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When President Biden took office, the Black community stood strongly behind him, but things have changed. Just look at the data.
A new report from Pew Research shows that the sharpest drop in approval for President Biden is among Black protestants.
In March 2021, shortly after he took office, President Biden’s support among African American protestants stood at 92 percent. By January 2022 this was down to 65%, a drop of 27 points.
Why the sea change? Blacks are dissatisfied with the leadership in Washington, D.C. for two main reasons. First, inflation is at a 40-year high with prices spiking nearly 8%.
The president and his Federal Reserve chairman bear responsibility for the new round of inflation now disrupting American lives, and especially those at the lower end of the economic scale.
A Gallup poll in December showed that 71% of households earning $40,000 per year or less reported hardship as result of these price increases, 28% reported “severe hardship”, and 42% reported “moderate hardship.”
These are households that are disproportionately African American households.
COVID is the second reason Blacks are dismayed with President Biden.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, after adjusting for age differences, the incidence of hospitalizations due to COVID have been almost three times higher among Blacks than whites. And the incidence of death – almost twice as high.
A new Gallup survey showed 69% of African Americans reporting being “very stressed” or “somewhat stressed” because of a threat of COVID infection, compared to 57% of white Americans.
Morning Consult reported that in the three weeks following Biden’s announcement of these federal rules mandating vaccines, Black approval for Biden’s handling of the crisis dropped 9 points, from 70% to 61%. Among unvaccinated African Americans? Biden’s net approval dropped 17 points.
One might say that the Biden administration has been just totally operating in a fashion detached from the very real and challenging realities in which African Americans have been struggling.
