There are all sorts of reasons for getting your Black Card revoked. Not ever watching the required Black classics (i.e. Coming to America, Boyz n the Hood, Malcolm X, etc.). Not knowing how to play Spades; having no clue how to do the Electric Slide; preferring Pumpkin Pie over Sweet Potato Pie; etc.
But not voting or saying that “voting doesn’t make a difference” is a surefire way to lose that card for life. Here are a few reasons why voting is a Black Card requirement.
Judges
Your votes determine your local elected officials; and that can make all the difference in the world, especially with those local judges. Case in point: even with a known white nationalist in the White House (Trump) and an overwhelmingly Republican state legislature, making Texas a Red State, Houston (Harris County) and Austin (Travis County) had enough committed voters to keep their local governments (city and county) Blue (Democrat-leaning). During that period, Houston/Harris County elected 19 Black women to judgeship positions. And those are the judges who make decisions on the cases we and our family & “nem” have before the court. And you best believe it makes a difference when the judge recognizes and respects your humanity compared to those Republican-backed judges who have already judged you guilty the second you walk into the courtroom, simply because you’re Black. The difference: voting.
Access to Resources
Voting is all about putting lawmakers in place to fight for the issues important to you and the resources to make them happen. When you don’t vote, you’re literally giving away resources (money, city services, healthcare access, educational programs, women’s rights protections, senior services, youth after-school programs, etc.) to folk who don’t want you and people who look like you to have access to anything.
Checkmate – Keep Anti-Black lawmakers out of office
Speaking of those anti-Black elected officials, when you don’t vote you literally put them in office to pass laws that make it illegal to teach Black history in school; laws that block efforts to right centuries of racist wrongs and allow racists to keep on doing our communities wrong; laws and policies that block much-needed money and resources from coming to our communities; and laws that allow police and others to abuse us with no repercussions.
Opportunity to Fight
Voting is not the end-all, be-all solution to all Black people’s issues and problems. And one excuse people give for not voting is the idea that there’s no difference between the two major parties (Democrats and Republicans), On some levels, the similarities between the two Mos Def exist. But the differences between the Dems and the GOP are literally the difference between life and death. The Republican Party is the party endorsed by white nationalists, white domestic terrorist groups like the Proud Boys, the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other openly anti-Black and pro-violence hate groups. The Democrats, though they have most of our issues on their agenda (a good thing), can be weak as milquetoast when it comes to fighting for us. Still, one political party (GOP) wants to end us. The other (the Dems) fight for Black history in schools, a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions, environmental protections, voting rights, gun reform, criminal justice reforms (including holding officers who break the law abusing and/or killing unarmed Blacks and others accountable), an end to over-policing and over-imprisoning Black bodies, etc., and will at least give us to space and opportunity to fight for those things we want. But we have to vote to access that opportunity.
Voting your Interests
Your vote is your endorsement of the things and issues most important to you, your family, and your community. If your family and your community aren’t important to you, then I understand you choosing not to vote. But if you give a @#@$% about the opportunities your children have access to, the funds their schools get, services that meet the needs of the elders in your community, and the opportunities and resources available to your teens and young adults, voting is the thing that facilitates all that.
Let Your Voice Be Heard
When you vote your interests, you are letting the world know what’s most important to you (ending voter suppression, women’s rights to make decisions about their healthcare, gun laws reform, etc.). This alerts politicians, lobbyists, big money donors, media, etc., about what issues are most important to the people if your side wins. And even if your side loses a close, hard-fought election where a bunch of folks voted, your position holds weight when folk are in rooms making decisions about which direction to go, where to allocate resources, etc. Your vote, then, helps to set the social, economic, educational, environmental and political agenda for your city, county, state and nation. Another way of saying that is, your vote impacts every aspect of your life… who pays taxes and who doesn’t, who gets thrown “under the jail” and who gets a pass. And with Project 2025 on the ballot this Nov. 5, your vote (or lack thereof) will determine which children will be required by law to enlist in the U.S. military (public school kids; predominantly Black and Brown) and which kids get to choose whatever future they want (private school, predominantly white youth).
By Any Means Necessary
Don’t ever in your life wear another Malcolm X “By Any Means Necessary” t-shirt or let Malcolm’s words slip out of your mouth if you’re not willing to live those words. Using “any means necessary” means a willingness to use all available tools at your disposal. Not voting this November, not using that particular means to change society, could mean this tool is no longer at your disposal. Trump and the Project 2025 folk are serious about setting up a dictatorship that strips those they don’t think are human (Blackfolk, Latinos, immigrants) of the right to vote. So, we best use it now to give us a chance to use it in the future.
