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The real question: Do influential white people routinely tell members of the white community not to vote?

Every four years, notable figures in the Black community seem to repeat a familiar refrain: Black voters should not cast their ballots to prove a point.

Musician Ice Cube in 2020 and activist Dr. Umar both use their considerable platforms to deliver a consistent, if overused, message to people of color: Don’t vote until politicians make you concrete promises. These calls for inaction are often confused with activism, overlooking the fact that both major parties have made commitments to Black voters in elections past and present.

“Have you ever noticed that conservative white voters are rarely told they shouldn’t vote?” he asks in a new video.

“Have you ever noticed?” @garrison_hayes In a new video, he asks: “Are conservative white voters rarely told they shouldn’t vote?”

His new video looks at why. WATCH pic.twitter.com/OLeRwYZtzW

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) 29 October 2024

I explain that Christian Nationalists have a long history of supporting policies aimed at reducing the electorate to achieve “minority rule,” as my colleague Ari Berman describes it. Consider Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, the force behind Project 2025. At a far-right conference in Dallas in 1980, Weyrich made clear his hostility to democracy: “Our electoral power, quite frankly, increases as the voting population decreases.” The strategy is clear: It essentially boils down to Black voters staying home.

I have covered extensively the ongoing debate regarding Black voting this election cycle. Watch my in-depth investigation into the rise of the Black MAGA movement below.