The Quiet Black Support No One Talks About 

At a township Democratic cookout—a room of almost entirely Black voters, many longtime Carson loyalists—I had people quietly walk up to me, shake my hand, whisper their support, and walk away quickly so no one would see them talking to me too long.

One man who worked for former Congressman Julia Carson—the incumbent's grandmother—and has been friends with the incumbent for decades talked with me for twenty minutes. He told me, “I’m loyal to Andre. But I can’t argue with what you’re saying.”

Months later, his wife told my organizer "I'm with Andre. But I know you’re right and I’m glad y'all are running because you'll turn out more people than we ever did.”

That honesty means the world.

But there’s a truth beneath it:

You can’t say the status quo doesn’t work…
You can’t say the party infrastructure is hollow…
You can’t say turnout is collapsing…

…and then defend the system unchanged out of habit or loyalty.

The divide in our politics isn’t left vs. right.
It’s urgency vs. inertia.
People who are loyal to the structure as it is vs. people who are loyal to what our communities actually need.

That’s the real fault line.