Yesterday my wife and I went to early vote, and while it was a hassle at the end of a long week, right before the polls closed on a Friday afternoon (we got there around 6 and the polls closed at 7), it was still worth it. As usual, I brought the girls along because this is how we teach them about their civic duty. Truth is, it would have been a lot easier for Samantha and I to vote on our own, in the middle of a random day while the girls were at school instead of waiting until one of those rare moments when all of our schedules aligned. But ease was not the point. This was a teaching moment.

As we drove to our neighborhood polling site, Samantha and I discussed our ballots. Since I’m the politico of the family, I walked through who was up for election in some of the minor races, where people stood on the issues, and who I was voting for. Many of the names were people we knew or had interacted with like our local city council race or even a friend running for governor.

The girls sat in the van listening while we discussed all of this. Who knows how much they paid attention (probably not much). But the point wasn’t what information they retained. I want them to remember just the act of going to the polls with their parents years later and associate that with a feeling of civic pride in doing their duty, even at the end of an otherwise busy week.

As I walked out of the voting site, (after a brief stop inside the libarary to say hello to one of our new friends), I asked the girls if they were familiar with the recent news about the Voting Rights Act case. Sensing that a history lecture was coming, but lacking a sufficient response the girls groaned and that’s when I knew were were going to be watching a quick youtube video at the end of family movie night tonight. Hey, once an educator, always an educator right?

And so we did watch that video later that evening, though these Blackish election episodes could also fit the bill. After explaining the history of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), why it was created and the immediate impact it had on electoral outcomes across the country. I mean, this image alone from the New York Times tells a striking story:

Which brought me to my main point as I discussed the impact of the decision with the girls… America’s in trouble. We risk going completely backwards in our progress towards a more fair representation. And it’s happening quickly. Tenessee and Florida have already passed new maps eliminating districts with Black representatives. Several other states are soon to follow.

If we don’t act quickly, we could go backwards as a country, and really quickly.

Here’s the thing though, it’s not just a Black issue. That’s what infuriates me about this whole situation and why I was so passionate about explaining this to the girls in the first place.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the 1619 Project explains it best in her recent interview saying:

It’s true, Black people were the ones who are willing to sacrifice their lives, their homes, their bodies in order to democratize America. But this really was about ensuring democracy for everyone.

The Voting Rights Act, it didn’t just eliminate barriers for Black people to register to vote and be represented by people who shared their experiences. It also gave a voice to the working class folks across racial lines.

Black people, have been trying for centuries to make this country live up to it’s true ideals. And every time there’s progress made, everyone benefits, not just us. A right to public education? You can credit Black leaders who rewrote state constitutions across the south during reconstruction. A right to fair housing, employment, anti-discrimination, healthcare… the list goes on. I felt like Doc Rivers in his famous, Black people keep loving a country but they don’t love us back speech.

Sometimes when I talk to the girls about all the contributions we’ve made to a society, I don’t have a good response when it comes to why this keeps happening. But I usually end with a story, one that’s unfinished, one that they’re still writing with their lives. They’ve been fortunate enough to grow up with three of their great grandmothers, and one great grandfather. They’ve gotten to know well, and in doing so they can put a face to some of the historical experiences they hear about.

They know that their great grandma Angie couldn’t legally vote until she was an adult, after my mother, their grandmother was born. They know that she was raised in segregated schools, then later taught in segregated schools, before teaching in integrated schools. They’ve heard stories about her father, my great grandfather who I lived across the street from in middle school. His father was formerly enslaved. The impact of the legacy of our country’s original sin isn’t that far off. And we haven’t done nearly enough to address it.

Speaking of impact, the recent ruling hinged on the idea of proving racist intent. The court pretended to ignore the resonance of racist impact, as long as there’s not a paper trail of racist intent. Gerrymandering is fine, as long as we do it for political reasons, not racial reasons. Never mind that the practical application is the same.

America, what are we going to do with y’all? You know we’ve been done this road before right? The whole fake ass “race neutral” conversations? Poll taxes and literacy taxes were race neutral polices too right? But the practical effect was that they prevented Black people from voting until they were outlawed by the VRA. Not for nothing, these “race neutral” laws also prevented a lot of poor and working class whites from voting too, but I guess that was just collateral damage.

When are we going to learn that we can’t just wish race away. Black people didn’t ask for systems and laws to be built based on a clear system of racial oppression. But, since we’ve been working to remedy the damage, now is not the time to turn back. Now is the time to finally build a multi-racial coalition of people willing to stand up to the status quo and demand more of our elected officials. Change doesn’t happen until we do. We’ve done our job, it’s time for the rest of the country to join us in the fight. We tired.

SDW3