In 2020, Rep. Eliot Engel was caught on a hot mic as he spoke with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. saying, "If I didn't have a primary, I wouldn't care."
The Congressional Black Caucus electoral strategy has turned the 2026 midterm elections into a dumpster dive for corporate interests and Zionist approval.
The Black Misleadership class is firmly fixed on rendering the Midterms into an electoral garbage can in an effort to advance and feed its Trash Panda (i.e. raccoon) Politics. As insurgent progressive and social democrat candidates of the so-called Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) continue to defeat centrist, pro-zionist/Israel candidates, elements of the Congressional “Black” Caucus (CBC) have entered the frey in a desperate attempt to prevent pulling the Democrat Party to the left. As part of its machinations to enjoin more candidates from knocking off incumbent lawmakers like Adriano Espaillat, a five-term incumbent who was summarily defeated in his primary election against DSA-backed candidate Darializa Chevalier, and Diana DeGette, who was defeated in her primary election against DSA-backed candidate Melat Kiros, the CBC has advanced a toxic campaign of identity reductionism, false claims of racism, and other shameful tactics that epitomize myriad derelictions that have become too common for the Black Misleadership Class (BMC).
During this particular election cycle, the BMC vis a vis the CBC have exposed themselves as nothing more than slaves willing to do anything they are directed to by their Democrat National Committee (DNC) and zionist lobby alabaster puppet masters. In Michigan, we recently saw the endorsement of centrist, pro-Israel and zionist lobby-backed candidate Haley Stevens by one of the more prominent trash panda politics pushers, Representative James Clyburn (D-SC). During a recent interview about the Michigan primaries, Clyburn quipped, “I saw a picture that concerned me coming out of Michigan. I saw the rally.” He continued, “I didn’t see a single person that looks like me. That tells me all I need to know.”
It’s hard to take Clyburn’s subjective census count of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s rallies seriously. Afterall, this is a man who once declared that Joe Biden is “an honorary Black man” Joe Biden, a major of architect of the racist crime bill, a man who once said he did not want his children going to schools that are “racial jungles” as part of his opposition to busing programs of the 1970s, a man who eulogized renowned segregationist Strom Thurmond, and a man who once declared that Black folk who wouldn’t vote for him, “ain’t really Black.” Clyburn’s declaration of Biden’s Blackness is as ridiculous as if David Duke declared that James Brown was an honorary white man. Additionally, by questioning El-Sayed’s Black support, Clyburn dismisses the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) endorsement of the former Wayne County Health Department lead. UAW’s membership is approximately 25.5% Black, which is higher than roughly 14.4% of Black folk nationwide. What’s important for the Black masses to understand is that Clyburn’s tawdry use of trash panda politics is not in service to Black people, it’s in service to his white corporate and zionist masters who cut his checks and permit him to enjoy what far too many believe to be political relevancy - more on this later.
The El-Sayed/Stevens race has also elucidated the abject hypocrisy associated with the trash panda politics of the CBC and BMC. A video that has gone viral depicts Farmington, Michigan school board member, Angie Smith, who is Black, telling a local reporter, “We need someone that can represent all of us. Not just one race, but all races.” She continued, when pressed on what she meant by the comment, “You have to know how to work the room. Don’t come out speaking only Arabic. Don’t come out with your Arabic music on. Represent everyone.” While the Stevens campaign denounced Smith’s comments the CBC has remained silent. The CBC had no problem calling out Islamophobia when it was exercised by Donald Trump as part of his so-called Muslim Ban in 2020 when it declared as part of a 2020 press release, “Three years ago, the Trump Administration announced an anti-American travel ban, restricting travel from majority-Muslim countries and eroding our values, security, and reputation as a country that has leveraged its cultural diversity to build inclusive communities in our country.” And Clyburn himself recently led 119 Democrats in a letter condemning a piece of anti Muslim legislation introduced by the Republicans’ “Sharia-Free America Caucus” where he proclaimed, “The premise underlying this caucus and the measures associated with it reflects longstanding Islamophobic narratives and anti-Muslim sentiment rather than any demonstrated policy need.” Clyburn, who can publicly conjure white men like Biden into Black men, but can’t publicly condemn Smith’s reprehensible comments about El-Sayed, Arab and Muslim people sends a clear message - Islamophobia is wrong when expressed by Republicans but fine when used by Democrats in an effort to assist pro-zionist candidates get elected. This is the apotheosis of trash panda politics and a new nadir of the BMC.
In continuing the glaring hypocrisy of the BMC, House Minority Leader Hakeem “AIPAC Shakur” Jeffries this past May, while commenting to the recent gerrymandering push by Republicans, suggested a program that signals, “A 'Return To Jim Crow Like Segregation Tactics In The Deep South.” While it’s clear that the gerrymandering war between the Democrats and the Republicans, coupled with the Supreme Court’s decision in the Louisiana v. Callais case, which opened the door for states to re-draw Congressional Districts in ways that make it harder to elect Black candidates, has already had the effect of reducing Black representation in Congress, it’s also true that the CBC and BMC have responded to the situation on a case by case basis. Take the situation in Florida where redistricting has placed seats held by certain Democrats in peril. One of them is Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who decided not to run in her re-drawn district and instead run in a newly drawn majority Black district. While members of Florida’s Democratic Black Caucus have decried the move, along with members of the Florida Democratic National Committee who said in a statement, “Our party cannot credibly denounce the dismantling of Black political power by Republicans while treating one of Florida’s few remaining majority-Black districts as a political opportunity for an incumbent seeking a safer seat,” many prominent members of the CBC have said nothing of substance. When commenting on Wasserman-Schultz’s decision, Jeffries, who has not formally endorsed her run, said nothing critical of the move and instead gave an anodyne take, "Everybody has a right to run where they see fit. They’ve got to make their case to the people that they hope to represent moving forward.” Current CBC Chair, Yvette Clarke (D-NY) offered little more, only suggesting that she did not offer Wasserman-Schultz counsel on her decision and mimicked Jeffries when suggesting, “People have a right to run wherever they choose. I know that it has caused a lot of consternation in that district.” Clarke also defended Jeffries for not endorsing any of the four Black candidates in the race, “It’s a new district; there is no incumbent.”
