A rant.
During the run-up to the election victory of Doug Jones, there were a slew of news articles, and pun-idjits pontificatin’ about black voters in Alabama, and would they show up ...yada, yada yada—ad nauseam.
If you think black people are gonna sit on their hands and ignore Roy Moore lauding slavery, that we have forgotten Selma and Birmingham and those four black girls, and the daily racism we live with just trying to go about our business and live our lives—think again. Wake up and smell the black coffee, folks.
In spite of concerted and ongoing efforts by white people to suppress and disenfranchise the black vote—not just in Alabama—we continue to be the most dependable Democratic Party voting block. Period. Especially black women, though our brothers are far more often disallowed from voting due to having a record or being incarcerated.
While we have been dismissed, ‘buked, scorned and dubbed “low info,” and “not progressive” especially those of us who live in what are called “red states”—why is it you don’t get the fact that those states have been painted red with our blood ‘cause they are rigged for white racists?
The majority of black folks still live in the South. Just take a look at the states with the largest black populations. Instead of chasing the white working class bigots who voted for Trump due to so-called income insecurity—I have been saying for years that the Democratic Party needs to focus major efforts on getting black folks their voting rights.
There is nothing progressive about ignoring black Democrats. There is nothing progressive about playing into suppressing our votes with caucuses either (a subject for an upcoming rant). This is not a new topic for me and those of us who are members of Black Kos—(and just in case you don’t know it—a majority of Black Kos members are white) which most of you don’t even bother to read or recommend. Maybe you should. You might learn something. David Reid (dopper0189) our founder and managing editor just pointed out in Black Kos Year in Review yesterday, that March 28, 2018, will mark the 10th anniversary of the Black Kos group. That diary—a compendium of a year of hard work here—got 34 recs. Yet efforts on here dismissing and dissing black elected officials and journalists fly to the top of the wreck list.
I’m pissed—again—and will re-iterate a favorite theme of mine:
Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party
Black women vote—and bring home wins in Virginia
Does this hold true in areas where we aren’t a significant demographic group—of course not. Ignoring where we are is just plain damned stupid and bad politics. Time for Democrats of all colors to support organizations fighting for voting rights and against gerrymandering. The life you save by doing so—just might be yours. Black folks got your back at the ballot box—again—do you have ours?
Like I do in Black Kos—here’s a Twitter Roundup of responses that make my point.
An important point:
