Black Women Shouldn't Have to Save Us All From Republicans
These past few month, elections we have made strive that made up for a disappointing loss for millions when Trump claimed presidency. We have made improvements in legislation with people like (Auntie) Maxine Waters and Kamala Harris. In most recent news, Democrat Doug Jones won election to the U.S. Senate from Alabama in a sharp loss to President Trump that narrows the GOP's majority in the Senate to two. Jones beat Roy Moore, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court who had been accused of sexual assault. Doug Jones went after the Ku Klux Klan for murdering four little girls. Police officers were tasked with taxpayer money to keep him away from particular shopping malls where he harassed a few young girls. Considering everything about Jones and Moore, it was a close race. This is the first time in a generation, Alabama will have a Democratic pro-choice senator. Early exit polls published by The Washington Post showed that 98% of black women voted for the Democratic candidate Doug Jones in the Alabama Senate election. Precise voting data isn't yet available but many are crediting black people, especially black women, with the defeat of Republican Roy Moore in a traditionally red state. Moore said the 19th amendment messed up the country and white women voters voted for Moore who thinks women shouldn't t vote. Despite the turnaround and black voter turnout, its reported that Alabama demanded voter ID then closed driver's license offices in black counties.
Facing a budget crisis, Alabama has shuttered 31 driver’s license offices, many of them in counties with a high proportion of black residents. Coming after the state recently put into effect a tougher voter ID law, the closures will cut off access — particularly for minorities — to one of the few types of IDs accepted. The voter ID law passed in 2011 — which tightened previous ID requirements –includes driver’s licenses on a very short list of government-issued photo IDs accepted in order to vote in the state. If a resident does not have the proper ID he or she must get two poll officials to vouch for his or her identity. Additionally, residents without photo ID can apply for a free state photo ID. The law was put into effect in 2014. Black people aren’t a resource that democrats can only tap into during elections while ignoring their existence in all other ways. What we see is that black people, especially in the south, dying whether it’s an election year or not from policies that suppress their voting and general daily life. However, when a large election like this comes up and garners national attention and the attention of national democratic organizations, it becomes the job of black people to tip the scales. It can very suggestive that black people in general is considered just a switch to turn off and on for elections.
Advantages to note that democrats to keep black lives desperate under GOP representation in red states as it compels them to vote democrat. Voter suppression in these states are a big, serious deal, but why are black southern democrats only worth the attention of national democratic organizations when they need them for a major vote tally? For people in these states what is the point of turning out knowing what it costs them? Not just in suppression tactics, but taking time off work, getting a ride etc. Is it just to make the urgency to vote worth it? Considering democrats liberating black people in the south means that democrats will have to start putting their money where their mouth is! Black people shouldn’t be waiting for national democrats to be implementing this kind of statewide reform, POC have won many local elections in red states. People have been saying "thank you to black people mainly gratitude towards black people overall voter rate since last years presidential election for Democrat Hilary Clinton. One of the reasons black people are affected by Doug Jones is he has noted that he will fight for better and more accessible healthcare. Black mothers in the U.S. die at three to four times the rate of white mothers, one of the widest of all racial disparities in women's health. Black voters have said that Doug Jones' black voter outreach hasn't been any worse than most Democrats in the past. In post-Obama Trump era, black voters are demanding policy instead of solely symbolism.
The chart above conveys that black women are harmed most by systematic racism and sexism and the most eager for progressive reform. It's reasonable that democrats could give black communities the keys and tools of democratic infrastructure so that we can dictate the terms of mobilization. Giving black communities in the south the right to dictate their own mobilization allows them to extract concessions from a cynical, inured political apparatus that doesn’t even want to humanize them. If you’re going to say that the black vote can determine the outcome of a national election, can they should be entitled to something worth of that influence? The DCC should be pouring money in southern communities to elect POC and women into statewide office. Give back the communities that delivered this historic win to you on a silver platter without expecting anything in return. Black humans are constituents who need your full representation, not just a voting block you deploy when necessary. The narrative of people saying black people saved them could imply that majority of white voters-the majority of people in the state wanted to be saved from Roy Moore. Republicans has criticized the voting wait or a "voter fraud theory" for a resulting cheating the election but urban areas that have more people in them are more likely to vote Democrat. Several things all Democrats need to consider is to campaign on a Second Voting Right Act" automatic voter registration restoring voting rights for e-felons, make Election Day a national holiday. In the year black women are one of if not the least likely demographic to vote Republican.
It stands true that black women have been the Democrats' most reliable voting demographic for decades. If you want to be advocate, you shouldn't only count on black women to vote for sole interests. How you listen and how you respond will make or break the democratic party. Black women didn't choose to "save" white people from Moore. Black women didn't. Black women saved themselves. Don't just thank black women. Support them and elect them.
Quote of the Day:
"Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination."-Mae Jemison
