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visionarymagic-blog · 7 years ago

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Why Black People Boycotting Elections is Nonsense

I know I'll probably be preaching to the choir on this, but I still really need to speak about this mentality certain Black people have promoting the notion that Black people should abstain from voting for constructively strategic reasons. They think that those political candidates who would now lose out on our (Black people’s) votes would be inevitably forced to pivot in our direction and specifically appeal to us for their own political survival. Here's my problem with that.

First of all, I’m speaking about national politics. So first let me state that if you look at official figures, we (Black people) are only around 12 to 13% of the overall United States population. So we don’t have the raw numbers to force any other groups to do anything on a national level solely using brute political strength. There’s not even a single state where we’re at least 40% of the population. Our power is based on strategic alliances. Not voting is not forming an alliance, so it fails just because of that.

But let’s just imagine things from the perspective of a political candidate who previously lost a race that Black people decided to boycott. Any candidate who would offer any truly worthwhile race-specific policies designed to help Black people is at best coming from the political center; but more likely coming from the political left. So imagine this candidate is running again and the numbers (in this extremely simplified example) look like this. Note that this race is taking place in a closely divided political jurisdiction and polls are even at the moment.

There are two people on the left 🙂🤔 and two people on the right 🤨😡 .

Now each political candidate has to get at least one more voter in order to win. Both politicians have the same two options from here. But using the one on the left, he/she can run further to the left, with a political message that includes race-specific strategies designed to help Black people, and hope it leads to significant Black turnout without alienating voters who don’t lean nearly that far left. Or he/she can try to pull from the center with a message that has broader appeal.

Let’s see what happens in the race when the left-leaning candidate runs further to the left and brings back Black voters to our traditional (let’s say about half those eligible participating) level of involvement, and the candidate on the right also appeals further right.

Now they’ve added voters, but it’s still a stalemate.

There are now three people on the left 😇🙂🤔 and three people on the right 🤨😡 😈

No progress for either candidate has been made. But let’s see what can happen when the left-leaning candidate makes an appeal to the center:

Black people still stay home, but if the politician moves just far enough right to realign the center, and pulls from the center-right, the result can end up like this.

There are now three people on the “left” 🙂🤔🤨 and two people on the right 😡 😈 .

Now the left-leaning candidate has won without the inclusion of any Black people.

This happened because pulling a voter away from your opponent, which usually has to be based on the center, has TWICE the impact that adding a voter to either end does. So while driven by ignorance, arrogance, and narcissism, certain Black people feel we’re indispensable to someone’s political success, that’s not guaranteed. But we are not powerless. We can amplify our power by being involved with the political process in EVEN GREATER numbers, which would not only make it more worthwhile for politicians to appeal to us for political convenience, but for those who truly value us to run for office in the first place.

We can’t act like there can’t be any viable two party system in America without Black people. That’s the height of ignorance. It’s the height of arrogance. And it’s the height of narcissism. To think that a functional political system couldn’t exist in America without Black people being involved, meaning all of the internal factions within outside groups ignored us, is absurd. For most of the history of this land, and later country, that European conquerors named “America”, that’s been the case. If we’re so essential to this country that it can’t exist without our political enfranchisement, then why is it still here? By that logic it would have never gotten off the ground. To the contrary, if we’re not careful we could go back to the days where racist politicians fight with each other over the votes of racists, and marginalize us completely. I’m not trying to be negative, I’m just keeping it real. Just because we value ourselves doesn’t mean that other groups have to value us regardless of any particular circumstances. We have to be smart about perceiving exactly where we fit in.

So if I can use a football analogy where Black people are on offense, those telling us not to vote are telling us the plays we’re running right now aren’t working. But instead of coming up with better solutions, which would be to run different plays, they instead tell us to leave the field. How is that better for us? I believe that deeper engagement that leverages our talents and abilities is always key. Sitting on the sidelines or leaving the field completely is weak.

That’s my two cents. It’s simplified, but I think it has the ring of truth. And by the way, this message can apply to any traditionally marginalized group. Peace.

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