https://medium.com/marcushjohnson/why-black-voters-support-hillary-clinton-afcf7e6ff5bb#.n41ih48pi
The Clintons Built Relationships with Black Voters When It Wasn’t Popular To Do So
We should always remember the context of the time. As we talked about earlier, Republicans won five out of the next six Presidential elections after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Being associated with Black people was not popular politically at the time, in fact, Republicans had rode anti-Black sentiment to rousing success over the past several decades. Democratic Presidential candidates in 1984 and 1988 largely ignored Black voters and went for the white working class vote (it didn’t work out so well). The Clintons were in that political environment, and they still decided to build relationships with Black voters. The Clintons reached out to Black voters in ways that Presidential candidates simply hadn’t done before. President Clinton appointed the most diverse Cabinet in US history when it wasn’t popular to do so. Bill Clinton appointed seven Black Cabinet Secretaries. He appointed more Black people to federal judgeships than were appointed all of 16 years prior to his taking office. In fact, 14 percent of all Clinton appointees were Black — a number that was twice as high as any administration prior. Bill Clinton put Black people in positions of power when it hadn’t been done before, and when it wasn’t very popular with the white working class.
Hillary Clinton, in particular, took a strong policy stance in the Clinton Administration. Unlike almost every First Lady before her, she was dedicated to having a policy role and meaningfully supporting the legislative agenda. She played a significant part in most of the administration’s successes, and her effectiveness led to her being elected Senator and eventually serving as Secretary of State under President Obama.
Black voters aren’t stupid, they remember the Clintons fondly for a reason. The Clintons had near universal support from Black voters at the end of Bill Clinton’s Presidency, largely because their policies worked well.
I anticipate that a lot of DUers will reply without reading, because they think they already know the reasons why. Their loss. This article explains, in great detail, the kind of genuine progress that black Americans experienced during the Clinton Administration. Argumentatively, it cannot all be washed away by yelling "super-predator" over and over, although I suspect there will still be a few individuals too invested in that argument to abandon it. In fact, this article includes a nice bit of honest context about the 1994 Crime Bill:
Nobody’s hands are clean here — Joe Biden wrote the bill, the Clintons pushed it, and Bernie Sanders voted yes and bragged about being “tough on crime” for the next decade. Still, the bill only applied to the 10 percent of US prisoners in the federal system — the other 90 percent are held in state prison systems where the bill had no effect.
Honest outreach, consistent support, and concrete results. That's why many black voters have supported the Clintons in the past and why many are still solidly behind Hillary Clinton in this election.
The Clintons brought good economic times and a real increase in jobs and income for Black people. They fought against the NRA and won. The dramatic increase of the EITC program redistributed wealth to the working class. They built relationships with Black voters and put Black people in positions of power when it wasn’t popular to do so. All of those things are very progressive. Those are real achievements that positively impacted Black people. Black people remember the 1990s fondly for a reason.
