Who "Millenials" Support

[Content Note: Racism.]

On Tuesday, I quoted a piece by Leela Daou, in which she observed that the fact a majority of black millenial voters were supporting Clinton was at odds with the ubiquitous narrative that millenials overwhelmingly support Sanders and noted: "Unless someone in the media wants to argue that black millennials don't matter, let's see some coverage of this. Because 'millennials' shouldn't just mean white millennials."

Case in point: "In South Carolina Poll, Younger Blacks Lean Toward Clinton, not Sanders."

The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of South Carolina Democrats shows Hillary Clinton leading among African-American voters under age 45. That finding suggests that the former secretary of state's much-ballyhooed problems with younger voters may be limited to young, white voters and that she can find greater support among young people of color.

...The South Carolina survey showed that among blacks under age 45, Clinton had 52 percent support, Sanders 35 percent, with 13 percent undecided. (A survey released Thursday by Monmouth University poll showed a similar gap: Clinton led 60 percent to 26 percent among black voters under age 50 in South Carolina.)

In short, at least in South Carolina, Clinton's advantage among younger black people is cutting into Sanders' lead among younger voters overall.

To be abundantly clear, I'm not sharing this information in order to suggest that there is a "right" (or "wrong") way for millennials to vote, or for black people to vote. I am not in the business of telling people how they should vote.

I'm sharing this because I am deeply contemptuous of the contention that millennials overwhelmingly support Sanders, when, although it may be technically accurate in straight numbers, is is predicated on concealing that a large majority of black voters support Clinton. Which effectively writes black millennials out of definitions of their own generation.

That isn't fair to black millennials, and it isn't decent on the one hand to recognize black voters as a dedicated Democratic voting bloc and on the other disappear some of those voters in order to perpetuate a white supremacist narrative regarding support for a Democratic candidate.