The good news for the Biden campaign is that recent efforts to engage with certain segments of the Black electorate is hitting the mark. The bad news is that the campaign is still fumbling away chances to promote the president’s signature industrial policies as beneficial to working class Black men.

As the Juneteenth holiday approaches, it may be appropriate to consider ways that Black labor culture can be used to appeal to this constituency. Some Black men are employed in occupations under threat by artificial intelligence and automation, according to a McKinsey study, “The Future of Work in Black America.”

But first, the good news: The Biden campaign has made strides to reach out to Black voters through professional organizations and associations. In May, Biden engaged Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore as an advocate, spoke at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, delivered the commencement address at Morehouse College, appeared at the NAACP in Detroit, hosted a state dinner honoring President William Ruto of Kenya and was interviewed on Black talk radio.

The campaign, however, has yet to demonstrate how the president’s industrial policy investments of $454 billion for infrastructure and $19 billion for electric vehicle retooling benefits the Black workforce. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns tend to rely on sports figures and hip hop stars as emissaries to blue collar men. The Biden campaign, however, is better positioned to honor the dignity of the Black industrial worker.

© The Hill