PDF Summary:Blackout, by Candace Owens

Candace Owens is rallying the troops—she sees the Democratic Party as modern-day slavery and is calling on all Black Americans to walk out in a mass exodus. In Blackout, Owens gives the history of Black politics, reveals hidden oppressions, and demonstrates how the Democratic Party has been keeping Blacks poor and needy for their own political gain. Specifically, Owens claims that Democratic policies have destroyed the nuclear family, created government dependency, and encouraged Blacks to embody victim mentalities. The only way out—Owens says—is to jump ship and join the Republicans.

Owens is a conservative activist, political commentator, talk show host, and one of the most vocal supporters of Donald Trump.

Our guide explores each of Owens’s arguments in turn and compares them to the most recent statistics and opinions of experts on both sides of the political aisle.

(continued)...

(Shortform note: The 1936 election between FDR and Republican candidate Alf Landon was a landslide victory, in no small part to the 71% of Black voters who decided to vote Democrat. His New Deal was seen as an early success: Between FDR’s first election in 1932 and his re-election in 1936, unemployment rates as a whole dropped from 24.9% to 16.9%.)

Owens explains that the enactment of a minimum wage counterintuitively hurt Black employment. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) enacted several policies, including a minimum wage, that effectively barred Black workers from employment. For example, power was given to unions that arbitrarily refused Black workers, and skill mandates for minimum wages kept Black workers from being hired even by companies who were willing to have them.

(Shortform note: Owens doesn’t mention the NRA’s institution of a separate and lower wage scale for Black workers. Discussed in a 1933 editorial, the minimum wage was set at $13.50 per week. The NRA approved a $9 a week minimum wage for “colored workers.” They argued that this was an equitable adjustment because the cost of living for Black Americans was lower than that of their white counterparts. Whether a wage scale is more or less discriminatory than the prohibitive minimum wage is up for debate.)

To help boost the economy through inflation, FDR enacted the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which paid subsidies to farmers in exchange for limiting production of certain crops. The idea was to avoid overproduction so that crop prices could rise, which would be good for farmers. Owens says that this was another Democratic policy that helped white Americans while hurting Black Americans. The farms were owned by white people, who benefited financially from this arrangement. The workers were often Black people, who were laid off in mass numbers because of the decline in production. (Shortform note: In 1934 and 1935 alone, over 100,000 Black sharecroppers and tenant farmers were laid off from agricultural work.)

Owens says that because of these New Deal programs, among others, 1930 was the final year that Black Americans had lower unemployment rates than white Americans. (Shortform note: In 2022, Blacks had the highest unemployment rate among the racial demographics, at 5.7%. For comparison, whites were at 3%, Asians were at 2.4%, and Hispanics were at 4.1%.)

Even though the New Deal caused Black Americans to be worse off than before, they continued to re-elect FDR. Owens says that a big reason for this was FDR’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor had become the face of the Democratic Party and was genuinely concerned about Black rights. For example, she pushed for anti-lynching legislation (a bill that FDR ultimately failed to support) and was instrumental in forming the black cabinet, a group of Black Americans who advised the administration on issues that affected their community. Owens says that Black voters perceived the administration to be pro-Black, even though FDR actively protected discriminatory policies, in fear of losing his white Southern constituents. Owens argues that this was the Democrats’ first major manipulation of the Black vote.

(Shortform note: Owens implies that during FDR’s presidency, Black constituents blindly followed a red herring. But according to letters that were sent by the thousands to FDR during the Great Depression, Black Americans were aware of discrimination in the distribution of relief supplies. They called on FDR and Eleanor to ensure that they would be treated humanely and would receive their fair share.)

Part 2: Manipulation of the Black Vote

Now that we’ve covered the historical basis for Black Americans’ political leanings, we’ll begin exploring Owens’s primary thesis: Participation in the Democratic Party is modern slavery, and to be free and successful, Black Americans must escape. The rest of this guide covers all of the ways that the Democratic Party manipulates, shackles, and damages the Black population. With each principle we cover, Owens urges you to keep in mind that wherever there is manipulation, there is 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

Democrat Politicians

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.

