Black Voters Are More Than Just an Election Resource

Don't ignore their existence when campaign season ends.

by: Phillip Henry  DEC 14, 2017 11:47AM EST

In this op-ed, writer Phillip Henry explores the power of the black vote, explaining how the black community shouldn’t be used as a resource for Democrats only come election time.

In a highly publicized special Senate election for the state of Alabama this week, Doug Jones, a Democrat, was able to defeataccused sexual predator and homophobe Roy Moore, making Jones the first Alabama Democrat to be elected to the Senate in more than 25 years. This particular race garnered national attention, since Democrats were riding high from recent victories in Virginia and New Jersey.

As seen in the Alabama race and elsewhere, black voter turnout can influence elections at all levels: state, local, and national. Jones’s win was huge for Democrats, but it also highlighted the power of the black Southern electorate, since exit polls showed a majority of white voters in this election voted for Moore, who holds troubling stances on civil rights issues. Naturally, in an election attracting this much media attention, with such strategic benefit to Democrats on the national level, organizations made a huge effort to mobilize black voters in Alabama in an attempt to lead Jones across the finish line.

But there’s an inherent problem with this strategy: Black people can’t simply be a resource that Democrats care to tap into only during elections, while ignoring their existence in all other ways.

Black people are suffering in many states, particularly those of the South, and they are worthy of political strategy and resources — whether it’s an election year or not. In Alabama, beyond policies and practices that add difficulty to their daily lives, black and Latinx voters reported tactics designed by Republican lawmakers that risked resulting in the suppression of their votes and keeping them from the polls. Their voices go unheard as social and economic policies cripple their chances of a successful economic future. But when an election like the one we just witnessed comes along and national Democratic organizations sweep in to mobilize, it becomes the job of the black electorate to tip the scales, lest they be scapegoated as the reason for a Democratic defeat.

In this case, black voters were expected to turn out and save the day so that Democrats might be spared the marginal embarrassment of investing in an election against an alleged child molester and then losing. But where was the fervor from Democrats and organizations in advocating for and fighting to improve the everyday lives of these Alabama voters? It takes more than mere gratitude and warm feelings from Democrats for black voters to buy homes, raise families, or start businesses in their own communities.

It’s perverse but strikingly transparent how Democrats ultimately benefit from the poverty and suffering of black voters under Republican leadership in red states. Communities of color that are suffering under the oppressive policies of the GOP are essentially obligated to vote Democratic in every election, if merely out of desperation. This kind of tactic harks back to a dark past, when oppressive tactics of Jim Crow were deployed to deprive black Southerners of true political autonomy. Some suggest that black voters really have no better option than to vote along the Democratic party line. If that’s true, what's the point of turning out to vote, knowing what it could potentially cost them? Not only in combating suppression and the blame placed on their communities if Democrats fail, but also in allocating resources to make it to the polls to vote for a party that will so readily play up the suffering and urgency they face daily under Republican rule while doing little to fix it. Black voters deserve better than having to choose between being actively disenfranchised and being ignored.

And attempts at voter disenfranchisement go beyond Alabama’s borders: Across many states, there have been reports of campaigns of voter suppression and disenfranchisement being waged by the GOP. But in this particular election, black voters were forced to overcome these oppressive policies in an act of self-preservation and at great personal cost. It’s because of their individual and collective sacrifice that a Democrat will now represent Alabama in the Senate. It remains to be seen whether Democrats, as a national party, will fulfill their duty and faithfully represent them. These black Southern voters are worthy of the attention of major Democratic organizations like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic National Committee beyond when they are called upon for a vote tally.

Putting political power in the hands of black citizens means providing them with agency over their own communities and it means representation at every level of government. It stops the practice of using black people as pawns in a system that actively and intentionally works to fail them. Democratic organizations shouldn’t just be waiting for big wins like Jones’s to begin implementing political reform, since people of color have proved that they can win local and state elections in GOP-held territory. A recent example is the victory of Keisha Lance Bottoms, the new mayor-elect for Georgia’s capital city, Atlanta.

Beyond high-profile elections like Moore vs. Jones, Democratic organizations should pour money into local and state elections to see women and POC elected into office. It’s imperative that black communities are given the keys and the tools of a Democratic infrastructure that allows them to dictate their mobilization on their own terms. By doing this, it will enable them to finally exert political power and allow them to extract concession from this cynical party apparatus and a political structure that’s grown so inured to the processes that dehumanize black voters, because they ultimately stand to benefit.

Moving forward, it is the responsibility of Democrats to make sure that the issues of the black community — whose impact and influence is so essential to moving the party forward — are at the forefront of their platform. To adopt a winning policy platform, they must engage black voters and recognize that issues that impact black communities are Democratic issues. Black Lives Matter.