mass protests broke out in Kenosha, Wisconsin in late August over the shooting of an African American man by the local police, Haywood said she shared the frustrations of the protesters and understood the reasons behind some of the violence that took place during the protests.

"I think the reason that it [the protests] got so violent was because this has been a situation that has been a long time coming. People have lived under this racism since we marched back in the 1970s. The things they're marching about now are the same things we marched about in the 1970s. And nothing has changed. When you have people that have been held back or pressed down for so long, they become more aggressive because they're tired of it. The systematic racism and the way black people are treated by the police, especially in Wisconsin, because Wisconsin is one of the most segregated states in the country," she said.

However, despite her support for the protests against racial injustices and police brutality, Haywood was not convinced that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden could resolve all the issues and concerns from the protesters. Instead, she said she would vote for incumbent US president Donald Trump during the upcoming election in November.

After mass protests against racial injustices and police brutality broke out in a number of cities in the United States in May following the death of George Floyd, the unrest has been largely viewed as a boost to Biden's chances of winning the election in November, as Trump continued to express strong support for the police and condemned the protests as riots. Polling results in the weeks following the protests showed Biden extended his lead over Trump.

During the Democratic Convention in late August, Biden spoke out against racial injustices and echoed the signature "Black Lives Matter" slogan that is often heard during the protests. Biden's campaign has also unveiled a number of initiatives aimed at improving racial equality of the US economy and addressing concerns from the black community.

As violence escalated during recent protests in Kenosha and Portland, where deadly shootings took place in recent weeks, Trump doubled down on his support for the police and continued to call on his supporters, who are mostly white, to stage counter protests. The deadly shootings in both cities took place as a result of confrontations between Trump supporters and the protesters.

During his visit to Kenosha on Tuesday, Trump focused on the violence and destruction caused by the protests and refused to meet with the family members of the police shooting victim Jacob Blake. Biden visited Kenosha on Thursday and met with Blake's family members in addition to stopping by areas damaged during the protests.

But for African American voters like Haywood, although she found Trump's rhetoric questionable, she warned that Biden and the Democratic Party probably shouldn't take support from the black voters for granted.

"You have Joe Biden who says things like, 'you're not black if you don't vote for me.' That makes you think that the Democrats think that they got the black vote fold up. It makes me think that maybe I should not be voting for you if you're taking my vote for granted," she said.

The teacher of black history isn't convinced about how progressive the Democratic Party truly is.

"If you're progressive party, you wouldn't have a 70-year-old white man [as your presidential candidate]. You had 10-15 people running for president out of the Democratic Party. And then you settled on this older white man. If they were the party of inclusion, their candidate should look like something different. You've got to make changes that we can see," she said.

Nevertheless, Haywood explained that she was not satisfied with responses from both Biden and Trump.

"I'm disappointed in both parties because neither one of them has really sat down with common black people to give a true perspective of what's going on in the cities. You have Joe Biden, who says the right things a lot of the times. But he's got almost 50 years of doing nothing for black people in government. He has to tip the scale. Then you have Trump. He has created jobs and opportunity zones. He has done a little bit more than a lot of the presidents before him. But he also says plenty of dissension when he tweets things that are questionable as to what he's thinking. He's not doing things to bring people together," she said.

Unlike most US voters who usually follow their allegiance to either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party when voting for a president, Haywood has never pledged loyalty to either of the two parties. She would evaluate all the candidates individually and then decide who she would support during a specific election.

During the elections in 2008 and 2012, Haywood voted for Barack Obama from the Democratic Party. But in the election in 2016, she switched her support for Trump from the Republican Party because she felt an outsider like him could bring more changes than a career politician like Hilarity Clinton from the Democratic Party.

The high school teacher said she would always hold a family meeting before each election to debate the pros and cons of each presidential candidate.

"I had to sit down with my family and we had to go through the options. We do that with every election. We talk about what that person had stood for. We talk about what their actions have been. We talk about what their meaning is in our lives. We sit down and we make a list of pros and cons. It's the same with this election," she said.

Because of the Electoral College system of the US presidential election, victories in swing states like Wisconsin, where voters switch support from one party to the other during different elections, usually could decide who wins the presidency.

During the 2016 election, Trump beat Clinton by a narrow margin of 0.77 percentage points in Wisconsin, which became the critical tipping point for his eventual victory.

In the coming election in November, Haywood, who lives in downtown Milwaukee, has decided to cast her vote in support of Trump because she valued the meaningful changes the incumbent president had brought to her community despite his questionable comments.

