As a young black woman growing up in the suburbs, I have been subjected to racism for as long as I can remember. The use of digital activism has spiked throughout my social media feeds within the past few months, and the conversations on racism that we needed to engage in years ago are finally happening.
A month before the 2020 US election, the conversation about voting was sparked. During my college years, I became more vocal about issues affecting the black community, both externally and internally, and one topic that became very important to me was voting.
I always stressed the importance of voting to young black and brown people because I was taught that our ancestors died for us to have this right and it would be a shame not to use it.
However, Black people are continuously being murdered at alarming rates. White people have the privileges of making cute Instagram posts on Canva entitled “Why White Privilege is Bad” without having to implement real change while black people continue to suffer.
This year has radicalized me and my views in ways I could not have imagined. I realized that telling marginalized groups to vote because it’s “important” and their “constitutional right” without giving them the resources to make sure they make an educated vote is the perfect example of privilege.
There are black people that don’t want to hear how important voting is because they’ve already registered, they voted, and things are still the same.
An Instagram post entitled “Fun Facts About Voting” sounds cute, but what about implementing real change in our systems? Sending in your ballot is great, but besides that and sharing posts on your stories, what else have you done? What else have we done? What else can we do?
These were all points that I never took into consideration until now because I thought sending in my ballot whenever the opportunity arises was me doing my part.
The images that come to mind when I think about civic engagement are now more than just voting. We need to be in our own communities talking amongst our neighbors, our elders, and our peers to get to the bottom of the issues that lie right underneath our noses.
We must volunteer and work to help our own cities, towns and boroughs become a better place. We need to call our representatives, let them know how we feel about these issues, and demand to know how they plan on taking action.
We need more young, black people with fresh and new ideas running for office; we already know what hasn’t worked for our people in the past, so we must look forward and find out what does. And finally, we need to mentor younger generations to ensure they follow our lead.
Regardless of the outcome of the 2020 election, our work in uplifting our own communities is far from over.
You might feel that voting is only good in theory, you might feel that running for office will not work, but if you have the resources, you must do something. For others that do not have the access to these resources, one must provide. Isn’t that the supposed “American way” white people are always talking about?
One thing that will keep us from moving forward is sitting back and doing nothing. We as black people know that silence is compliance and if you want to make a change in this world, you must fight for it in the best way you know how.
Black people have come so far, but we have so much farther to go. Voting is a great start in one’s civic engagement, but we must do more. Our healthcare, our neighborhoods, our schools, and our lives are at stake.
I will always advocate for black people to vote but practicing this “constitutional right” is only touching the surface.
(published on Better to Speak's website here: https://www.bettertospeak.org/)
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