President Donald Trump has been in office tearing shit up for three months, and we didn’t hear a thing from Black leaders. Now they are finally speaking out: First there was Cory Booker, challenging all manner of bladder control to deliver a 25-plus-hour speech on the Senate floor condemning Trump and his actions.
Then there was Kamala Harris, reminding you all that she told you so a long time ago. And, finally, there was Barack Obama, reminding us all of the obvious: No one would’ve let his Black ass get away with a fraction of what Trump has in under 90 days.
Good. Great. But what, exactly, took so long? Black folks have been voicing frustration with our leaders since January: We all saw where things were headed his first month — hell, his first week — in office. We understood that they didn’t have the power to stop the President, but they could have voiced our outrage.
Almost every Black church in America would have welcomed a speech denouncing what the man in the Oval Office was doing. How many speeches were given? Hell, I would have been happy to see someone post a TikTok about what was happening. We got none of that. Instead, we had Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, jump on TV and said that his party had no power to fight the President. Bruh.
So, what changed? Why are they now coming off the bench like Robert Horry? I have a theory.
When Chuck Schumer fumbled the bag in March and voted with Republicans to push through the budget Trump wanted, people got pissed. And not just Democratic Senators and congresspeople — regular folks were heated. So mad, in fact, that thousands attended a random ass rally featuring Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. After that, people started speaking out.
Now things have changed dramatically. Kamala Harris’s video on MSNBC has over 600,000 likes. Black Twitter (I refuse to call it Black X. FOH.) completely agrees with Obama saying he would not have been able to get away with what Trump is doing.
And Cory Booker’s speech has been universally praised, if not misunderstood. (It wasn’t a filibuster. It was a protest.)
In sum, Black leaders were scared. They saw how bad Trump beat Kamala (Thanks Joe.) and were terrified. Now it is clear how angry people are, emboldening Booker and others to push back.
Obama, Harris and the rest may be late to the party, but I’m happy they finally showed up. Now if someone could do something before the price of avocados skyrockets, that would be nice.