Barack Obama blasted by black Americans over 'lecture' on presidential election - 'We ain't your brother!'
Obama took a brief pit stop at swing state Pennsylvania to speak to voters at a campaign event
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Barack Obama has been blasted by black Americans following a speech he made last week in Pittsburgh on the presidential election campaign trail.
The former president said a lack of enthusiasm for the current Vice President and Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris "seemed to be more pronounced with the brothers".
In Pennsylvania, a swing state, Barack Obama had a quick pit stop to speak to black male voters.
Obama said: "You're thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that's a sign of strength, because that's what being a man is?
"Putting women down? That´s not acceptable."
However, black Americans were quick to respond to the former President's words.
The former president said a lack of enthusiasm for Harris "seemed to be more pronounced with the brothers"
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Republican Vernon Jones, former State Representative for Georgia, said that Obama "berated black men, he rebuked black men, he even scolded black men" for not voting for "madam lock-up-a-brother Kamala Harris" in a video posted on social media.
He added: "As if black men are too stupid that we can't vote in our self-interest, what's best for us, our pocket book, our families. As if we've been immune to the past three and a half years."
"He didn't do anything for black people."
Criticising Kamala Harris' track record while in office, Jones said that the local Democratic party would dispatch the former President to "whip black men back on the plantation to vote Democrat".
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Republican social media star Rob Smith has also retaliated to Obama's speech.
He said: "'Barack Obama basically trotting him out to try to lecture black men because we are apparently not excited enough to vote for Kamala Harris is crazy because where has this man been at for the past four years? I have not seen this man address black men in particular at all over the past four years."
Smith criticised Harris for not representing the majority of black Americans, born and raised in America, highlighting that Obama was born in Hawaii and Harris was from Montreal.
He later produced a video with the caption: "Why Black Men Will NEVER Vote For Kamala Harris."
Studies by Pew Research Center has said that 79% of black voters likely to vote for Harris and 13% for Trump
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According to polling by Pew Research Center in May, 83 per cent of black registered voters were more likely to vote Democrat, while 12 per cent were more likely to vote Republican before Biden stepped down as the Democratic candidate.
More recent studies by the pollster has said that 79 per cent of black voters were inclined to vote for Harris and 13 per cent for Trump.
However, data from National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) shows that one in four black men below the age of 50 would vote for Trump over Harris in the November election.
The New York Times has reported that this margin is slightly smaller, with about 15 per cent of black voters intending to vote for the Republican candidate.