LOS ANGELES, USA. — There is an issue that has nagged me for far too long. I have only mustered the courage to address it now, albeit, briefly. Today is November 8: Election Day in the United States of America is finally here. Whether it is Donald Trump (the RNC’s non-establishment candidate) or Hillary Clinton (the DNC’s first female candidate) who wins, history will be made in the US. I have decided to put my deliberations in writing lest I miss this grand opportunity to express my profound sentiments.

Before I tell you about this pressing issue I would like to reassure my gentle reader that my goal here is to only stoke discussion, invite understanding and to generate the necessary constructive ideas we need to move forward even after this day of history passes by.

Back to the issue: Some of my African American Brothas and Sistas have been vehemently routing against Mrs. Clinton. And they have made some valid points. Yes, Mrs. Clinton has a lot of baggage. But is Mr. Trump really better than Hillary for president of the United States of America?

Prominent Sistas like Michelle Alexander and Brothas like Cornel West, for instance, have been campaigning against Mrs. Clinton’s presidency right from the beginning of the election year. I grant them one of their pet peeves about Hillary’s candidacy. Which is that she is not necessarily the best woman who we could have chosen within the Democratic Party and even across the US for the candidacy of the party.

But let’s face it. Mrs. Clinton is in fact the only person in this election who is fully qualified for the position despite all her shortcomings. Even if she owns up to her involvement in the racy past of Bill Clinton (the former President of the US) and her entanglement with some of the socially detrimental— and sometimes racial—policies of Mr. Clinton, which I don’t think she should necessarily recount and own, one will be hard-pressed to blame Mrs. Clinton, partly or entirely, for the shortfalls and suffering that such polices brought to bear in the African American community.

Since when is a wife responsible for her husband’s racy past and his ill-thought-out government policies? Can one hold George W. Bush’s wife responsible for the Iraq war?

More importantly, even though Mrs. Clinton is being blamed for Mr. Clinton’s sins, the troubling idea is that if the former president himself—who’s been clubbed for actually enacting the bad policies that affected a disproportionate number of African Americans and whose crimes of infidelity abound—were to be running for president today, against Mr. Trump, he would probably be garnering immense support from the African American community. Many African Americans still think that Mr. Clinton was the first Black president—good or bad!

This is a double standard.

So what exactly is Mrs. Clinton’s crime? Is it perhaps because she’s a woman running for the top job in a historically patriarchal culture with a deep seated religious leaning which has enabled whole communities from whole-heartedly accepting Gay Marriage as a right?

I cannot comprehend the sentiment and the frustration of African Americans about Mrs. Clinton since any rendition of the logic of the past two decades does not enlighten anyone about the import of their protest. It seems that the same euphoria peddled in Black neighborhoods in overwhelmingly supporting and voting for Barack Hussein Obama, who I strongly believed was NOT adequately vetted, is being turned inside out as a passionate protest against Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy.

But according to US statistics, African American women are the most educated group in the US and still compose a significant voting bloc: More significant than the Black male vote. More significant than the Hispanic vote, male and female, put together. More significant than the Jewish vote. Which makes me wonder why Mrs. Clinton has not been afforded the same courtesy and the same rapturous support that Obama enjoyed in 2008 and 2012 in spite of the fact that Hillary, as of the moment, is the best qualified person for the job of president of the United States.

Obviously, I am by no means insinuating that the African American community is a monolithic group. Much in the same way that we are all not Democrats as most people outside the Black community might endeavor to assume. But I think if we all rallied for the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th president of the United States then in this particular case, and at this time, we must also marshal a similar support for Mrs. Clinton as president of the US. We must do this so we don’t end up on the wrong side of history.

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35 COMMENTS

      • Based on some of the points that you highlighted. Overall corruption of the Clinton machine. Super predators. There is actually a great book on it. The new Jim Crow, Haiti, Clinton Cash. The list goes on and on. Your argument is she can’t be blamed for the actions of her husband.

        My argument she profited from those actions. When they left office by her own admission they were dead broke. Their net worth is now over 100million.

        Through their so called Global initiative they set themselves up as middlemen brokering deals between major corporations and governments and have been well compensated for it. Did she profit absolutely. You argue her innocence.

        Plus, foreign policy. You would think Hilary was a neo con. She is an avid interventionist. Her foreign policy based on her time at the state department included meddling in others Affairs. Libya, etc. one can argue that she is a straight war hawk. The world will be a safer place minus this kind of foreign policy. We all know her stance on the Iraq war.

      • Plus, unless u completely disregard all the wiki leak emails over the past few weeks. Your candidate has shown a consistent ability to double deal and double dip as long as it benefits her agenda. Say one thing to one party and a different stance while dealing with others.

        Your candidate cannot be trusted. One of my mentors always loved using the quote “perception becomes reality”. In the case of HRC perception and reality might actually be one and the same and doesn’t inspire any trust from my perspective.

