I wonder why people here have suddenly gone silent about the pragmatic political wisdom of black voters.
I follow a locally renowned, some would say legendary Los Angeles African-American musician on Facebook named Johhny Echols. He's about 74 now. He is the last living member of the amazing 1960's Rock and Roll Band named
Love, which was, as far as anyone knows, the first racially integrated (Caucasian- and African-American) rock and roll band*. He still plays concerts; I saw him three times last year.
Anyway, he has been frequently posting anti-Trump diatribes on his FB page. He has shouted anti-Trump epithets at concerts (which surprised a few people in the crowd who were not as familiar with him as I was). Just this past week, he wrote a
long endorsement of Mike Bloomberg on his FB page, and really gave it to Bernie Sanders, calling him a socialist, and especially attacking Sanders' health care plans. This surprised me, as well as a lot of other folks on his page, judging by the comments.
So yes, there are African-American voters who are practical, are willing to forgive and forget, and oppose Bernie Sanders version of Democratic Socialism. Echols may not be an average African-American voter, though, as
1) he's early 70's in age
2) although not a rich "rock star" (raise your hands, Atlas, if you've ever heard of him before this post), I imagine he's alright financially
3) his parents had college educations. They were schoolteachers in the segregated schools of Memphis. When LA integrated its schools - and schoolteachers - in the early 1950's, they recruited experienced African-American schoolteachers in the south, drawing them to LA for better pay, working conditions, and less segregation and discrimination.
*There were integrated vocal R&B groups in the 1950's, but they didn't play their own instruments and wrote few, if any, of their own songs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Echols
