For decades, many Black voters have had an uneasy and cautious relationship with the Democratic Party. Now that the American dream feels increasingly out of reach in a system that wasn’t originally built for Black people, Black voters may be more willing to listen to Republicans.
Brandi Collins-Dexter’s new book, “Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future,” documents and analyzes the increase in Black Republican voters and representation since 2020.
Collins-Dexter says there are currently 81 Black Republicans who ran for Congress, and many of them talked about an awakening they had through Trump as an emerging third-party candidate.
“He's breaking the status quo,” she says. “He's turning everything on its head. He's creating chaos, and for people that feel thoroughly dissatisfied with the way things are going, that feels appealing.”
The idea for the book came when she had one pressing question: What is going on with Kanye West?
She was fascinated with whether West was an outlier or part of a broader trend, noting his recent White House visits and being vocal about being a Black MAGA.
Her new book references West’s 2013 song “Black Skinhead,” and partially references the origins of a skinhead, which has roots in the U.K. in the 1960s. The skinheads were a multiracial working class that became more divided, and started feeling like other groups were taking their jobs. Amid economic hardships, the skinheads become more affiliated with white nationalists.
“The disillusionment that I'm seeing with Black voters in America [is] mirroring some of that history that we saw in the U.K.,” she says.
Collins-Dexter adds that West’s past political clashes, such as his outburst during a fundraising telethon for victims of Hurricane Katrina, reflect that disillusionment.
“I think he's really speaking to that underlined disillusionment with feeling like systems have failed you. He’s very much the figurehead for that in a lot of ways in the last few years,” says Collins-Dexter, who attributes that to West’s push for crime and jail reform that Democrats were a key part of in the 1990s.
She recognizes that West is a complex figure and references her own relationship with him and his perspectives, such as his remarks on slavery.
“It feels really weird and uncomfortable, and like he is turning his back on Black people,” she adds.
Her book attempts to understand Black voters through West’s frustrations. She says there isn’t a straightforward path to becoming a Black Republican or Trump supporter. Many had been longtime Republicans, or lifelong Democrats that felt like the government hadn’t shown up for them.
“All of them articulated feeling like they hadn't seen Democratic leadership show up for them, particularly locally. ... That's part of the disillusionment, and the resentment, and the draw to something different that's beyond Trump as just this cult-of-personality figure.”
Collins-Dexter believes young voters who don’t want to settle for either party will turn to third-party candidates.
“They're more fearless about testing out third-party options,” she says. “I expect that we'll see more and more third-party options coming up to the national level. We'll see how well that unfolds, but I do think that we're trending towards that increasingly.”
She adds that voters want to see a bold agenda — someone who’s fighting for the things that they believe in.