Quanell X, leader of the New Black Panther Party in Houston, Texas, said this week on a local news program that black Americans should “truly examine” Donald Trump’s outreach to the black community and “reexamine the relationship” that black voters have with the Democratic Party.
Read the transcript of Quanell X’s remarks:
Donald Trump last week went to Milwaukee because of the rioting behind the police shooting of a young African-American male by a black officer and the city was being burned down in certain parts of the black community by protesters so Donald Trump decided to go to Milwaukee and speak about the conditions of America and why he felt black people should vote for him. He even went on to lay out reasons why he felt we should.
Let me say this to the brothers and sisters who listened and watched that speech. We may not like the vessel that said what he said, but I ask us to truly examine what he said, because it is a fact that for 54 years, we have been voting for the Democratic party like no other race in America. And they have not given us the same loyalty and love that we have given them. We as black people have to reexamine the relationship — where we are being pimped like prostitutes, and they’re the big pimps pimping us politically, promising us everything and we get nothing in return.
We gotta step back now as black people and say, we’ve gotta look at all the parties and vote our best interests.
He spoke directly to black people. And I want to say and encourage the brothers and sisters. Barack Obama, our president, served two terms. The first black president ever. But did our condition get better? Did financially, politically, academically, with education in our community, did things get better? Are our young people working more than what is was before he came into office? The condition got worse. So now we as black people have to do and remember what the honorable Elijah Mohammed said. No politician can save the black community; we’ve gotta do it ourselves.
America’s in trouble. And I want to say to black and white people, only a fool fights in a burning house. This house is on fire.