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About every four years or so, the age
old cry again surges among Black
people: "Vote, Vote, VOTE!" With each
new election year, new, more innovative
attempts to garner the support of
would-be Black voters emerge. 1996 is
no different. From Chuck D and The Wu
"rocking the vote" through
"rapperstration" on college campuses,
to Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March
and follow up political convention in St.
Louis, Missouri, Black people have been
bombarded with rhetorical slogans,
such as, "If you don't vote, don't com
plain" and "The Black vote is a tool of
power." The only problem is that no one
seems to be able to answer some press
ing questions that glare in the face of the
Black community: What are we voting
for?" How will voting in this election
benefit us any greater than in any of the
past elections in which we have partici
pated? Are we voting for Black free
dom? Black justice? How about Black
equality? In other words, will this elec
tion help us or even allow us to develop
a Black Nation? Probably not.
There have been no major or signifi
cant changes within the structure of
American politics to develop and in
crease the power of the masses of Black
people. Why would there be? In a capi
talistic society, the nature of the govern
ing body is oppressive. Power only con
cedes to power. In this society, a major
precedent to gaining power is the acqui
sition of wealth. The unified vote does
not represent power if the options from
which we have to choose do not provide
or redistribute wealth. The vote paci
fies Black people further by allowing us
to think that we are active participants
in the American government. It is a tool
of oppression that keeps us passively
hoping for the new Adam Clayton
Powell Jr., our saving grace, and/or it
allows us to feel that we are maintain
ing that status of "comfort." Instead of
marching the streets and tearing down
the hells of North America, we recite our
new found slogans and "threaten" to
The Maroon
vote for the other party. Ooooh... I can
hear the enemy cringing in fear because
we chose one white man over another;
they only quiver in the face of action
which demands, rather than humbly
requests, Black power.
Recently, I asked a friend of mine jok
ingly if he planned to vote in this elec
tion. Much to my chagrin, he answered,
"Yes." In support of his decision, he
stated that during the past summer he
had scrutinized each candidate's plat
form. According to him, "Bill is a better
candidate than Bob because under an
other Bill administration, the power of
the Black community — both politically
and economically — will diminish at a
'slower rate' than it would under Bob's
administration." "However," I re
sponded, "downward is downward."
Who cares
if it is fast,
slow, or
somewhere
in between
because in
the final
analysis, a
continual
loss of
power im
plies that a
virtual
power-
lessness
amongst
our people
is inevitable
Every
piece of leg-
i s 1 a t i o n
formed in
."benefit
ing" Black
people has
been to the
advantage
of whites,
from the
"Emanci
pation
Proclamation" to the abolishment of Jim
Crow and the establishment of Affirma
tive Action. Any Civil Rights legislation
which arose during or shortly after the
era has been implemented because of
the physical threat Blacks posed, not as
voters, but as angry participants in the
destruction of the major cities brick by
brick. This is nothing new, but with less
than 1% of all elected officials being
Black, this tactic will not change. There
fore, regardless of who we vote for, op
pression is still the rule because the
AmeriKKKan government never truly
acknowledges our concerns and we do
not have the representation or the
wealth to force that acknowledgement.
So why waste time? When do we begin
to take power and stop hoping that one
day, through our prayers and votes, we
will be restored to the greatness of our
ancestors? Until Black people generate
some semblance of collective economic
wealth to wed with a liberating politi
cal agenda, voting is not an exercise in
collective political power, but rather a
demonstration of our collective politi
cal futility.
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Monday, November 4, 11996
