The Buttigieg campaign released data last month detailing black South Carolina voters' opinions on Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg. Some voters said that Buttigieg's sexuality was an issue, but this is seen as a generational issue, and not representative of the black community as a whole.
Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III joined Boston Public Radio on Thursday to speak more about why Pete Buttigieg doesn't have large approval among black communities.
"African Americans are no more homophobic than any other white Christian evangelical group of people," Monroe said. "The problem is when you use that kind of diatribe that, 'Oh it's because African Americans are homophobic,' it ignores [Buttigieg's] actual record of doing very little, if anything, for the African American community."
Buttigieg's sexuality does seem to be a generational issue among the black community, Price said.
"I do think that older blacks have an issue," he said. "I think that folks who are 'boomers' have an issue and those who are Gen-X and Millennials don't have that issue."
The issue most black people have with Buttigieg is his lack of connection and support with marginalized communities, Monroe emphasized.
"He really has failed to address racial inequality, as well as to dismantle systemic racism in his community," she said. "He hasn't earned the trust and respect of the African American community, because as wonderful and level-headed as he is, he is not addressing marginalized folks."
Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and a Visiting Researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology.
Price is Professor of Worship, Church & Culture and Founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Together they host the All Rev’d Up podcast, produced by WGBH.
