Why you should be voting in every election, period.
Wow, it has been a full month without a post y’all… time is flying and becoming extremely limited on my end. You know I had to come back out with something special for this 2020 election day. This post is really just my thoughts on the idea of not voting in this election because one you simply do not agree with either candidate or two you honestly could care less. I am speaking specifically to my Black and Brown folk that do not think their vote matters because our political system is entirely corrupt… yes our system is corrupt but what are we going to do about it?
Just a quick preface before getting into the nitty gritty: I genuinely just want people to understand that in order to fix systems and combat systemic inequity we have to get into the system and dismantle it from the inside out. One of my favorite authors, Audre Lorde said, you cannot use the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s home… if voting wasn’t so important, why do you think America tried to keep marginalized groups from attaining this right for so long? Not voting is essentially submitting to white supremacy and white racism… they don’t want a high Black voter turnout because they don’t want to hear us or see us in spaces that were made for them. It is not enough to acknowledge that systems are broken and use that as basis for forfeiting your right to vote. Also, if you are not voting then what are you doing for your communities? We cannot sit back and point the finger at systems but then have no plan to infiltrate them. So, with that being said let’s talk about why you should be heading out to the polls today.
So it's the year 1867 and you make your way down to the polls because you and your boys can finally vote in an election. You're speaking to the man administering the ballots but he keeps asking you about your grandfather. All of a sudden you hear him say, “If your grandfather was able to vote in an election then you can go ahead and fill this ballot out”. You look around at the men you came with and realize that this is yet another trap America has subjected the Black community to. There was no way in hell any of your grandfathers had the right to vote being that you all were the first generation to be freed from slavery.
That was the grandfather clause. One of the many ways America––since its inception–– strategically prevented non-white communities from having a say in what goes on within the country. Black codes, Jim Crow and other tactics were used to make it difficult for POC to feel as if America was their home. In 1870, the beloved fifteenth amendment was passed which stated that voting rights could not be denied on the basis of race, color or any previous condition of servitude. Finally… right? No! Black people were being terrorized by white supremacist groups in attempt to stop them from voting. There were poll taxes, literacy tests and various other tactics used to keep Black communities away from the polls.
This little history lesson you might have learned back in fourth or fifth grade (if you’re lucky) but that history is important now more than ever. Although we are about 150 years removed from the time of the reconstruction, voter suppression tactics are still being used in Black and Brown communities to prevent us from voting. President Trump has publicly referred to mail in ballots as fraudulent and corrupt when it has been proven that mail in voting is completely safe. This misinformation could potentially sway vulnerable communities from voting. Also, if this method of voting is so “dangerous”, why hasn’t he come up with ways to accommodate those that cannot physically get to the polling sites or may not feel comfortable being that he let COVID become so uncontrollable in the U.S? Notice how many polling sites are in predominantly Black and Brown communities… Sites tend to be very limited sites and this causes the lines to be extremely long. Not everyone has all day to stand in line to vote! Another major example of voter suppression is the fact that Black and Brown people are underrepresented in the U.S census. Let me remind you that the census determines how much funding states get but also controls the number of representatives sent to congress from that state. The census should be filled out by every person living in the United States regardless of immigration status but Trump has made it his mission to deter undocumented immigrants and from filling it out. He even tried to put a question about immigration status on the Census but fortunately that was blocked by the courts. Okay so what does this have to do with voting? Since the census dictates how many representatives that state will have, it will also determine how many electoral votes the state will have. The larger the state = the higher the number of representatives that will vote in the presidential election.
If our vote doesn’t matter, why do they work so hard to steer us from the polls? The short answer is our vote most definitely matters and their goal is to make us think otherwise. By feeding into the notion that voting doesn’t change anything for Black people, you are making it 1000x easier to suppress the Black vote. The scariest part of white racism is that it has been so deeply woven into every facet of society that many of us cannot even recognize it. You might think you are taking back control through deciding not to vote but what you are actually doing is allowing an entire country––that could care less about Black lives–– to make an important choice for you. I understand that it feels difficult to choose between two white men that do not fully understand our communities but regardless a choice has to be made. When we initially got the right to vote––and by we, I mean Black men––do you think their decision was easy? It couldn’t have been because it was okay to be blatantly racist at that time. Our ancestors were literally voting between people that could definitely care less if they lived or died but they still voted. They voted because they knew their power and eventually the country even realized how powerful the Black vote was; this is why they want us staying home on November 3rd!
There was so much more I wanted to say here but I didn’t want to write a short novel. I really hope ya’ll are all getting out to vote in this election but even the smaller elections. We have the power to decide who sits in the oval office… Why give that up? Notice how anything that gives Black and Brown communities power threatens white supremacy. Let’s keep threatening them with our voices, our actions and our persistence. Get out and go vote!
P.S: I hope you guys are doing well! Please shoot me a comment about anything, I’d love to hear from you.
Stay safe and empowered,
The BWE
