Black Votes
Sorry it has been a while…almost a week, wow.
In that time a lot has happened and I honestly have so many things I want to say that I didn’t know where to start.
I wrote drafts on responses to certain Black men being in their feelings for being, correctly, called out by President Obama. I wrote thoughts about feelings of frustration and anger and despair at the state of where we are (more on that later) and just left it in the drafts folder. So much to say, so many frustrations, ah— but then yesterday I officially cast my vote for Kamala D. Harris as President of the United States and for a minute felt okay(ish).
It was one of those things where it felt good and bad and all the things. First the good— I voted for a Black woman for PRESIDENT. I did my thesis in college on why women should be in leadership, doing a case study on countries who had female heads of state and the corresponding economic prosperity. I am a big proponent of women being in charge of things. But even me, in that youthful (RIP) naivety didn’t fathom a Black female head of state, not here at least. And to be able to cast that vote felt affirming.
It also made me think of my mom. My mom who didn’t vote until Obama, my mom who is a Black woman who has had to endure so much. It made me think of my granny, who sharecropped in Alabama and outside of me, never seemed to dream of a Black person becoming President, much less a Black woman like HER.
It reminded me that though are faults are enormous, we have progressed a long way. And for that, I am grateful.
But then I turned on the news while I waited to fly out to Arizona. And it was a stark reminder of the other side of where we are. For every person who feels like me, empowered by the progress that enables someone who is like my granny to be a candidate for President, there are the racist white supremacists who view that as a final straw in their battle for ‘their’ America.
The people who refuse to see us as humans and only see us as less than. Don’t believe me?
Check out this thing that had me literally steaming for a few hours.
If you don’t want to watch the video, here is a short summary. As the orange man sits with Faux News for a discussion, they start by talking about Amber Thurman the Georgia woman who died after complications that weren’t treated because of the asinine abortion bans.
Her family, still grieving, recorded a video about what happened that aired the same morning of this discussion. When it was brought up, Trump the melon felon made jokes about HIS thing would be better ratings to raucous laughter.
WHAT?
A Black woman literally died and they are having a good ol fashioned knee slapper.
They don’t care. Black women are disposable. Black women are not humans but they are the butt of the joke.
My blood boiled.
It still burns me up. It was also just a reminder. Where some of us see and feel progress, others see and feel threats. How are we choose to navigate this inflection point will literally set the course for the future and can either send society forward or FAR BACKWARDS.
It is hard for me, a Black man in America, to sit and watch this race be CLOSE when the options are so clear. The fact this is a where we are hurts. It really does. But yesterday, when I cast my vote for a Black woman as President. I voted for my mom. I voted for my granny. I hope other people do as well.