Biden must work harder to earn this Black woman’s vote

President Joe Biden’s current campaign message is basically “I’m the best bad option.” Best Bad is a strategy for those destined to lose, since it forces the voters to negotiate against themselves.

I’m someone who never misses an election, including one-off local races. I’m not only a lawyer who believes in democracy, the spirit of the Constitution and that citizens are duty-bound to vote, but I’ve volunteered many times as an attorney for Election Protection, a nonpartisan organization that helps Americans ensure their voting rights and access to the polls. 

If Biden wants my vote, he must diligently earn it one policy position and decisively-filled campaign promise at a time. I won’t give it away freely just because the alternative is catastrophic. 

As a member of one of the strongest voting blocs — Black women — I’m tired of listening to lip service. The way Biden takes Black people’s votes for granted is never lost on me. He assumes that he doesn’t have to do much to secure our vote since the other candidate is a corrupt white nationalist grifter who preys on women and is a threat to democracy. It’s a slap in the face. (Remember when Biden said “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black”? We remember.)

Unfortunately for Biden, my memory is long and unforgiving. The stakes are too high — for me, Black people and the entire country — to get amnesia. Votes must be earned, especially from a president whose track record is both racially offensive to me and misaligned with my ideological views. 

I remember when I was an adolescent in Berkeley, California. Between classes, I listened on my portable radio to Anita Hill testify about the sexual harassment she said she endured from Clarence Thomas. I never forgot that then-Senator Biden chaired the Judiciary Committee. His bungling of the hearings and fears of challenging a problematic Black man manifested in throwing a courageous, credible Black woman under the bus. We pay for Biden’s poor leadership each time Justice Thomas casts his Supreme Court vote. Strike one. 

Then there’s the 1994 crime bill, which ushered in mass incarceration. Strike two. Skipping over his senatorial record with too many strikes to count and jumping to his presidency, he hasn’t done enough for Black people, and Black women in particular, for me to see him as a strong ally. 

During his presidency, I’ve witnessed performative photo ops using Black people as tokenized props, along with verbal hot air. He sidelined Vice President Kamala Harris until he needed a mouthpiece with people of color, then dragged her out of obscurity to try to get nonwhite votes or rating bumps with communities of color. More strikes. 

Biden failed to deliver on his campaign promises on student loans, which could have provided countless Americans much-needed debt relief. He took too long listening to unhelpful and sometimes obstructionist advisors, only to announce a plan that was dead on arrival. This is his failure. If you want to successfully launch a program against fierce opposition, be ready to cancel loans on announcement day and not weeks later after unveiling your gameplan. A broken-promise strike due to delays, ineptitude and poor planning.

Looking from the outside, I see a man governing and trying to play an outdated game that no one wants to play with him. They’ve taken their ball and gone home, yet he’s still dribbling alone. He doesn’t adapt with the times. To protect civil rights and the Constitution — and thus the voting rights of people of color, abortion rights of women and freedom from religious tyranny — you need a different Supreme Court. But Biden lacks the going-to-the-mattresses backbone necessary to overhaul the courts. This leaves people of color without affirmative action, which has ballooned into a wholesale assault on diversity, equity and inclusion. Along with other rolled-back rights, the progress of the 20th century is unraveling. Strike 1,000.

Many Black people struggle witnessing people of color dying in ways that remind us our collective lives don’t matter. This brings us to Biden’s devastating and calamitous handling of the crisis in Gaza. While we can universally declare that what happened to Israelis on Oct. 7 was horrific, inexcusable and the hostages deserve their freedom, Hamas’s attacks cannot justify a death toll of nearly 30,000 people — most of whom are women and children. More than 10 children lose one or both of their legs each day. Palestinians in Gaza are on the verge of famine. This intolerable humanitarian suffering prompted leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to call for ending aid to Israel.

When did advocating for peace and an end to death and destruction become the subversive global policy position? As a Black woman who values life and a former United Nations World Food Programme professional, it’s hard to vote for a president complicit in what the UN International Court of Justice said is plausibly genocide, who has made me equally complicit as an American.

Even though Trump is the worst president in American history and a horrible human being, what Biden presents isn’t motivating enough. He will be hurt by low turnout. Many Black voters will stay home. Positioning himself as “the best bad option” will also tank Biden in swing states like Michigan, where many in the Arab American community call him “Genocide Joe,” demand a ceasefire and won’t vote for him.

My questions for you, Mr. President: What do you stand for beyond being the Best Bad candidate? What about your policies deserve my vote? What are you doing for people of color? How will you protect my rights as a Black woman? When will you get on offense instead of defense? What’s your compelling platform to grow the economy for the middle class?

When I get satisfactory answers to those questions, then you will have earned my vote. Until then, you’re not reading the room. You will lose because you failed to create a situation where people want to vote for you, rather than against an atrocious alternative.

And if Trump wins and takes a wrecking ball to democracy, that failure will be on your hands.

Fatimah Gilliam is the author of “Race Rules: What Your Black Friend Won’t Tell You” and a volunteer attorney for Election Protection, consultant and speaker. Follow her @fatimah_gilliam.