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THE BIG STORY

Black voters for Biden, Latino voters for Trump, and what happens next

The election has been over for weeks, and while we know who won (Joe Biden, no matter how many weird lawsuits President Trump files), the Democratic and Republican parties are starting to try to figure out what comes next.

Biden has Black voters, and particularly the 91% of Black women voters who cast their ballots for him, to thank for his victory. And while they welcome Biden's win, they told reporter Emmaneul Felton they question Democrats' commitment to racial justice. "When it comes to doing the hard work of upending systems of oppression and subordination that impact Black people, there's not an appetite for that," says Erika Wilson, a law professor at the University of North Carolina. "But there is an appetite to go back to the days where the president wasn't openly cavorting with white supremacists."

So what should Democrats do if they want to keep winning? Listen to Black voters, who have "a PhD in white people," Wilson says.

Meanwhile, millions of Latinos threw their support behind President Donald Trump, who gained significant ground for the party in Democratic strongholds and once again shocked people who believe — erroneously — that Latinos continue to vote as a unified block, focused only on immigration.

Karla Zabludovsky and Nidhi Prakash have the story of Mayra Flores, whose swap from voting Democrat to Republican is a microcosm of what happened in Texas's Rio Grande Valley, where Trump gained ground in a potential sign of things to come.

"Forget who the president is. He's not a perfect man, he's not free of sin," Flores says. "What I want is for people to focus on the [party's] platform." It's a message about the Republican Party's conservative values, which are drawing more and more Latino support.

Denise Pumphrey shouts "first-time voter" at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage on Election Day. Darron Cummings / AP

SNAPSHOTS

Billie Eilish opened up about having an "identity crisis" when she got famous. "It's just, you forget I'm literally 18," Eilish told Vanity Fair. "It's funny that I'm expected to have found myself, and stick with it."

Instagram influencer Alexis Sharkey was found dead on the side of a road. Houston police said Sharkey's body had no visible wounds and that the cause of death is still pending an autopsy by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

IT'S NEWS O'CLOCK

DID YOU KNOW there's a BuzzFeed News podcast? News O'Clock is an easy, breezy way to catch up on what's going on in the afternoon. In yesterday's episode, which you can listen to here, hosts Casey Rackham and Zach Stafford talk about President-elect Joe Biden's historic all-women communications team, and if there is going to be a pandemic baby boom. Subscribe and see what they have to say today.

THE TICK-TOCK

Getting through the pandemic, 60 seconds at a time

"TikTok's greatest accomplishment this year, which I'm sure everyone can agree on, is stopping me from swallowing my own tongue." We're all finding our own ways to muddle through the pandemic. Scaachi Koul's method: burying herself in TikTok, the app that promises that it won't make you think about anything for more than 60 seconds. "It's become rote to say that just surviving this year is a miracle," she says, "but it's the truth. If you're squeezing your way through 2020 with all your limbs, lungs, and guts intact, you did the best job possible."

Hey! You're still here! And that's pretty great,

Brandon

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