The Mainstream Media

In addition to politicians, Owens says that the mainstream media benefits financially from a liberal fanbase, in large part because the owners are primarily left-leaning themselves. The more Democrats there are, the more viewers the program receives, which contributes directly to the wealth of the (mostly) Democratic owners. 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. Owens says that the media latches onto stories of white cops killing Black men because it receives an intense response and fills the 24-hour news cycle, but that 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. In fact, police are 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a Black male than an unarmed Black man is to be killed by a cop.

(Shortform note: In addition to mainstream media, social media plays a large part in the perception of major social issues. According to a 2020 Pew Research survey, 23% of adult social media users have admitted that social media influenced their viewpoint on a social or political issue. When respondents were asked which particular issues came to mind, police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement were most commonly cited.)

On Media Bias

Owens makes two other significant points about the mainstream media: First, she says that they hypocritically vilify conservative figures and hold up liberal ones, which demonstrates extreme bias. For example, she points out that the media repeatedly lambasted former President Trump for his Diet Coke vice, yet never commented on Obama’s smoking habit.

Second, she says that liberal news outlets exploit real tragedies by hijacking the given story and using it to push a political agenda. For example, when a school shooting happens, rather than focusing entirely on the events, the victims, and the healing, the media outlet will quickly pivot their stories to the issue of gun control. Owens argues that this tactic is manipulative and heartless.

The Politics Behind Mainstream Media

Owens exhibits a significant distrust of what she considers to be the “liberal mainstream media,” specifically calling out ABC, CNN, and NBC. According to PEW Research, the top five news outlets are (in order) as follows: ABC News, CNN, New York Times, MSNBC, and Fox News. In the name of transparency, we’ll examine the politics of who is currently in charge of each company.

• ABC News is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, and its CEO recently transitioned from Bob Iger, an outspoken Democrat, to politically-ambiguous Bob Chapek.

• CNN is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, whose CEO is currently David Zaslav. Zaslav took the position of CEO in 2022 and publicly declared that he wishes to return CNN to a more neutral political stance. Rumors have swirled about Zaslav being a staunch Republican and supporter of Donald Trump, but his political contributions indicate that he is a Democrat.

• New York Times is owned by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, and the current publisher is A.G. Sulzberger. His personal politics have been kept under wraps. A media bias website rates the publication as left leaning.

• MSNBC is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. The CEO is Jeff Shell, and his political contributions indicate that he is a Democrat.

• Fox News is owned by Fox Corporation and chaired by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch is an Australian-born American citizen and a Republican, although he recently publicly rescinded his support for Donald Trump. Murdoch also owns the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal.

The Escalating Distrust of Media

According to the Gallup polling organization, America’s trust in the media’s news coverage as complete and accurate reached an all-time low in 2016 and has barely risen since. Only 7% of Americans have “a great deal of trust” in the media, and 38% have none at all. It’s worth noting that there’s a partisan divide—57% of Republicans claim to have “no trust at all” in the media, compared with 10% of Democrats.

The primary reasons that Americans do not currently trust media news reports include:

• Inaccurate information

• “Fake news” or “alternative facts” (two terms coined by Donald Trump)

• Sensationalism and “click bait” type stories

The Benefit for Whites & Blacks

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 that 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 a 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.

Part 3: Systematic Destruction—How the Democratic Party Is Destroying Black Life

We’ve discussed Black Americans’ Republican origins and their move to a steadfast Democratic allegiance. We’ve explored who benefits from this allegiance and how. Finally, we’ll discuss the ways that this allegiance is destroying Black families and keeping Black Americans stuck in generational poverty. Each piece reiterates Owens’s primary argument—that it’s time for Blacks to leave the “Democratic plantation” and embrace true independence.

