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D.L. Hughley explains the deliberate use of division as a mechanism for controlling voter behavior and election results.
D.L. Hughley used his latest “GED Section” on The D.L. Hughley Show to connect decades of political history to a heated Michigan race. In just over four minutes, he moved from a famous California election to tensions in Detroit and challenged listeners to check their facts before they vote.
Hughley opened with the Bradley Effect, a theory that some voters tell pollsters one thing and then do another in the voting booth. The term comes from Tom Bradley, the longtime Los Angeles mayor whom Hughley called probably the most popular in the city’s history. During Bradley’s 1982 run for California governor, polls showed him well ahead. Hughley recalled his parents celebrating the night before the election, believing California was about to elect a Black governor. Bradley lost. “Those polls turned out to be lies,” Hughley said, adding that the pattern still shows up across the country.
Haley Stevens and the January 6th Comparison
Hughley then turned to Haley Stevens and made his sharpest claim of the segment. He said he sees no real difference, “other than methodology,” between how Stevens has handled the race and how Donald Trump acted on January 6th. In his view, both refused to accept the results and moved to disrupt them. Hughley noted that Stevens had drawn majority support from Black voters in Detroit, with numbers he said were far stronger than El-Sayed’s. He accused her of using a Black church as a backdrop to “stab her constituents in the back.”
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Hughley opened with the Bradley Effect, a theory that some voters tell pollsters one thing and then do another in the voting booth. The term comes from Tom Bradley, the longtime Los Angeles mayor whom Hughley called probably the most popular in the city’s history. During Bradley’s 1982 run for California governor, polls showed him well ahead.
Hughley also described a trip to Detroit last Wednesday. American Muslim and Arab Muslim community members invited him to the city amid growing tension there, and he met with Abdul El-Sayed during the visit. A friend who does charity work in Detroit told him that many Black residents feel disrespected by Muslim owners of neighborhood liquor stores. Hughley said he has heard that complaint from several people.
Hughley pushed back on that claim. He said most liquor, convenience, party, and tobacco store owners in Detroit are Chaldeans, who are Catholic Christians, not Muslims. The next-largest group, he said, includes Lebanese and Yemeni owners, many of whom he described as Arab Christians. He also pointed out that El-Sayed’s family comes from Egypt, which sits in Africa, while Lebanon and Yemen are in the Middle East. As far as Hughley knows, El-Sayed’s family never owned a liquor store. “If you’re going to use the talking points of the right, at least get your geography right,” he said.
Hughley closed by warning that these narratives are designed to “pit us against us.” He compared them to the familiar habit of bringing up Chicago whenever a Black person is killed. He also rejected attacks claiming El-Sayed, a physician, is “not really a doctor.” Hughley’s message to voters was direct. If a complaint is going to shape your vote, make sure you know who you’re actually talking about. “How do you help anybody when your antidote is hate and divisiveness?” he asked.
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