Should never have been this close

The election should never have been this close

Keith Boykin

I don't know who will win the 2020 presidential election, but the issue that most concerns me is that the race is close at all.

As an African American, I've watched the past four years in horror, as President Trump has moved from one racial controversy to the next — his comments on Charlottesville, his attacks on NFL players, his unflattering description of African countries, his decision to remove Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House for a photo op, and his neglect of the coronavirus pandemic that has disproportionately affected Black and Brown people. Surely, after all the chaos and disruption we've been through in 2020 alone, I expected to see at least a sliver of movement in white voter patterns to tip the scales toward Democrats.

But according to CNN exit polls, 57% of white voters still cast their ballots for Trump. All other racial and ethnic demographic groups supported former Vice President Joe Biden.

It's not surprising that a Republican presidential candidate would win the majority of the White vote. Every GOP nominee has done so since 1964. What is disturbing, but also not surprising, is that so many White voters -- after years of watching Black and Brown Americans complain about Trump's racism -- still chose to vote for him.