"When people say he [Trump] is a racist, I ask them what did he do or say that makes him a racist. Sure he says things that are questionable. But his actions aren't that of a racist. When you look at the Republican Party and the things he has done, with the jobs number, unemployment, the opportunity zones and School Choice. School Choice is a big deal. Joe Biden would have eliminated School Choice. A lot of our kids are in School Choice. We need that," Haywood explained.

"I look at that and I say that's not the actions of a racist because why would he support these things? With the opportunity zones, he's taken the blighted areas that have been blighted for years, and now there's low income housing. There're markets and jobs being built in those opportunity zones. Those aren't the actions of a racist to me. I think the things he says are short-sighted. But I don't think they measure up to being a racist," she said.

The high school teacher explained why she decided not to support Biden.

"We're coming down to the last few months. I just feel Biden has made too many mistakes. The years of working with segregationists. That to me was the one thing that really sticks out, because that was years of working with known racists to make sure that children don't go to school outside of their communities. That to me is a big thing. When you purposely work to make sure black people stay in one community and don't have the choice to go out to different communities, that to me is a big red flag. That was the deciding factor for me," she said.

Haywood argued that she saw more hope in Trump than Biden.

"I do feel given more time that Trump could turn around. I do feel that with Biden, he has shown for 50 years that he's unwilling to turn around, because this police brutality is something he should have dealt with over and over again. It's like beating a dead horse. He's just never gonna change or do anything about it. With Trump, I feel like there's a chance. There's some hope there," she said.

When Biden started his career as a Senator in the 1970s, he co-authored and supported a number of bills that became obstacles to the desegregation efforts in schools in the state of Delaware.

Nevertheless, Haywood added that she wasn't supporting Trump wholeheartedly.

"In my head, I feel like I'm voting for the lesser of the two evils, which is terrible. I feel like we don't really have a choice," she said.

Haywood's oldest son, who is 28, has been on the frontline of local protests on a daily basis. Sharing similar frustrations over both the presidential candidates' failure to resolve the racism and police brutality, her son decided to not to vote in the upcoming election in November.

"He's very frustrated at both parties. He feels that his age group is not represented. No matter what I say to him, he says he's not gonna vote. I hope he changes his mind. I even told him to listen to what Biden has to say on today [Thursday]," Haywood said.

The teacher explained why voting was so important to her.

"Overall to me, I look at the black people who were given the choice or the black people who died for our chance to vote. That to me is the reason why I vote. I teach my kids that voting is so important because we have to give our voice a meaning. For the black people who died for our chance to vote, I don't want them to die in vain," she said.

Haywood said her younger son, who is 24, supported Bernie Sanders from the primaries of the Democratic Party. But after Sanders dropped out, her younger son also decided not to vote. Haywood added that she would consider voting for Sanders if he won the nomination of the Democratic Party because she liked his proposals such as free healthcare for all and free education.

Similar to Haywood's sons, a number of young protesters from Wisconsin also expressed the same frustrations and decided to avoid voting in the upcoming election in November.

"I'm not bothering to vote. I am at the point where I am not sure it would make a difference in my life, which is terrifying. I don't vote for president because there's never been a candidate I felt I could support and this election is the worst one yet," Ellen, a 35-year-old Native American from Kenosha who only wanted to be quoted by her first name, told Sputnik.

She said she didn't vote for Obama because Biden was picked as his running mate.

Ellen listed the conditions for her to even consider voting for Biden.

"If he said 'I realize I've been wrong in chasing the moderate vote, ... Medicare for all is the only way forward, abolish the police, and ban fracking and oil pipelines!' I'd be skeptical but I'd be a lot happier and willing to change my mind. But anything less than that? No," she said.

Nathan Peet, a 28-year-old industrial mechanic from Kenosha, said some of his friends would even consider supporting third party candidates in the upcoming election.

"I guess in short, it is most definitely the lesser of two evils. Many people voting for Biden are voting for him simply because he is not Trump. But Biden has definitely not done enough to genuinely earn their trust or vote. Nominating Harris as his choice for VP only exasperated that sense of mistrust in Biden among the leftists in America. I've heard many people liken this upcoming election to that of the 2016 election, they don't like the choices we are being given. There is a growing interest in 3rd party candidates such as Dr. Jo Jorgensen and Howie Hawkins because people can see that our two party system has been failing the US," he said.

As for Haywood, she said she would support the Democratic Party in the next election if they could produce more producing candidates who can better represent the interests of African Americans.