The election cycle is at another turning point, as it always seems to be these days. A supposedly (but not really) improbable presidential race outcome, people not running for re-election, and people resigning from/being run out of office – the calls to political and voter action are at a fever pitch. With that comes the expected discussion of “Both sides do it!” and the belief that conscientious abstention or protest voting can move the wheels of progress. With that comes the once-every-four-years Libertarian drive to try to win more people to their ranks, presuming all they need to do is either jingoistically or pedantically “reason” people into seeing things their way.
As long as pundits, parties, candidates, and voters continue to deny it, the differences between parties, their demographics, and the votes they get will be dependent on flawed means of addressing the issue of race as well as the too frequent lack of doing so honestly and effectively. They will all try to get as many POC votes as they can without scaring away white people, or abandon that route and scare enough white people to vote a certain way. It has been this way for a long time.
The Republican Party's support base is glaringly white. Libertarian Party's support base is glaringly white. The Democratic Party's support base is noticeably less so. This is not just a function of Democratic party marketing or voter base ignorance. What can be observed time and again is conscious selection. Yes, the Democratic Party, liberals, progressives, whatever you want to call them — definitely have some issues to face regarding race and racism. Yes, execution of ideals can be flawed or stymied, if successful in the first place.
BUT
to regard POC as if we don't know the difference — as if we simply don't know what other parties have to offer — is ignorance. We know how to weigh options. And when your choices between options are based on observing and weighing degrees of racism, words, actions, and cluelessness or lack of compassion, the one party who rates relatively highest will tend to find our support, tenuous though it may be.
It speaks poorly of our country that It’s 2018 and a significant bar for POCI is still which is the least racist option. It's a low bar, yet we are frequently given excuses for and examples of how it is unrealistic, antiquated, or an unjust expectation that is simply too difficult to manage.
We are surrounded by the social concept of whiteness all day, every day. We see how it moves throughout our world, how it is constructed, how it is maintained, how it operates, and how invisible it is to those who benefit from it most. Many of us live at intersections of identity and know how whiteness and those intersections relate to economics, jobs, healthcare. We have experienced how it all ties together generationally. Our progenitors were surrounded by this whiteness. We have entire families and robust social circles who are. We talk. We share experiences. We compare and compile notes.
Social media augments that shared experience and erodes the historic strength of white-centering propaganda. We have to navigate you and that whiteness. It is how we survive and thrive, some of us to achieve the very status that is turned back on us and weaponized to shame our own who have not achieved it. We see you. We know you.
For those of us who are conscious of and concerned about this country’s history and how it continues to affect things today, we tend to side with whom we do because we believe white people can do better. We believe white people want to do better. If we don't participate we will get screwed even harder — by you and/or by people who look like you, who have the same privilege, and the same glaring denials and lacks of awareness you do. If we don’t believe in your will and the potential for redemption, our souls are as damned as yours.
So, we choose the least of the many available evils. The least evil has the best chance to get us closer to where we want to be, where the USA claims it wants to be. The most virtuous options usually lack the power and the funding to get us there, so we hold our noses and vote for what we believe is the best chance — the least racist. Time and again that tends to be the Democratic Party.
Demographically that camp is well past the stage of playing representation bingo. That doesn’t happen overnight, it doesn’t happen as a windfall or lacking awareness, and it doesn’t happen from siding with whomever offers the most free stuff. For better and for worse, they are well ahead in the realm of maintaining their POC voter base instead of awkwardly struggling to build one they don’t have. And yet, that camp faltered in the last election and is stumbling under the weight of its timidity, tripping over the leavings of its own hubris and ignorance. This is setting the foundation for a potential, truly
progressive upheaval.
We learned from our so-called allies that we and our inconvenient awareness of the lasting effects of racism and intersection were to blame for that. Apparently our belief that people who call themselves allies would be willing to work on behalf of actual, active inclusion in policy is unfair or unrealistic. It's most definitely not appreciated or taken seriously. And that does not go unnoticed.
We see you. We know you. We talk. We share experiences. We take notes.
Quite a few democrats/progressives/liberals have been increasingly loud about purity tests being the thing that hurts party unity. If only we would set aside these expectations and rally together, the party would be stronger. Purity tests are not the problem, and these are not purity tests: they are calls
to do better, expectations to pay more than lip service or delaying games. The dismissal of the validity of those expectations is the problem. The repeated deferral and denial — the trillionth time someone is told “Now is not the time for this” — is the problem. The fact that currently living generations still pawn it off to the next is the problem. The idea that unity can only be achieved by setting aside these expectations is the problem. Patience has its limits and our patience grows dangerously thin.
This is the 21st Century. We have had these issues of equity — these dehumanizing -isms — for generations and the fact we still have them is the problem.
The time is long overdue. If equity is truly your goal, why should we continue to take a back seat? Do you truly seek progress? Are we truly your companions in the struggle for equity? Or are we simply warm bodies to court just so one party or another can win? Are we still just livestock solely serving to comfort the egos of America and American whiteness?
It’s not just economics. It’s economics and race. It’s not just jobs, it’s jobs and race. It’s not just health care, it’s health care and race. Unless POCI are explicitly included in word, thought, and deed, we are excluded in word, thought, and especially deed. It shouldn’t be that way — we know it and you know it. We experience that it is that way and you dismiss our experience. Examination of history repeatedly confirms our experience.
You know what needs to change. The information is out there; you should know better. You can do better. If you don’t know better, you can learn. The expectation to do better is built on faith you can do better, the hope you will, and the charity of repeatedly giving you another chance to do so. The expectation to do better is the call, the challenge to pursue a path to individual and collective redemption.
Which party is willing to accept the less than flattering reflections of themselves, their ideals, and history, and work at being less racist? We can’t answer that question - only you can - but best believe we are asking it louder and louder, noting the responses. The answer will be up to the parties, the people that determine their courses, and the predominately white populace who votes for those people.
You don’t have to tell us to hold our noses and vote. We’ve been doing it for generations. It’s more than fair we expect you to face your ego, challenge your ignorance, and do the work for equity or confirm the cynicism we constantly battle. You must recognize and address the role race and racism play in the creation, passing, and implementation of policy. If we are truly in this together, it's way past time to act like it. It's not realistic, fruitful, or decent to expect POCI to keep taking hits, but it is definitely American.
Being American can be better than that, regardless of political party.
