Bigots for Harris

We should expect our politicians to resist the temptation to balkanize the electorate for the sake of fleeting, parochial electoral advantages. But we don’t. So it’s hardly a surprise that Kamala Harris is responding to her failure to attract sufficient support from young black men by violating the spirit of America’s proscriptions on the distribution of public goods to preferred constituencies based on their accidents of birth.

This week, Harris rolled out what she’s billing as an “opportunity agenda” explicitly aimed at appealing to African-American males. Some of the proposals in this overture are innocuous — increasing “mentorship programs” and “launching a national health initiative focused on the illnesses that disproportionately impact black men,” for example. Others are slightly more sinister. Why is it, we might wonder, that black males in particular are thought to be especially enthused, as compared with other demographics, by the federal legalization of “recreational marijuana” use? And some of the proposals, like her plan to “protect cryptocurrency investments so black men who make them know their money is safe,” are just ponderous. (Know who else wants their investments secured? Everyone.) But the proposal that is perhaps most repulsive is her promise to provide “black entrepreneurs and others” with forgivable loans of up to $20,000.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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We should expect our politicians to resist the temptation to balkanize the electorate for the sake of fleeting, parochial electoral advantages. But we don’t. So it’s hardly a surprise that Kamala Harris is responding to her failure to attract sufficient support from young black men by violating the spirit of America’s proscriptions on the distribution of public goods to preferred constituencies based on their accidents of birth.

This week, Harris rolled out what she’s billing as an “opportunity agenda” explicitly aimed at appealing to African-American males. Some of the proposals in this overture are innocuous — increasing “mentorship programs” and “launching a national health initiative focused on the illnesses that disproportionately impact black men,” for example. Others are slightly more sinister. Why is it, we might wonder, that black males in particular are thought to be especially enthused, as compared with other demographics, by the federal legalization of “recreational marijuana” use? And some of the proposals, like her plan to “protect cryptocurrency investments so black men who make them know their money is safe,” are just ponderous. (Know who else wants their investments secured? Everyone.) But the proposal that is perhaps most repulsive is her promise to provide “black entrepreneurs and others” with forgivable loans of up to $20,000.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.