Is It Best For Blacks to Divide Our Vote?

Over the hundreds of years of our existence in this country - as well as the preceding centuries as inhabitants of this British colony - one common thread can be found: the desire by those outside our community to divide us one from another. The rationale behind this is obvious and clear: separately, our power is diminished. Indeed, separately, we cannot even discuss "our power" and must face the world as individuals, alone, with no more support than a single individual can claim. Arrayed against the largest empire of the modern world and the republic that has usurped its position around the globe - what can a single individual do? A good case can be made - in more detail than will be allotted here - that the American cult of individuality is the merely a tool of the powerful to disempower the majority of country.

Any person, who sees they have common interests with others - would do well in a democratic society to work in concert with others to achieve their common goals. To claim that Black people - regardless of the variety of African and trans-African cultures from which we originate - do not have common interests is a falsehood. We cannot survive without one another - to whom will we share the cultural traditions that have guided us for thousands of years; from where will we access the basic services we need to live - without others who share those same needs. Or perhaps you expect to have your locks maintained by SuperCuts? The drive - the fight - to have Black doctors, lawyers, police officers, etc. is not merely because we want those who look like us in positions of power and importance. It is because we want those who can look at a Black person and see a human being be the arbiter of our health, our liberty and our protection. For that is the only way we will be able to stand atop the steps to our own homes and not be seen as a terrifying criminal, worthy of being shot down in a hail of 41 bullets.

As a group, African-Americans must decide what our common interests are. Then, we must work together to see those interests area realized. That requires our voting in concert.

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