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Voting is Key to Empowerment
By Charles McNair
Ink Contributor
“A slave who dies of natural
causes will not balance two dead
flies on the scale of eternity."
- Eidrige Cleaver, Black
Panther Party for Defense
The opening quote was made
in the 1960s and may evoke
images of the Antebellum South
when trade in the human flesh
and souls was legal. It applied to
the situation in America over
200 years ago and, unfortunately,
it applies today.
The statement makes the
simple and poignant point that if
you do not do anything to make
positive changes in your life and
the lives of those in similar
situations, then you will have
lived in vain. It urges us to
resist the status quo and
challenges us to continue the
legacy of social change started
by the first African who jumped
ship.
Although African Americans
face many issues that threaten
our existence, I want to address
the issue of enfranchisement In
a capitalistic society such as
America, there are two things
that equal power.
When 1 talk of power, I talk
about it in today’s reality, not as
reality should be. Our reality
should be one in which people
act on moral and ethical
standards, from the goodness of
their hearts.
It should be a society where
children do not have to go
hungry, uneducated, cold, etc.
Instead, it is a reality that only
respects power and despises the
powerless. In the reality that is
America, circa 1994, power
comes in two forms—organized
money and organized people.
Voting is a form of organized
people power. Voting for those
who truly represent our interests
as well as holding them
accountable would be a way
begin to settle some of the other
issues adversely affec ting African
Americans.
Black people need to slop
being the objects of American
politics. We need to be the
subjects as well. We need to be
involved in the decision-making
that affects our lives. This is
called self-determination, an
African value. The days of
waiting on white liberals to
represent our views and interests
in government and to speak for
us are long gone. Having
someone to constantly do these
things for you creates a
destructive sentiment of
paternalism.
Today, the rising feeling of
conservatives is that “the blacks
is inexcusable.
Wake up! We live in a
democratic society where you
elect, by popular vote, the people
who represent your interest.
During Reconstruction, blacks
swarmed to the polls and elected
numerous blacks to office. They
cherished the right to vote
because it was withheld from
them all of their lives and they
know the potential it held for
people’s cry for
enfranchisement...and white
liberals’ silence.
Wliat I am saying is that
every time an eligible black
pCTSon does not cast a ballot he/
she does at least two things: First,
he or she sends a message to
conservative whites that black
people (noting that voting is an
individual right it is normally
viewed in terms of a group
• Tit tCIt 'Cl tl.
« I mJt
I*
I
Malcolm X
one of the biggest advocates for "the bullet or tlie bfillot.'
have been helped long enough.
They should be able to stand on
their own two feet now; they
have achieved equality.” I need
not comment on the statement of
equality, but I will say this— we
will stand on our own two feet in
spile of your unlevel playing
field.
A part of standing on our own
two feel is solidarity in voting.
In order to cast votes of unity,
though, the community’s
individuals have lo vote. Sadly
to say, there is not enough voter
turn out from the black
community, especially on this
campus, to optimize our political
power.
Reasons for not voting range
from scheduling conflicts to
sickness lo apathy. In those
cases where it is impossible or
proves an incredible hardship to
cast a ballot, it is understandable.
But when the reason for not
voting is general apathy and, “I
don’t get into things like that,” it
improving their lives. They also
know that voting was a right held
by citizens and now that they
were citizens, they could employ
a right that was once held
exclusively by white land-owning
males.
After Reconstruction and the
advent of the Compromise of
1877, many blacks were lynched,
burned, and even chopped to
pieces for attempting to exercise
the right which we have today
taken for granted.
The hunger for freedom and
justice led thousands up>on
hundreds of thousands of blacks
to live in fear, to suffer deaths of
loved ones, lo go homeless after
their house had been burned lo
the ground and to spend sleepless
nights watching for KKK raids.
These conditions contributed
to young black boys and girls
growing up believing that they
were second-class citizens. All
I of this was the result of the while
j supremacist’s reaction to black
phenomena) don’t want lo vote,
are apathetic and lazy, and want
someone else to speak for us. To
these conservatives, blacks look
as if they are sitting on their
behinds waiting for a handout.
Second, he or she not only
desecrates the coundess graves
of those who died trying to cast a
vole but also the thousands of
black soldiers who died fighting
American wars. These hcq)eful
and deluded soldiers fought
under the assumption that
fighting for Uncle Sam and
human rights for others would
insure their rights in America A
sad commentary on their dashed
hopes is that many black soldiers
were killed on their return from
the fOTeign theaters of World
War I...while still wearing their
uniforms.
All of this about voting with
solidarity and strengthening the
community kx)ks good on paper
and in theory, but the reality of
diversity within the black
community itself possesses a
tough question of how and for
whom to vote.
Of course we cannot gave an
effective voting bloc when the
majority of the people do not
vote. We have to become
politically active. This does not
mean that everyone has to run
for office or practice the back
stabbing brand of politics so
prevalent in America today.
This does mean, however,
that we become cognizant of the
candidates’ platform, past
experience, and history in order
to make an informed decision. It
also means that we make a pact,
in the true spirit of ujamaa
(cooperative community building
and vision sharing; familyhood),
to vote for the most qualified
and responsive candidate as a
community.
We must also keep the
candidate, if elected, accountable
to the black community. Ujamaa.
then, is critical and crucial to the
term “Power to the People.” It is
the truest sense of “democracy.”
Without it, we swim in quicksand-
the more we struggle, the faster
we sink politically, socially,
economically and culturally.
We must, as Malcolm X
suggested, come together on the
basis of the things we have in
common and put aside our
differences in wder to fight our
common foe. Malcolm also
advocated the practice of what he
called “positive neutrality,”
something similar to what Kwame
Nkrumah use in Ghana, non-
alignment. Simply put the black
community accepts any positive
aid from any group, with no
strings attached, to be used in the
way that the community sees fit
This way, outside influences will
not control the community. We
must stop bickering amongst
ourselves, making it easier to be
divided and exploited. We must
unite.
So the question becomes,
“Who should I vote for?” Would
you vote for someone who does
not have your best interest at heart,
no matter how “qualified?”
The criteria for choosing a
candidate are experience and
sincere concern for the
See VOTING, Page 15