Thread by @dissentingj

Just like everyone else, Black men want to thrive and have hope for their futures. One wonders if the powers that be have conducted polling on this issue.
The obvious things are:
1. Jobs - not just saying Black unemployment is the lowest it has been in [fill in the blank] years. It has always been much lower than the unemployment rate for Whites. So getting it to the lowest level doesn't paint a complete picture. The best things for job growth is government and private sector spending. Honestly, government spending fuels private spending too. Tons of companies are benefitting from the infrastructure investments. This money needs to be channeled into poverty neighborhoods (as distinct from poor people).

2. Black men also receive lower incomes when hired when compared to white men. So jobs with good wages (some that might require technical training -- not 4-year Ivy colleges with a lot of debt to relieve) are essential. Supporting these types of educational opportunities are vital. Obviously, vigorous civil rights enforcement is required--so are liberal judges. There's a lot more than we can do with messaging on judges -- protect the rights of poor people, protect people from wage and employment discrimination, etc. Instead, it's Roe and presidential immunity. Again -- these things are very important, but they have limited force.

3. Black men, due to poverty and racism, are also the most vulnerable to arrest and incarceration. Criminal "justice" reform is absolutely important. I noticed recently that Biden pulled together an executive order on this, but it seems a bit late. Also, reform cannot focus on nicer policing. There are fundamental problems in our criminal justice system -- that begin with unequal education and housing segregation. By the time cops are involved, the pattern is almost set. So just as we celebrate infrastructure investments, lets invest much more in our nation's "poverty" schools, which are predominately Black and Latino. Investing in HBCUs is important, but if kids don't get a pre-k--12 education, this will not help them. It's a more of a middle class policy.

4. Education -- see 3 above.

5. Safe neighborhoods -- Gun control will not make poorer neighborhoods much safer. Statistical data on shootings show that they correlate almost perfectly with neighborhoods marked by concentrated poverty and racial segregation. The solution is more economic opportunity and affordable housing. But all we hear is "gun control." Both sides of this debate fail to do justice to poor crime victims.

Those are some of the issues. In terms of strategies, here's what I have been told by the folks who are experts on Black voter outreach. Every election year (not just presidential elections), they feel that they don't get enough resources to churn out black voters. I have seen so many appeals for more money and other resources. Quite often, state and local Dem chapters (depending on location, obviously) are not headed by Blacks. But these campaigns need to be local. Very often, white suburban women get most of the $$$$ -- in terms of ads and turn-out strategies. Having worked with the Obama folks in 2012 and with Clinton and Biden later -- I noticed far fewer resources for on the ground work in Black communities in the latter two campaigns. In my county, I had to ASK for Black-majority zip codes to do door-knocking. They were not prioritized. These are anecdotes, but a lot of folks report similar experiences (and I do not have time to dig for data -- if such even exists).

PS: I pounded out this thread really rapidly, and I don't have much time for proofing. So, it will probably have more typos than usual. Apologies, kidos.