Stop Just "Thanking" Black Voters. Acknowledge their reasons, then ask a critical question.

[qwlauren35]

And the critical question is - why did so many of Alabama's white voters choose a pedophile over a Democrat.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/13/1723964/-Black-voters-delivered-for-Doug-Jones-But-stop-thanking-us-and-start-asking-why-whites-didn-t?detail=emailLL

I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere, and if someone shows me a link, I'll take this one down. But this article hit me in so many ways. The behavior cited in this article echoes what I saw here at DU. "Thank the Black Voters", and then be proud of yourself for acknowledging them.

Here are a few clips:

 A very wise woman (Daily Kos contributing editor Denise Oliver Velez) had something very important to say about this: it’s time for Democrats to wake up and smell the black coffee. 

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 [killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963], 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.



Whew. That is real. Let’s take a moment to take that in.

If you know Denise (who is a former member of both the Black Panther Party and Young Lords Party), you know she always speaks the truths that need telling. And this is no exception. Despite our reliability and consistency in showing up to vote for the Democratic Party, there has been a lot of mistrust and blame heaped on black voters for recent losses, particularly in 2016. This is misplaced and incredibly problematic—especially because it means some Democrats quickly shame and vilify black folks while expecting us to do all the lifting needed to deliver a win.

It also ignores the fundamental fact that, in most campaigns, Democrats fail to reach out to their base and turn us out to vote. There has been a predictable pattern of candidates and the party expending an enormous amount of energy and effort in reaching out to the voters (mainly white working-class) who haven’t been with us in decades rather than organizing and mobilizing the ones who have, along with the rising electorate (young people, people of color, unmarried women).

But while we are talking about how black voters (especially black women) have saved the day in Alabama and consistently show up and save everyone, let’s also acknowledge that this routine expectation and demand of our labor is toxic. It continues to absolve white people (as a whole) from voting the right way and from doing the hard work of organizing other white people at a time when it is most needed. 

Here’s the thing everyone should know: black women are not voting the right way to save white people or to save the world. We are actually voting Democratic because we know the Republican alternative is unthinkable—for ourselves and the people we love. We aren’t anyone’s mammies or pets and we don’t go to the poll as martyrs for justice. There is no falling on our swords. We know that when Donald Trump says he wishes the police would be “more (physically) rough” with suspects, he actually means it. And we know that it will have a tangible, negative impact on ourselves and our loved ones.

We know that when Roy Moore says that during times of slavery, families were more unified, this perspective erases our history and does not acknowledge all the ways our families were split apart and our babies ripped away from us for the purposes of keeping us in bondage to grow an economy. We know that when Republicans talk about cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that it will be harder for us to get necessary medical care and that our poor, elderly, and disabled family members will also suffer. We know that the days of Jim Crow aren’t all that far behind us and that many of the policies coming out the modern Republican Party are pushing us deeper into inequality.

[Egnever]

1. I agree with this 100%

Black voters stood up for themselves.

I am grateful they did but anything else would have been unthinkable.

Sadly a whole lot of white folks from Alabama did not see the danger the same. Not at all surprising but still very very disappointing.

Next time they wont run a racist pedophile and we will lose the seat to another evangelical christian but for now at least we get to appreciate the fact that enough folks in Alabama saw him for what he was to keep him from the seat and black voters saw it more clearly than anyone else in that state.

AL remains deeply red just not quite red enough to elect a slavery loving pedo. Take out the pedo part though and he would have won despite the slavery part and that is just fucking gross.