Brothers, Don’t Let Us Down: VOTE
Fellow brothers of color, please do not let us down! Get registered and vote!
The history of America has been built on the backs of people of color, especially men of color. Without rehashing the forever long list of injustices done to men of color, we have had to overcome slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation laws, and the drug war which catapulted itself into what my former law professor Michelle Alexander coined it, the “New Jim Crow, mass incarceration”. Black men’s history in America have been on a roller coaster that we did not design nor get in line to ride. So, let’s design our own by getting in line to vote.
In 1870, although Black men “received” the right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, there were numerous impediments to exercising that right under the Jim Crow laws of the south from poll taxes and literacy tests to grandfather clauses and everything in between. Fifty years later, in 1920, women received the right to vote due to the sacrifice and efforts of the Suffragists movement. With a fifty-year head start on Black women, even with impediments to voting, you would think Black men were the most reliable voters — think again.
According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University (CAWP), Black women have outperformed Black men in every presidential election since 1984. As mentioned above, Black men have been incarcerated at much higher rates than both their counterparts and Black women so reasonable minds could argue that is a big part of the reason of why Black women vote more than Black men. That would make sense, but CAWP’s statistics are operating off of the number of eligible, registered voters compared to those that actually reported voting.
According to US Census projections, there are just over one million or so more Black women (22 million) than Black men (21 million). With that information, one would think there’s a similar difference in voting numbers. Nope. In the 2016 presidential election of those who reported voting, three million more Black women than Black men voted. Let me repeat myself, three million. From 1984–2004, there was only a difference of two million votes between Black women and men who reported voting. Oddly and sadly, the gap among Black men and women voters increased to three million starting in 2008 when we had a Black man in the White House. Brothers, that’s horrendous!
I can’t believe I’m going to say this: maybe I can be generous and chalk up the last decade to Black male voter apathy, our extremely high population in jails or other things because that’s all real, but after all that has happened over the history of our country and especially as of recent where dozens of unarmed Black men (and women) have been killed by reckless, outlying individuals with a badge, we have no excuse. We have no other choice, but to vote.
There is no more excuse of “my vote doesn’t matter.” It does. Throughout this country local elections not only include legislative and executive branch officials, they also include law enforcement officials from county and state prosecutors to sheriffs and police chiefs. At the national level, when you vote for president and for members of congress, you’re electing the people that will decide who national law enforcement officials will be. Note, for those of you who point to 2016 as a time they voted and their vote didn’t count because #45 got elected, you’re partially right. Your vote counted, but we unluckily had to experience only the fifth time in our country’s 244-year history, that a person won the presidency while losing the popular vote. So, your vote does count.
There is no more excuse of “what does voting do for me?” Well, as mentioned above, your vote impacts you in every aspect of your life as the people you elect make the policies that impact all aspects of daily life. From criminal justice laws to the economy to health care to education and everything else in between. So, voting does do something for you.
There is no more excuse of “they don’t listen to what I have to say.” If that’s the case, then vote for people that do listen to what you have to say. The only way for government to listen to you is if there are elected people that listen and execute your thoughts and insights. So, vote and elect people who will listen to you.
There is no more excuse of “they don’t care about us.” Well, some could argue that there are folks in elected office who do not care about us. That’s true. But guess what, we have the ability to change that by voting them out of office and voting in new people who do care about us and often times are going to look like us. So, vote and elect people that do care about us.
There is no more excuse of “it’s too hard to vote because they don’t want us to vote.” You’re right. They don’t want us to vote. Yes, in some states there are lots of obstacles to overcome in order to vote but we can feel confident that these obstacles aren’t nearly as difficult as what our ancestors had to overcome for us to be free and to have the right to vote. Also, thankfully now almost every state allows some form of early voting or multiple ways to vote. So, vote and elect people that will make it easier to vote.
Look, if these past three and a half years have not shown us as Black men what happens when we don’t vote, then I don’t know what will because it’s clear as day this country is reverting back to the discriminatory days of our past that lead to the civil rights movement. We will decide if this new status quo of racist, sexist, classist behavior is continued and accepted or ceased and rejected.
We must vote. But first, we have to be registered. If you’re not registered to vote, get registered and get your family and your boys registered so they can vote. If you don’t know where or how to get registered or the deadline to register, go to iwillvote.com or get at me and we’ll point you in the right direction. If you don’t know when the election is, it is November 3rd, regardless of the state and city you live in — remember there’s also a high likelihood you can vote early. Take all your people to vote. The outcome of this election heavily depends on us voting. Black men, for OUR future and those we love, WE MUST VOTE!
Fellow brothers, please don’t let us down. VOTE!
