A few weeks back I was having an offline conversation with
Black males. They express to me a desire
to not vote because voting doesn’t matter.
I admit I lost my cool. “Not Vote!!!?? Have you lost your fucking mind?” In my defense these children were 17-19 years
of age. In their defense they are 17-19
years of age. I realized they may have
missed a few lessons in public school.
However, when I am on Twitter and supposedly educated Black people are
yelling, “Earn My Vote”, I think we have fucking lost it.
First thing first it is still 2015 why are we discussing the
2016 presidential election? We had 464
people killed by police as of May 2015.
That stat is not including the unofficial number or those ruled suicide. In my view, we should be organizing to survive
2015. At the current rate of the Jim
Crowe killings we may not be here in 2016 to vote. Many
of the issues we face in the Black community can be resolved at the local or
state level if we vote and engage locally.
There is no reason on this planet or the next five as to why
Ferguson, Missouri is controlled by the minority White citizens. I do
applaud recent action for a recall in Ferguson but the fact remains, Mike Brown
should not have been police by racist police under a racist chief under a
racist mayor and a racist city council.
All of those things can be changed simply by voting. No excuses.
The
effort is still ongoing although the signatures for recall were rejected for
bogus reasons. The people are on the right track and I
support their continued efforts.
Which brings me to the second item, why are we not engaging
with current elected officials? Instead
of focusing on 2016 presidential election, why are we not organizing trips to
Texas or Ohio to sit in the offices of the governors? Why are there no protests organized to sit in
the offices of Boehner or McConnell or Ryan until funding is released back for
programs that helped minorities? A
president can purpose a program but Congress funds it.
Engaging with elected officials isn’t always about
confrontation. The only time ambush
moves should be made is if the candidate or official has refused to
engage. Try a simple letter or phone
call. I have an issue with my governor
who has refused to engage beyond a “thank you for writing” response. Well, it is election year in
Mississippi. It is now time for me to
get him to answer on the spot certain questions. Note, I did attempt to engage via other means
before resorting to ambush tactics.
All stating someone needs to earn their vote need to get a
reality check. As much as I wish there
was a progressive not corporate beholden political party that had a chance of
winning public office, I know we are not there yet. Somehow, Libertarian ideals have seeped into
the mindset of some Blacks. These people
feel they are better off not voting until they awake to realize many of the
social gains achieved have been rescinded by the GOP. They
honestly think, we, who make up 11% of the nation would be okay under Tea Party
GOP rule. Visit Mississippi then get back
to me on how okay we would be. The
grown-up reality is, for now, we do have to vote the lesser of two evils.
We don’t have the luxury of White heterosexual males of not
voting. We haven’t arrived to the point
of being able to not vote. Rather than taking talking points and running with
them do your own research. Check out the
platforms of the two parties in the links below. Government works when we don’t give up our
part in it. Take ownership of your government.
You are a citizen of the United States, step-up and act like it.
Always read the links.
I write my views but give sources as to why I feel as I do.
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