A descendent of American slaves, my birth in Wakefield Virginia came without the right to to vote. I was a 1 year old when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
I grew up watching a single mother suffer the suppressing and latent effects of systemic oppression and Jim Crow culture.
My Mother was afraid of white people though she breastfed some of their children. I observed that conundrum and found it strange even as a child. I’d wonder; “How can they oppress us even as we feed them?”
Voter suppression is part of our nation’s inheritance. As a child raised within this oppression, I never witnessed my mother casting a vote. The latent effects of Jim Crow separation and intimidation remain to this day. However, in most cases today, voter roll management is really motivated by partisan electioneering more than yesteryears racism.
The real power of history is mostly politicized today. It is maximized for the effect of gaining election power rather than informing or empowering people. Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of weaponizing racial history for political control.
I imagine my Mother never voted for many of the same reasons she governed my budding self assertion as her young black child. “Mind your manners around white people. Don’t play rough with white kids. Stay away from white men. Be seen but not heard.” Those were the cautionary, “don’t rock the boat” edicts of many parents of my generation. My Mother’s own political apathy was directly linked to thinking the odds of her vote making a difference were slim, and her forced behavioral conditioning to not cause waves. I remember the carpool returning from Hopewell Va. one dark morning as a group of women including my Mother were turned away by KKK blocking their way to work. The learned helplessness and fear remains today.
For their role in the 1965 Voting Rights Act and modern civil rights advocacy, Democrats receive black voter loyalty without offering agenda or legislation leading to measurable improvements in the lives of black American people. The result is a “why bother” attitude amongst young citizens when it comes to voting.
Voter apathy is the result of yesterday’s disenfranchisement sprinkled with partisan electioneering. Partisan politics reinforce the idea that old, insurmountable race based conditions apply today. To combat that apathy requires freeing us of generations of psychic trauma and dismantling the machinations of racialized voter suppression.
Activists suspiciously tend to only challenge disenfranchisement at election time. They call attention to loss of rights by those charged rightly and wrongly of felonies, or in Georgia, those removed from rolls due to registration discrepancies or inactivity. The voting rights advocate defaults causation to racism. Others reason the voting rights debate to be purely about partisan electioneering to keep power. A Republican Secretary of State manages the office to advantage Republican voters, a Democrat does so likewise for Democratic Party Candidates. Race is a convenient target for voter segmentation when blacks vote 90% plus for one party.
Americans future depends upon reason winning over race. Conservative ideas for strengthening America are better when tested by more voters. As such, I believe in Florida’s November ballot initiative, Amendment 4, which would grant all people with felonies except convicted murderers and sex offenders the right to vote once they complete their sentence. The mood in Georgia amongst Republicans is positive towards criminal justice reform. Our legislators have shown belief in redemption with drug courts, sentencing reform and banning the box that requires past felons to reveal their history before being offered employment. Restorative justice is consistent with Georgia conservative values promoting liberty, morality and the higher edict of Faith in man through God.
That is why this voter suppression debate in Georgia is stark in contrast to our high ideas of justice. The idea of suppressing votes based upon race is counter to Georgia’s legislative trending.
Typical of racialized propagandists many political professionals and armchair pundits will make conclusions that voter suppression is on the rise without considering “The Obama Effect.” Research suggests voter suppression is the culprit when examining black turnout drops since 2008. (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/05/18/census-shows-pervasive-decline-in-2016-minority-voter-turnout/)
“While white turnout has long eclipsed minority turnout, the gap narrowed during the two Obama elections — reducing the differential to below 10 percent (download Table 1). Yet, the gap widened again in 2016 to over 12 percent (65.3 percent for white Americans versus 52.7 percent for minorities), due to a modest gain for white Americans and a more marked decline for minorities.”
It is reasonable to expect a dip in black voter enthusiasm post Barack Obama. Georgia’s Stacey Abrams candidacy presents the best chance to reverse that dip.
For the cause of voter engagement, voting integrity, and a representational competition of ideas, both parties need to show year long commitment to improving legal access to the ballot.
