Republican strategist Melik Abdul argued in an August 19 op-ed that national civil rights organizations and attorneys prioritize cases based on their potential for monetization and political utility rather than the severity of the violence. Abdul contrasted the national attention given to Nolan Wells, a Mississippi teenager whose death has not been linked to a crime, with the lack of national coverage for Daremiah Banks, an 18-year-old killed by a gunman in Washington, D.C.
Abdul cited the 2024 presidential election results as evidence that Black voters are responding to this perceived selectivity. According to Newsweek, Donald Trump won 16 percent of the Black vote in 2024, which Abdul noted was the highest share for a Republican nominee since 1976. He argued that families whose stories do not involve police officers or fit specific political narratives are often excluded from national platforms and funding.
The op-ed highlighted the case of Nolan Wells, who died during a boat trip in July. Attorney Ben Crump announced results of an independent autopsy at an NAACP convention, and although Crump acknowledged the results were undetermined and showed no evidence of wrongdoing, the case received a vigil on Martha’s Vineyard and a platform at the National Association of Black Journalists convention. In contrast, Banks was killed by a rifle barrage in Southeast D.C. just days ago, but her case has not been taken up by national attorneys or conventions.
On a broader scale, Abdul stated that the "race industry" focuses on police shootings, which he claimed represent a small fraction of Black homicide victims. Citing The Washington Post's police-shootings database, he argued that unarmed Black victims numbered in the "low double digits annually," which he contrasted against the thousands of total homicides. For a typical family in a high-crime district, this means that unless their case involves a "villain" that fits a specific narrative—such as a police officer or a specific state history—they may notice a significant lack of external support, legal funding, or media attention to help solve the crime or support the bereaved.
The knock-on effect of this perceived disparity appears to be a shift in political alignment. Abdul directly linked the "selective" nature of modern activism to the fact that Donald Trump increased his share of the Black vote to 16 percent in 2024. This trend suggests that if national advocacy groups do not broaden their scope to include victims of community violence, they may face continued loss of influence and a fracturing of traditional voting blocs. Currently, the shooter of Daremiah Banks remains at large, and no dates for future vigils or national legal interventions for her family have been reported.
The concrete change for individuals in these communities is the presence or absence of a "national campaign" that can pressure local authorities or provide financial relief. For example, while the Wells family received a third-party autopsy funded by Colin Kaepernick and a stage at national conventions, the Banks family in D.C. has received only minimal local coverage. Abdul argues this affects how justice is pursued; when a case is "monetized," it gains resources that other victims' families must do without, potentially impacting the speed or thoroughness of investigations.
Looking forward, this debate sets a precedent for how civil rights organizations manage their caseloads and public image. Abdul's report on the 2024 election numbers suggests that these internal industry practices have external political consequences, specifically moving Black voters toward Republican candidates. What happens next depends on whether these organizations adjust their criteria for representation; for now, the Banks case remains without national backing as the shooter remains at large.