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Black Voters Don’t Need Lectures, They Need Empathy
Not forgetting about us for four years at a time might help too
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
Every single election cycle, a segment of the Black population is asked why it lacks faith in a political system that pays them such little mind. Rarely is the question asked with sincere interest in an answer, though. It’s merely a precursor to the true motivation: to ostracize the most vulnerable among us for perceived complacency.
I’ve never found the strategy persuasive, but its longevity is undeniable. Our community’s most notable uncle and auntie duo, Mr. and Mrs. Obama, may be the most famous recent examples of this, but high and mighty thoughts are not limited to the rich and powerful. I see it on social media, even in what I thought was escapist TV like Love & Marriage: Huntsville. Here I was thinking I am just going to laugh at country and grand Black folks with delusions of grandeur and/or wayward dicks, but instead I got treated to the same tired “people marched for this” angle.
As always, I fault our political coverage.
In a recent story from AP, a 31-year-old Black woman offers a criticism that feels passed down like a (bad) recipe. “As Black people, a lot of the people who look like us died for us to be able to sit in public, to vote, to go to school, and to be able to walk around freely and live our lives,” she said. “Every election is an opportunity, so how dare we not vote after our ancestors fought for us to be here?”
When some of y’all Black folks talk like this, do you feel good about yourself? Do you feel like you really said something of value? I hope not.
For the record: According to a study published by the Brookings Institute, Black people very much vote their fair share collectively. “While Whites traditionally have the highest voter turnout relative to other racial groups,” authors Rashawn Ray and Mark Whitlock write, “Blacks have higher voter turnout than Hispanics and Asians.”
I’m nobody’s latte liberal — I just know that you can’t always call the police when you fear…
