Here in Baltimore, like many other predominately black cities, black millennial women aren’t fans of Republicans. Forgive me for generalizing- we’re not fans of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, and it’s not related to our tendency to vote Democrat.
As millennials, black women are highly adaptable, exhibit attitudes distant to millennial stereotypes, and raise the most culturally diverse generations to date, generation Z and Generation Alpha. For black millennial women to find Trump’s agenda engaging, he must start making our concerns his concerns.
Financial Obstacles
Trump recognizes that black Millennial women, like most women, define success. They are being entrepreneurs and accomplishing educational, career, and financial goals. He favors lower tax rates, which at first glance would benefit both Black women-owned businesses. But Trump’s lower tax rates could lead to hidden taxes for customers. This could be via raised prices on goods and lower salaries for employees.
Or perhaps Trump entertained black millennial women- at best- with his view on education, stating “we can’t forgive (student) loans, but we should take steps to help students“. Black millennial women do contribute a larger portion of our salaries to repaying student loans than men, which disproportionately affects us and exacerbates our wage gap.
Cultural Revolution
Millennial parents are known for teaching their children individuality. Also, children of black millennials are exploring new avenues it has helped the entire black community reach a cultural revolution.
Now schools deliberately educate black members of generation Z and generation Alpha on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. Athletically, more black children participate in sports. Which was once considered reserved for other races, like swimming, gymnastics, skateboarding, and lacrosse. Nevertheless, when compared to white millennials, our transformation hasn’t stopped Trump from considering black people lazy. It also hasn’t stopped his strong criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Religious Beliefs
Trump most likely hasn’t researched the real face of Muslims in America. However, according to the New York Times, Trump kicked off his campaign by calling for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the United States.
Obviously, without distinguishing between mainstream Muslims and Islamist terrorists, he also insinuated that American Muslims were all but complicit in acts of domestic terrorism for failing to report attacks in advance, asserting without evidence that they had warnings of shootings like the recent one in Orlando.
In short, to win the presidency Trump must move past targeting white millennial men, pay attention to black millennials. More importantly, he has to care that black millennial women aren’t his biggest fans. The fact is, this year marks the first presidential election in which millennials will make up the same proportion of the U.S. voting-age population as baby boomers.
Read more about this on HuffPost.