The Dismantling of Black Families

One of Owens’s biggest arguments is that Democratic policies dismantle the foundation of Black families and undermine the traditional values on which they’re based. According to Owens, during the time of slavery, spouses and children were separated as a way to keep slaves broken and compliant. Today, she says, Democrats still push a set of agendas that systematically destroy the fabric of Black family life. Two umbrellas that these programs mostly fall under are government handouts and feminism.

Government Handouts

Social safety nets, such as TANF (commonly known as “welfare”), SNAP (“food stamps”), WIC, and Section-8 housing are programs supported by Democrats. They say that the programs are intended to help struggling individuals and families get back on their feet. Owens, however, has a more cynical perspective. She believes that these social services are used by the government to accomplish two things: to keep Black mothers single, and to create reliance on their party.

From Owens’s perspective, social services keep Black mothers single because if they can receive food, money, and housing from the government, then there’s no need to marry the man that impregnates them. The men are free to impregnate as many women as they want without having to face the responsibility of caring for a family. The unfortunate result is a vast increase in children who grow up fatherless and ultimately end up in prison. This system feeds itself and keeps Black people at the most powerless levels of society.

(Shortform note: An impact review was recently conducted on the effects of single-parent households on a child’s likelihood to graduate from college or be incarcerated. White and Black subjects were both included, and the results were the same for both races: Children who were raised by single parents were more likely to go to jail or prison, and were less likely to graduate from college. One critic of these studies, an associate professor at Harvard, presented data that argues that two-parent households are not a silver bullet and will not ensure academic success for Black children. Her results demonstrated that economic stability was the most important factor when determining whether a child would do well academically.)

Owens says that Democrats also like to give out social services because it creates dependency. The longer a person is on welfare, the more difficult it is to pull themselves out of it. And if they were to vote a Republican into office, this hand that’s feeding them could very well disappear.

LBJ created these services in 1964 as part of his “Great Society” initiatives. Owens says that LBJ (a known racist with a penchant for using the “n” word) spoke of his initiatives and allegedly said to two governors, “I’ll have those n*ggers voting Democrat for the next two hundred years.” (Shortform note: According to Snopes, this quote is widely cited but there is no evidentiary proof that LBJ said it.)

(Shortform note: A recent survey found that 59% of Americans believe that Black people receive the same or more social supports than do white people. The truth is quite the opposite—in food stamps and Medicaid, white recipients outnumbered Black ones. For food stamps, 32.6% of recipients were white and 25.6% were Black. For Medicaid, whites made up 43% of the recipients, and Blacks made up 18%. Because Black Americans comprise a little more than 13% of the population, these statistics still demonstrate that a larger chunk of the Black community uses these services than does the white community, but perhaps more importantly, it reflects the assumptions, attitudes, and misconceptions of the American people.)

Feminism

Owens argues that the feminist movement has historically been at odds with the liberation of Black Americans, and that it continues to hurt the Black population today—specifically in the areas of suffrage, independence, and abortion.

Suffrage: According to Owens, because white men have historically held more power than women and Blacks, there has always been an inherent rivalry between feminists and Black activists. Suffragettes were angry that Black men were granted the right to vote before women were. And Black women were angry with white women, because they were essentially asking for both members of their household to have voting rights before even one member of a Black household did.

(Shortform note: Women were granted the federal right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. However, this did not eliminate state laws that prevented Black women from voting. Poll taxes and literacy tests kept many Black women out of the toll booths until after Jim Crow laws were dissolved. This is another reason why many Black people felt at odds with the feminists—the spoils were not distributed equally.)

Hyper-independence: Similar to her discussion about welfare, Owens stresses the importance of an intact family unit. She believes that modern feminism encourages women to be “strong and independent” to the point where they emasculate or even replace men. Owens argues that proper child rearing depends upon a masculine figurehead as husband and father, and that feminism is leaving a dangerous void in its place.

