I haven't published here in ages, and I mean AGES. I have been unemployed for almost five years, despite working my ass off and getting three degrees with a small child. I'm 45, black, female, and frustrated as hell.
My daughter was in a private school in Louisiana. As any of you who know anything about my state knows, it's either a private school or risk your child being uneducated, shot, or worse. I had to pull her out her last year and let her move with a family member out of state where she lived in a good school district to graduate.
She was a semester late getting into the community college, but she has managed to keep really good grades, hoping to transfer into LSU.
We went to vote yesterday. She voted in the 2012 elections with no problem. However, yesterday, she was told that she wasn't registered because she was registered in another state, even though she registered here, has her drivers license here, and hasn't lived outside of the state in over two years. We filled out a provisional ballot and I left the voting precinct pissed beyond measure.
We then proceeded to go to LSU, where she had to drop off her transcript. While there, we were told that she didn't meet the residency requirements that were just changed October 14, 2014, because she started school in another state. I mean, she's been here for over two years IN SCHOOL!
By the end of the day, she was in tears, I was fuming, and that brings me to my point:
I would just love to know what developed country can a black person live in where people don't absolutely hate us?
For all of the broo haha and the political punditry, we know why conservatives came out and voted in droves. We know why Obama never gets any credit for anything. We know why congressional candidates ran with their tails tucked firmly between their legs when asked about Obama. They held him to a higher standard than his white counterparts. Any time a certified loon like Romney can campaign with ANYONE and it helps but Obama can't, we have a problem.
I'm tired of the town halls, the "reverse racism" schtik, the belief by many that black people are lazy, unaccomplished, thugs, welfare queens, bringing down the country, etc, etc,, ad nauseum.
Most of the people I know didn't bother to vote, despite my pleas. Their reasoning? Neither party gives a damn about black people. I'm telling them that if they don't vote, they don't have a voice. They tell me, "I have been voting, and I'm still beaten into silence. What's the point?"
Mary Landrieu's team visited 100 black churches this past Sunday to encourage black people to get out and vote. President Obama told us to "Tell cousin Pookey to vote." Michelle Obama said that we should "vote straight Democrat, no matter what."
Yet I look around, and I don't see where anything the Democrats have done that have helped me. My state refused Medicaid expansion, so neither I nor my daughter have health insurance. Jindal has cut funding across the board for education and has made it even more difficult for black people to get into college. Two of my three degrees are from HBCU's, and I've had to whitewash my resume to even engender a promise of a job.
I'm barely hanging on, my daughter may not get into school, neither one of us has healthcare, and we don't hear a peep from anyone until election season.
What's left to do? Vote for a Republican? That's just going from bad to worse.
Sure Democrats take us for granted and think dependency will keep us in their corner. Republicans hate us, though, and they're not even trying to hide it. There is nowhere for a black person in this country to go.
I did some research about countries that were friendly towards black people, and the results were depressing. There isn't an industrialized country that doesn't have some level of deep-seeded hatred for people of color. I can only speak English (a little French), and my options are limited, Plus, I still have my grandmother to consider, who is depending on me to do everything from feeding her to bathing her to washing her bed linens-everything.
Here's my point-IF DEMOCRATS WANT BLACK PEOPLE TO VOTE, WE HAVE TO FEEL LIKE SOMEBODY GIVES A DAMN ABOUT US.
I'm not getting that from President Obama, Joe Biden, the Democrats in the US Congress, the state legislature, nowhere.
If anyone can explain to me what other reason could there possibly be for black people not voting except for us thinking that every interest of every group trumps our own and that we don't really matter no matter how hard we try, I would love to hear it.