Stephen A. Smith’s ‘dream’: ‘Every black person in America vote Republican’ for one election

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith said Tuesday that he has a dream: “Every black person in America vote Republican” for one election.

“What I dream is that for one election, just one, every black person in America vote Republican,” he said. “Because from what I’ve read, and I’m open to correction, but from what I’ve read, Barry Goldwater is going against Lyndon B. Johnson. He’s your Republican candidate. He is completely against the Civil Rights Movement.

“Lyndon B. Johnson was in favor of it. What happens is, he wins office, Barry Goldwater loses office,” Mr. Smith added. “But there was a senate, a Republican senate, that pushed the votes to the president’s desk. It was the Democrats who were against Civil Rights legislation. So because President Lyndon B. Johnson was a Democrat, black America assumed the Democrats were for it.”

While speaking at the Impact Symposium at Vanderbilt University earlier in the week, the popular sports personality said that black American disenfranchise themselves by essentially voting for Democrats, and then blame white people for that disenfranchisement.

“Black folks in America are telling one party, ’We don’t give a damn about you.’ They’re telling the other party, ’You’ve got our vote.’ Therefore, you have labeled yourself disenfranchised because one party knows they’ve got you under their thumb. The other party knows they’ll never get you, and nobody comes to address your interest,” Mr. Smith said.

Mr. Smith was in speaking as part of the college’s “How You See It: Perceptions of (In)Equality,” event.

Prior to the comments he told the audience to “buckle up and get ready” because they would go viral.

“Do you know that since 1964, black America hasn’t given the Republican Party more than 15 percent of its vote?” Mr. Smith said. “My point is, when you go buy a house, do you look at one? When you are looking for a car, do you look at one? When you want to buy some clothes, when you want to buy some shoes, when you want to buy anything, you’re shopping around. […] We don’t do that with politics and then we blame white America for our disenfranchisement when it is us.”