This isn’t the first time the CBC has taken part in electoral shenanigans that are antithetical to its claims to ensure maximum Black representation in Congress. For instance, in 2020, days before people took to the streets to protest the police lynching of George Floyd, the CBC endorsed Eliot Engel, who is white, instead of Jamaal Bowman, who is Black. As part of their endorsement then CBC PAC Chair, Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY) declared, “Our membership knows that Eliot Engel will be there with his energy, his leadership and his vote, especially in these times of crisis.” Clyburn, who also endorsed Engel, used social media to explain his choice in a way that seemed to criticize Bowman, “We need leaders in Congress with proven records of standing up for civil & human rights. Rep Eliot Engel is not new to the fight for justice & equality — he’s been in the fight for his entire life & I’ve worked w/ him on these issues for almost 3 decades.” Mind you, Engel's CBC endorsement came after he was caught in a hot mic moment saying, “If I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care,” at a local event focusing on police brutality of Black people.
In a piece entitled, Eliot Engel, Jamaal Bowman, and the CBC: What is the Point of the Congressional Black Caucus, writer Alexander Sammon begs the question, “Why does the CBC often seem more interested in boosting white moderates than progressive black politicians?” I would add two more questions to Sammon’s inquiry - what does the CBC seem more interested in boosting white zionists than progressive Black and Brown candidates, and what have the Black masses gotten in return for the CBC and BMC’s cooniferous collusion with corporate, white supremacist, and other elements that are anathema to the collective liberation of the Black masses who find themselves consistently subjected to domestic colonialism and imperialism in the U.S.?
In answering this question, the likes of Clyburn would likely point to the fact that the DNC recently voted to make his home state South Carolina the first to hold a primary in the 2028 presidential election cycle. His likely sentiment is shared by leaders of the Democrat Party like Nebraska Democrat Party chair, Jane Kleeb, who proclaimed while making her case for South Carolina to lead the way, “Black voters didn’t just show up for this party in 2020. They saved us. They saved our entire country from Donald Trump.” If Kleeb actually believes her hyperbolic and performative assessment, the question still becomes what does being first in the nation for primaries do for Black South Carolinians who are last in the state for numerous metrics that measure well being. Black folk in that state are the poorest, including 43% total living below the poverty line and 34% of Black children.
The trash panda politics of the CBC may have put South Carolina first when it comes to voting for the next president but they have not put Black folk first in any of its recent votes or policy proposals, which is something that can also be said for the larger Democrat Party apparatus, including its corporate consulting class that spends more time telling the party and its candidates to not be “woke” and otherwise do more to appeal to the so-called white working class and Trump voters. The alabaster puppet masters who pull the strings of the trash panda politicians know that the BMC has cast a spell on far too many of the Black masses to get them to “vote blue no matter” who even though the Democrats have not delivered for Black folk at any major scale since the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.
The Black Masses must cease being complicit in allowing the mess of trash panda politics to proliferate. It’s time to heed the words of Huey Newton who once said, “The Black bourgeoise seem to be acting in the role of the house Negro.” He added, “They are pro-administration. They would like a few concessions made, but as far as the overall setup they have a little more material goods, a little more advantage, a few more privileges than the Black have nots; the lower class.” Brother Huey concludes, “And so they identify with the power structure and they see their interests as the power structure’s interest.” There is no better way to describe the BMC and how it’s approaching and polluting the 2026 Midterm election cycle and how it consistently enriches itself on the backs of poor and working class Black folk who believe these bourgeois Black lawmakers represent their best chance for social mobility and liberation To emancipate ourselves from the bondage of such thinking, the Black masses must begin the process of exercising Brother Huey’s prescriptions for how to deal with the BMC, “We have a mind of our own and if the Black bourgeoisie cannot align itself with our complete program, then the Black bourgeoisie sets itself up as our enemy. And they will be attacked and treated as such.”
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright is an international climate and environmental liberation advocate, a racial justice practitioner, and a writer and policy expert residing in the United States with his family and their mischievous cat, “Evil” Ernie. He is a proud and active member of the Black Alliance for Peace and the Movement for Black Lives. His radio program, “Full Spectrum with Anthony Rogers-Wright,” airs on the Mighty WPFW network every Tuesday at 6:00 PM EST.
Austin Cole is a graduate student in City Planning and Business Administration and the National Co-coordinator of the Black Alliance for Peace.
The fight for the ballot has always been tied to a wider war against Black political power, against workers, against the people paying for empire abroad and austerity at home.
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