Ever since the spanking the good ol’-boy party (GOP) suffered in November 2020 and the Georgia beatdown in the subsequent January 2021 runoffs on the strength of unprecedented Black voter turnout that secured the Senate majority for Democrats, the Q-Trumplican response is bold-faced suppression of the Black vote. Instead of trying to compete for votes, GOP lawmakers in more 43 states across the country have introduced more than 253 draconian voter suppression bills – all based on The Big Lie spouted by the former disgraced president. As one commentator put it: “Voter suppression is a knee-jerk reaction to the browning of America.”
Some of the most egregious voting restrictions include: limiting who can vote by mail; making it harder to obtain ballots; making it easier to challenge ballots; barring voters from casting ballots, by restricting assistance, requiring witness signatures, and limiting ballot boxes; stricter ballot receipt and postmark deadlines; stricter voter ID requirements; slashing voter registration opportunities; and more aggressive voter rolls purging tactics. The one that takes the cake was passed in Georgia that makes it illegal to give water to people standing in line to vote. We cannot let these tactics steal democracy from us. We must fight these blatant attempts to suppress the Black vote. We must take a two-pronged approach to suppressing voter suppression (and white supremacy in the process).
Jim crow in a suit and tie
A vote is a prayer about the kind of world we want to live in
– Sen Rafael Warnock
Fight it in the courts and in big business
These latest attacks on democracy, dubbed “Jim Crow in New Clothes” by Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA.), have been met with fierce resistance by voting rights groups such as Black Voters Matter, New Georgia Project, and Fair Fight, which was founded by Stacey Abrams, who can single-handedly overturn the bills just passed in Georgia by unseating Brian Kemp as governor in 2022. Several groups, including the NAACP are already challenging these laws in court. Civil rights and activist groups are turning up the pressure on six of the largest Georgia companies: Aflac, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Home Depot, Southern Company and UPS to oppose voter suppression by removing campaign support from the lawmakers who signed the bill into law. Thus far, most of those companies have issued tepid statements, but have not withdrawn financial support in any meaningful way.
In congress the For the People Act, if passed in the Senate, can bring voter suppression to a grinding halt. The act seeks to ensure that American citizens’ right to vote is not compromised:
- Requires automatic voter registration when using state government services such as DMV
- Enacts online and same day voter registration
- Mandates 15 days of early voting
- Allows no-excuse absentee voting
- Prohibits states from requiring ID for main-in voting
We should applaud and support these efforts with everything at our disposal. We should join Black civil rights leaders and voting rights activists in reminding senators like Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) that, by upholding the bill-killing filibuster, they are de facto supporting racism. We should boycott all of those large Georgia companies that fail to speak out against these voter suppression laws.
Voting is the cure for voter suppression
These justifiable resistance efforts are only the first prong of the resistance. As a firm believer in self-determination, there are tactics that each of us can do on our own to combat these shameless attempts at suppressing the Black vote. It is the second of our two-pronged attack – vote. By any means necessary. Like our democracy and freedom and lives depend on it. They do.
Here is your action plan for exercising your right to vote – in spite of their vicious voter suppression laws:
- If they take away “Souls to the Polls” on Sunday: make it a Saturday excursion. Meet at the church like you would do on Sunday, load up the church busses and head to the polls while having bonus church.
- If they take away ballot drop box locations (like Texas limited 1 ballot box for a county of 4.7 million people): take your mail-in ballot directly to your local board of elections.
- If they demand voter ID: Start obtaining one today (remember your freedom depends on it).
- If they stop auto voter registration when you renew your driver’s license: register anywhere that you can separate from license renewal.
- If they make it impossible for you to vote by mail: Vote in person. You did it in the middle of a deadly pandemic. You can do it again.
- If they close voting places at 5pm: Take the entire voting day off (even if it costs you a day’s wages), but for heaven’s sake, make sure you are standing in line hours before the polls close.
- If they make it illegal to accept water when in line: bring your own water, cooler, hydration pack, flask for your beverage of choice. Wear something that is discretely ‘depend-able’ just in case.
Can you think of other ways that we can take our destiny into our own hands? I would love to hear your ideas. Please leave a comment below.
