They Remember Black People When They Need Our Votes

A politician asking for your vote is normal. Pretending to love you long enough to get it is manipulation.

Election season has a way of helping politicians find Black people. Suddenly, they know where the Black churches are. They visit the barbershop, stand behind pulpits they have never supported, clap with the choir, quote Scripture, eat a plate of food, pose beside the pastor, and talk about how much the Black community means to them. Then the election ends. The cameras leave, the campaign bus pulls away, and the politician returns to Washington, the statehouse, or city hall. The neighborhood is left with the same failing school, the same abandoned buildings, the same crime, the same fatherless homes, the same struggling businesses, and another collection of promises nobody intends to mention again.

Some politicians genuinely care. Others perform concern because polling tells them to. Jesus said, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). He did not say we would know people by their speeches, campaign advertisements, church visits, party labels, or promises. Fruit is what remains after the talking stops. Ignore what a politician says during the three months before an election and examine what that politician did during the previous three years. Did the schools improve? Did the neighborhood become safer? Did Black-owned businesses receive real opportunities, or were they used as scenery for another announcement? Did working families become stronger? Did criminal-justice reform protect innocent people while still holding guilty people accountable? Did the politician meet with the community when there were no cameras, no campaign donations, and no votes immediately available? If the answer is no, stop calling the performance compassion. It is campaigning.

Black voters matter in close elections, and both political parties know it. Democrats often depend heavily upon Black turnout. Republicans understand that gaining even a modest share of Black voters can change an election. That is why Black communities suddenly receive so much attention when polling numbers tighten. There is nothing wrong with a candidate asking for your vote. The dishonesty begins when that candidate pretends an electoral transaction is a relationship. A photograph inside a church does not prove love, a speech about racism does not prove courage, and quoting Martin Luther King Jr. does not make someone righteous.

Jesus condemned religious leaders who performed good works “to be seen of men” (Matthew 6:1). They wanted public recognition without private faithfulness. That same sickness lives in politics. The crowd sees the handshake, the embrace, the church visit, and the carefully staged photograph. God sees the motive behind it. He knows whether the politician came to serve the people or merely needed their votes.

God also condemned leaders who used the people under their care. “Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?” (Ezekiel 34:2). Those leaders enjoyed their positions while the people suffered. They took whatever benefited them and neglected the weak, the injured, and the scattered. God did not excuse them because they held important positions. He judged them because they used leadership to serve themselves. A politician does the same thing when he enters a struggling community, borrows its pain, collects its votes, and leaves without doing the work.

Black Americans are citizens, not campaign property. No political party owns their votes. Shared skin does not require shared politics, and history does not excuse blind loyalty. A party that expects your vote without earning it has stopped respecting you. It does not see a citizen whose concerns must be heard. It sees dependable inventory that can be counted before the first ballot is cast.

Scripture says, “The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going” (Proverbs 14:15). Believing another round of promises without examining the record is not faithfulness. It is foolishness. Every candidate should be made to answer the same hard questions: What did you actually accomplish? Who benefited? What failed? Where were you between elections? Why should anyone believe you now? Stop being impressed by speeches and examine the fruit.

Pastors must answer for their part as well. A church should never become rented scenery for a political campaign. The pulpit belongs to Jesus Christ. It should not be handed to a politician merely because that person has influence, money, or the preferred party label. When pastors offer applause without accountability, they help sell the performance. James warned the church against giving special treatment to powerful people: “If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin” (James 2:9). That command does not stop being Scripture during an election. If your favored politician receives applause while the opposing candidate receives interrogation, you are not practicing discernment. You are protecting your side.

Showing up at a Black church during election season is easy. Remaining accountable after the choir stops singing and the cameras leave is the real test. If politicians cannot show what they did before they needed your vote, stop applauding them. They did not come to serve you. They came to use you. If you keep rewarding the same performance every four years, they are not the only ones responsible.