I have been debating posting a diary for a few days now regarding Blacks, the past election, and the upcoming one. But, a recent diary entry (now taken down) beat me to the punch. Unfortunately, though, as I read the comments to the entry it became not a discussion about the topic but a referendum on the poster. I don't throw out the charge of racism easily. (I don't throw out the charge or homophobe easily, either.) But, something about the broohaha that ensued smacked of a lack of racial understanding and definitely didn't have a sense of racial sensitivity.
I have no opinion on the poster as I lost my trusted user (TU) status a bit ago (for either lack of posting while I was out of the country or because of a changeover to Scoop) and can't read the posts for which she was excoriatedd. I don't know. Whatever happened, I think it's a tragedy that the topic got buired. In fact, I was quite bitter that people chose to attack the poster and not address the topic. Perhaps the topic has been addressed adequately elsewhere during the life of DKos. I've been a near daily user of Kos for about a year and a half now, I believe (I can't remember exactly). But, I don't remember this being discussed a lot. But, even if it were discussed before, it doesn't mean it can't be discussed again. One commentor even felt incensed that the diarist would put this up even though the article linked to was but a day or so old. But, the fact remains that ONE MILLION black votes were not even counted. That's nearly 10% of the eligible voting Black population.* And that deserves a lot of talk. I mean, how many diarists trot out the same posts day after day after day. Their posts become memes, even if its only in that one person's head (a self-meme?). One million missing black votes deserves to be a full-fledged Gore and less for Nader than any
other traditional constituency.
Greg Palast is the one who first turned me on to this travesty. I think what saddens me the most about all of this is that I can't blame it on any one person or group. I don't think that it has to do with the Republicans being evil. It's part of the system. This is systematic racism and classism at its best. In places where Blacks and poor folks (unfortunately, often the same folks) live, the resources simply aren't always there to have things done the right way. Money talks. It builds upon itself so that the more one has the greater voice one has allowing one to gain more money, etc. But, I digress. My main point is that this is a civil rights issue. So many people didn't fight and lose their lives in the 60's so that votes could be simply thrown away.
I'm tired of us Black folk being taken for granted. I'm tired of giving the benefit of the doubt. I want people to listen. I want us to be heard, to be heard beyond the particularly shrill voices that come out every now and then, to be heard on the substance and not on the presentation always, to have some other people come out and join us.
So, what do I think we can do? I think we should raise a ruckus. And I think that ruckus should be about election monitoring. Tacking election monitoring onto the spoiled votes issue achieves a lot, I think. It takes election monitoring out of the realm of "it's a good thing," to "it's necessary." Write to your congress people. Put up something on your Web site if you have one. Talk about it here. I know there are many more angles on it. Think of other things to do and let us all know.
And thanks for letting me sound off. That felt good!
* This is based on a few assumptions. 1) 2000 Census data say there are 24 million voting age blacks in the US. Voting patterns suggest that 50% of the population voted in the last election. One million out of 12 million is slightly less than 10%, but with many Blacks incarcerated and ineligible for voting in a lot of places, that brings us closer to the 10% mark.