      • but she would have benefited as his wife whether she run for office or not. Based on your argument why is Bill(the perpetrator) still popular in our community and would win by landslide if he run for office today???

        Ares Mars and Trump does not double deal? ??

      • Don’t be so sure that Clinton wins in a landslide. The 90s are way behind us. Should I really bring up all his negatives vs favorables?

        For crying out loud there is even a book titled the Clinton’s war on women. I don’t think Bill would be in a rush to have us discuss all his past transgressions. That is an election I will pay to see and one which he will get eaten up alive based off all his previous transgressions.

        Hilary didn’t do half the things Bill did and she is running neck to beck with a horrible candidate like Trump. Try running Bill against any solid Republican candidate and my prediction he gets taken to the cleaners and all the additional things we find out about him ends his marriage.

      • But definitely not a gender issue at all at least for me. Read too much and learnt too much about the Clinton’s to support them. That will definitely be intellectually dishonest.

      • Lol. I think there are 2 competing ideologies going on here at least with you. Feminism vs pragmatism. I think you can tell by my points that my arguments are sound. But underneath the hood you are an eternal feminist siding with the sisterhood.

        Have no fear. I think your candidate will win tonight. The Clinton machine is back.

  2. Although I do not agree, at all, with Dr. Grace’s bent on the issue of who qualifies to be president of the US, I have to admit that this is a much much better essay than the one penned by Chimamanda Adichie at The Atlantic. At the least, Dr. Grace has a point. She has an argument. I can understand it. That, if Barack can garner that much support, among African American women, who are the most educated, then it must be baffling why they refuse to rally behind Hillary’s candidacy! This is a valid criticism. More valid than a charge of a socio-cultural bent against her because of her gender.

    In any case the issue against Hillary is that she is a legacy candidate first and foremost. Then she is the establishment. And the worse issue against her is that she has no record of good in the African American community. There are no policy issues one can raise to point to why she must be hailed in the African American community. On the other hand, there are various qualms one can cite for her dip in popularity in Black votes.

    • Your points are somewhat valid. You define the issues against Clinton rather crisply. But does Trump have any points why he should be hailed in African American communities over Clinton? #HilaryClinton.

    • Trump is as much an outsider as Obama was to African Americans. If I were African American I would take his words for what they are since he’s never been in office and I would take Hillary’s actions for what they are since she has been in office before (senator of NY).

      Trump alleges, and this has been found to be true, that during the reign of Bill Clinton, his NAFTA jobs program, which Hillary is on tape and in writing supported and pushed in the Senate, caused America’s urban centers to lose about 70,000 manufacturing factories to China and Mexico alone.

      If I were African American, I would listen and point to how Hillary, even as of now, continues to support trade deals that ship American jobs to Mexico. She has claimed that she is for open hemisphere on the American continent, north and south. This is scary if I were African American. Where will jobs come for me?

      Anywhere on that continent called the Americas, Blacks are on the bottom. The only thing that worked in AA’s favor was their American citizenship. But Hillary plans to blur that hard earned citizen in her open borders and open hemisphere approach to trade and industry. Blacks, especially Black men, will continue to dip and become the poorest, most hated and most denied group in the entire continent of South, Central and North America.

    • Bringing back manufacturing, and closing the border. This is huge. Can you even imagine if just half of the 70,000 factories that left came back to the US? In the urban centers?

      In 1960, an African American auto manufacturing assistant in Detroit took home 45 bucks an hour. And he worked 40 hours a week. And he could do overtime as well. He could buy a house, own a car, educate his children and raise them well.

      Today, those jobs are in China and Mexico, so he has no job, he cannot take care of his own children and he’s had to commit a crime to eat, so he’s now in jail.

      This is the issue and this is what Trump is promising although folks refuse to see that this is a huge issue, especially for Black men! Why? They are the most incarcerated group in America.

      And whose fault was that? Bill and Hillary Clinton. They shipped the jobs out to China and Mexico and privatized the prison industry to house the jobless men who commit crimes because they cannot find work.

  3. So what record did Obama have about good in the AA community..besides a history of being a community organizer in the 60’s???

    • Dr. Grace, one can argue that Obama was as much an outside candidate as Trump is now, and this is why he had overwhelming support in the AA community. In him they saw change and they hoped that he will overhaul the system. This is consistent with the sentiments about Hillary today.

    • So we are looking for the outsider candidate??? The reason Obama a then senator appeared to be outsider was because he deliberately avoided voting or taking a stand on several issues that came before the senate. However, none of these reason explain the dislike for Hilary.

  4. I am not an American. But what transpires over there concerns me because of the potential ripple effects globally. Hilary Clinton is an intentional candidate, Trump a candidate of reaction. I prefer Americans choose Hilary because “adwene nko na nyansa nko” thoughtfulness and sensibility differ. I wish America all the best.