(Shortform note: The rate of married couples in the US has been on the decline and is currently at an all-time low. In 2019, there were six marriages for every 1,000 people. Compare these numbers to those at the start of the 21st century, when there were eight marriages for every 1,000 people. Statisticians say that this is a significant decline in a short period of time and attribute it in part to economic independence and gender equality for women. This supports Owens’s argument that feminism is affecting marriage rates, but it doesn’t address whether or not these households are happier and safer than in previous generations.)

Abortion: A key tenet of modern feminism is reproductive choice. Owens says that Black families are historically and deeply religious, and that the idea of abortion goes against their Christian beliefs. She says that Democrats fund Planned Parenthood, and that Planned Parenthood facilities disproportionately target Black neighborhoods. She believes that this is a feminist attack on the Black family’s religious foundations.

(Shortform note: There are many myths and misconceptions about Planned Parenthood as the abortion debate rages on. FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan website dedicated to indisputable facts and figures, goes through the most common messages about Planned Parenthood and explains why they are accurate or inaccurate. One example is a frequently cited statistic that “94% of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions.” FactCheck explains that this number is misleading and inaccurate because it disregards all of the non-pregnancy related health services offered, such as contraception, cancer screenings, and counseling.)

Conclusion: The Way Out

The time has come, Owens says, for Blacks to break free of the Democratic shackles and step into their own independence. Ultimately, she wants all Blacks to pledge allegiance to the Republican Party, but she also stresses the following actionable steps and mindset shifts. If they are embraced, she says, Black Americans can claw their way out of generational poverty and disenfranchisement.

• Avoid government handouts—they are disempowering, bad for your self-worth, and are a tool of the oppressor to keep you reliant upon the hand that feeds you.
• Vote for school choice—don’t allow the government to tell you where you have to send your kids to school. School choice, or the voucher program, allows you to choose a school that is good quality and matches the values you want your children to have.
• Raise your children in a two-parent household—Allow your wife to be the woman or your husband to be the man. Raise your children together in a home based on Christian values and work ethic.
• Reject the “Black” culture of purposeful ignorance and crude music—This is a relatively new trend and is not part of Black identity. Your oppressor wants you to be dumb. Educate yourself, take pride in speaking well, and listen to music that reflects your true values.
• Vote against affirmative action—Affirmative action is designed to lift minorities up, but it really sets them up for failure. Time and again, Black students who are not skilled or educated enough for the rigors of a particular university, but are admitted because of a race quota, end up failing. Those same students could succeed if they were to attend schools that are actually at their level.
• Above all else, take personal responsibility—Your life is your own, and you have no one to blame but yourself if you fail. Knowing that success is up to you and you alone will empower you to find a way to succeed.

Breaking the Curse of Generational Poverty

More than 20% of Black Americans are currently in the third generation of family poverty. Because we are now three generations away from the Civil Rights Movement, some scholars argue that we have proof that time is not enough for poor Blacks to climb their way out of a poor economic station. Here are three ways the scholars recommend we tackle the issue as a society:

First, we need to improve education for Black students of all ages. Many believe education is the key to upward mobility, and the current K-12 system of funding needs major reform. We can infer that Owens would agree with this strategy because she has criticized public schools in Black neighborhoods and advocates for school choice.

Next, we need to bolster Black men. To empower Black men to lead their homes and communities, we need to reform the criminal justice system and the education system with them at the front of our minds. Owens would also likely agree with this tactic, as she strongly believes in two-parent households and strong male figures.

Finally, we need to eliminate child poverty. While children are in their formative years, we must add social supports to make sure that they never go without a meal or clothing or shelter. By supporting them as they grow, they are more likely to have the tools they need to succeed on their own once they reach adulthood. We can infer that Owens would disagree with this approach because it could be categorized as a “government handout,” although she doesn’t directly discuss social supports for children in this book.