This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Blackout" by Candace Owens. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Are Black voters in America manipulated for profit? If so, who profits and how?
Candace Owens believes that Black Americans are being used. She contends that four groups benefit from their loyalty to the Democratic Party: Democrat politicians, the mainstream media, guilty whites, and irresponsible Blacks.
Continue reading to learn Owens’s argument.
Black Voters in America
Here’s Owens’s primary thesis: Participation in the Democratic Party is modern slavery, and to be free and successful, Black Americans must escape. She covers all of the ways that the Democratic Party manipulates, shackles, and damages Black voters in America. Owens urges you to keep in mind that, wherever there is manipulation, there’s someone profiting. In this case, she says that Black allegiance to the Democratic Party benefits four groups of people:
- Democrat politicians
- Mainstream media
- Guilty whites
- Irresponsible Blacks
How Democrat Politicians Benefit
It likely comes as no surprise that Black loyalty to the Democratic Party greatly benefits the politicians themselves. What might be surprising, however, is how reliant Democrats are on the Black vote. Owens points out that the Black population tends to be much more aligned in their voting patterns than other races, and they generally make up 10-12% of the total voting population. Because of this, the Democratic Party virtually can’t win without them.
For example, Barack Obama received 93% of the Black vote in 2012 and Blacks made up 12.9% of the total votes. This means that 12% of the total votes in the election were from Blacks and for Obama. He won the popular vote by 3.9%, so if his opponent (Mitt Romney) had had the Black vote instead, Obama would have lost—by a lot.
Owens says that even Hillary Clinton, who alienated Black voters with her cringy pandering and phony attempts to relate to them, received 87% of the Black vote in her 2016 presidential election. This is how united the Black voting population is—and it explains why the Democratic Party will say just about anything to keep their loyalty. Doing, on the other hand, is another story.
| Voter Alignment Across Demographics Owens says that Black Americans are more united in their voting patterns than other races. For context, let’s examine the alignment rates of a few other key demographics in the 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden: • Women: 57% voted for Biden and 42% voted for Trump. • Men: 45% voted for Biden and 53% voted for Trump. • Hispanic voters: 65% voted for Biden and 32% voted for Trump. • Asian voters: 61% voted for Biden and 34% voted for Trump. • White voters: 41% voted for Biden and 58% voted for Trump. • Black voters: 87% voted for Biden and 12% voted for Trump. Within the scope of this election, Black voters were far and away the most aligned, and white voters were the most divided, which supports Owens’s notion that having the Black vote is a powerful possession. |
How the Mainstream Media Benefits
Owens says that the mainstream media benefits financially from a liberal fanbase. According to Owens, the media deepens and expands its Democratic reach primarily by broadcasting stories that demonstrate white-on-Black racism.
Owens argues that the media’s continued coverage and exaggeration of racism perpetuates fear, which ensures the audience’s rapt attention.
This is particularly evident in the media’s coverage of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The narrative is intentionally misleading. She says that, when you look at the actual numbers, white cops are in far more danger of being killed than Black men are.
How Some Whites & Blacks Benefit
As mentioned, Owens says that the Democratic Party upholds a narrative of good guys versus bad, which benefits two types of people: whites who feel guilty for having privilege and Blacks who don’t want to take responsibility for their own situations.
According to Owens, white liberals have a hero complex. They feel good when they’re helping others whom they perceive to be beneath them. She says that, as long as the liberal narrative holds Blacks up as victims, there will be white people who rush in to “save” them, and it’s purely for their own self-esteem or to alleviate subconscious guilt for their inherent privileges. (Shortform note: It’s theorized that “white guilt” began in the 1960s following the Civil Rights Movement, not as true guilt over the plight of Black Americans, but out of desperation to prove to themselves and others that they aren’t racist. A recent term for this is “virtue signaling.”)
Irresponsible Black people, on the other hand, also benefit from the Democratic narrative. Owens argues that Blacks who find themselves stuck in poverty, ignorance, or addiction would rather blame an external evil than analyze their own choices and limiting beliefs. When they buy into the Democratic story, they’re relieved of the responsibility for the outcome of their own lives.
| Bootstrap Politics Owens says that Black Democrats shirk responsibility for their station in life, preferring instead to blame systemic racism for their problems. A Republican ideology that reflects Owens’s stance on personal responsibility is “bootstrap politics.” It’s a term based off of the old adage instructing you to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” In other words, with hard work, dedication, and self-reliance, you can climb from the bottom of the socio-economic ladder to the top and achieve the American dream. According to Time magazine, however, the bootstrap model is a myth. While it’s an inspiring thought that one can rise from poverty to extreme wealth, the likelihood of it happening is very slim. According to statistics, those who are on the lowest rung of the ladder and the highest are the least likely to change positions from generation to generation—the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. A middle-class person, on the other hand, can more easily fall into poverty or obtain wealth in their lifetime. |
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Candace Owens's "Blackout" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full Blackout summary:
- How the Democratic Party has been keeping Blacks poor and needy for political gain
- How Democratic policies have destroyed the nuclear family
- Why Black Democrats should jump ship and join the Republicans