  5. It is quite refreshing to read from Dr. Grace Ayensu Danquah because the female voice in this matter cannot be overemphasized. I agree with Solomon Azumah-Gomez that this is a better essay over all and a better argued piece than the blabber I read a week ago in The Atlantic, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Grace, you should write more of such views, although in this one I strongly disagree. But you already knew that.

    I disagree only because I am Ghanaian and Hillary’s foreign policy is more scarier than Trump’s. That’s all. I could care less about American domestic issues. But I have to admit that such an atitude is a narrow way of looking at issues. For this reason, you make great points for the domestic issues on the table for folks to vote on. I would have little knowledge of that. Obviously! I do hope though that you are right about Hillary because I have a feeling she’s going to win today.

  6. Hahaha Solomon Azumah-Gomez hilarious! I know you don’t agree with me and that is fine. I am however still trying to ascertain the real reason why we dislike her so much and so far I have not received and convincing reason. What specific Hilary foreign policy are you alluding to??? I guess I am looking for some convincing reasons. Btw I am a republican and when Obama was running I keep asking my AA friends why the overwhelming euphoric support for him WITHOUT really vetting properly as to what is in it for the AA community as a whole. We didnt ask if him any of the issues or concern yet we supported him 130%. So my question is why was that???

  7. Grace Ayensu Danquah, Hillary is a hawk, a neocon and an interventionist. She believes in regime change: Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and so on. Trump? He’s a nationalist. He believes that the US should look inwards and fix America’s dilapidating economy and infrastructure.

    This is the key difference between Trump and Hillary. Trump does not want to continue to fund Israel (50 billion dollars a year – this helps to ease their genocide on Palestinians); he does not think America must be gallivanting Africa each day with USAFRICOM (276 million dollars a year); he does not believe that Walmart, McDees, CVS and Monsanto must come to Ghana (over 40 million dollars would be siphoned out of Ghana a year if that is the case – our Waatsey, Kenkey, Aborbor sellers will be out of work and the Herbalist will be banned); etc. etc. etc.

    All of which to say that Hillary is a globalist and Trump is a nationalist. One is good for me as a Ghanaian: Trump. The other will destroy my Ghanaian economy and that is what Hillary stands for. Sista, these are facts and she is very dangerous as well. She wants war with Russia. She has repeatedly said this. That is WW3. Do you really want that? The lady is unhinged meeen!

    • You sound like my husband with a slightly different twist. Trump is good for Africa because he will force Africans to learn to take care of ourselves.. Less aid… I don’t know about that. Seems to me America’s foreign policy is pretty stock.

  8. Are you sure?? But Trumps actions/ businesses have not proven that he is a Nationalist. Some of his companies are like Walmart etc. Granted that Hilary has lots of baggage but again my question is why the vast difference in treatment between her and Barrack??????

  9. You make a very legitimate point Grace Ayensu Danquah. I cannot fault you for making it. Although what I would say is simply this: when Trump is in business he takes advantage of all policies that US policy makers implement for his advantage. Like the tax code. He has businesses outside America to evade taxes and for other such reasons. Most American business do this – they keep money offshore as well as to evade American high taxes.

    But the Clintons are to blame for this very attitude and practice of American businesses. This was needed if America wanted to become a globalist empire. The Clintons knew this in the 90s when they got rid of Glass-Steagall and implemented the Financial Modernization Act of 1999. Even today, Hillary says she will never bring back Glass-Steagall. She still endorses the FMA, which forces companies in America to ship jobs outside to Mexico and China, and Ghana, say. That is not the only reason.

    The other point about Barack is fair. I cannot argue against it. Only to say that African Americans thought that Obama was going to overhaul the system. They though he was going to stop the bleeding of jobs to China and Mexico. They thought he was going to make Immigration reform possible and finally stop the influx of immigrants, low wage workers, who drive down wages in America and force AAs, especially, out of work. But Obama fooled everyone! Perhaps because he needed the Clintons in order to win the elections thus he sold the state department to the Clintons. This much we now know. Wikileaks has shown the pay-for-play of the Clintons at the state department under Obama. He has failed AAs.

    But that is also to say that AAs can no longer trust Democrats right? Especially the Clintons? Right?

  10. Well said!

    So if Trump is only a beneficiary of the Clinton’s business policies then do you think he will reverse them or he will continue them so that he can continue to enjoy the free ride????
    As to you last point I totally agree if that is the reasons stated for the mistrust and dislike of Hilary.

  11. To your first point, I have no idea. We actually don’t know what Trump might do. He says he would reverse those policies but who knows. But we know what Hillary will do, which is continue on with those policies.

  15. As others have probably said, Obama was the candidate for hope and change. He was more inspiring than Hillary who symbolized more of the same–another 4-8 years of the Clinton dynasty and the continuation of a failed Democratic establishment. Most people in the US struggle to find sufficient food and work, so Trump’s rebuild America plan is more appealing and inspiring to them. On top of that, people are sure that Clinton would definitely go to war and people are weary of a world war, especially a nuclear one that would cause damage and kill people, animals, and plants for no reason except to enrich a few elites.

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