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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. Page u Monday, November 4, 11996