Going Out of Your Way to VOTE!

Right now I’m averaging about 25 texts and 75 emails a day, all pertaining to voting and donating to campaigns and why this race or that race is so important. It’s more than any other election season before. But I’m okay with it all, even all the ads and pundit discussions on television, because I understand that this particular election is probably the most consequential for my generation. And as many are tired of hearing about race-related issues and the racial divide, this time it’s a hundred times more important for Black people to vote.

A Privilege as Well as a Right

Not to vote-shame anyone, however… when I hear Black people say they don’t like either candidate so they’re just going to sit this one out, it infuriates me. Forget about “the vote you don’t cast is a vote for whoever your opposition is.” To not vote is an affront to an entire generation of lives that are no longer living, that endured painful, agonizing circumstances to secure your right to vote. The fact that you even have a choice to vote or not, is because of them. Because prior to them, you didn’t have one. Perhaps if people understood more about the political process and the structure of civics, and how it directly affects their lives, they may begin to realize the power of their vote. I think this year, many people have come to an understanding, and are prepared to do whatever it takes to exercise their right and that sacred privilege, afforded on the wings of the John Lewises of the world. He began his adult life fighting for our rights; our right to vote, and it ended with him fighting to restore it. That makes me sad. You can read about his journey and the evolution of The Voting Rights Act in previous blog posts HERE and HERE.

Back to where I started…

I remember the Civil Rights movement. Though I was very young, my parents made sure I was well aware of what what going on, and what it meant for me, being Black in America during that time. Fast forward 50 years, and I hear myself having the same, exact conversations with my peers now, that my parents had with theirs in the late ’60’s. That makes me sad too. Although I know, it was always there, in more recent years, we hadn’t completely “overcome” racial injustice, but we’d made significant advances toward equality and inclusion, only to have them repealed? Question mark inserted because it’s unbelievably almost identically “the same” as when I was 7 years old in 1968. I would love to have the conversation… why is equality really fought so much, and so hard from the other side? At this moment in time I honestly don’t know that we’ll ever figure it out.

How Can I Make Them Understand?

For my fellow Americans who are white, how can I make you understand why you’re always hearing about the Black struggle, the systemic and institutionalized racism, racial bias and profiling so much right now? I can share my history, my encounters, but most times those are met with a “but…”; a rationalization based on a white perspective. You can’t really and truly understand, empathize, and be moved to do something until you take a stroll with me in my shoes. This race thing is so complex and intricate and built into the fabric and nature of this country, that it’s going to take some dissecting for those who truly desire to, and have an open heart, to understand; to “get it”. But Black people know all the tricks and turns of it; the rhetoric, the looks, the signs, the body languages, the rejection, the B.S. Sometimes making eye contact with another Black person, we share our pain and frustration with just a look, a nod or shaking of our heads. Jane Elliott is an excellent resource for breaking race down to a level where it’s plain as day. Love her! You can check out her videos on her website HERE, or anywhere on YouTube.

No Matter What

I have already cast my vote via mail-in ballot for this year’s presidential election, and I checked to make sure it was accepted. I’m grateful that I wasn’t faced with any extenuating circumstance to prevent me from doing so, but unfortunately, I fear I’m in the minority. All over the country there are states that seem to be going out of their way to make it difficult for people to vote… in the middle of a raging pandemic! There are many ways they attempt to suppress the vote. A really good, comprehensive docu-movie on this is “All In: The Fight for Democracy” now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Here’s a PSA:

IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY MAILED YOUR BALLOT IN, IT’S TOO LATE TO DO SO NOW. YOU MUST TAKE IT TO YOUR POLLING PLACE ON ELECTION DAY, DROP IT IN ONE OF THE OFFICIAL BALLOT BOXES IN YOUR CITY, OR TAKE IT DIRECTLY TO YOUR COUNTY CLERK’S OFFICE.

The lines are long, the road blocks are many, and I know you may be tired, but we must be willing to go out of our way, and vote by any means necessary. The populace of the people must prevail.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in going back 50 years. I remember having to be escorted to my de-segregated school in the second grade, being taken into “custody” for a crime I hadn’t committed when I was 13, being spit on when I was 16, and these are just some of the overt incidences. I won’t go into all the times I was called out my name, refused or delayed service or followed in a store, turned down for a job, turned down for a loan or received a higher interest rate because even though my credit was excellent, I was still considered “a high risk”. I will do whatever I have to do, to keep from having to “go back” to any of that ever again. If you agree, please VOTE as if your life, rights and livelihood depend on it… because they do. But at the end of the day, I’m a Christian, and I believe, no matter what, God’s got me, and “no weapon formed against me shall prosper.” Isaiah 54:17