An Open Letter to Dems in the Wake of Super Tuesday #3, or Examining Privilege and the Fragility of White Ally-dom
My friends,
In the wake of yesterday’s hugely impactful results in the Democratic primary/caucus, many pundits are saying the race for the democratic nomination is essentially over. And likewise, many of the re-disillusioned electorate are saying/tweeting/posting some form or another of the following:
I’m not voting for Clinton. I’m a registered independent, and I refuse to support neoliberalism.
Don’t try to guilt me into voting for her.
I refuse to pick between the lesser of two evils. You’ll just have to defeat Trump without me. I’m DONE.
And of course, the always tried and true.
Canada is looking better and better. I’ll just save up and move there.
Yeaaaah, so ignoring that last bit, this pseudo-ally-i’m-taking-my-voting-ball-and-going-home mess is totally a privilege that People of Color do not have. POC do NOT get to just throw up our hands and say, “Oh well, let Trump win. I don’t have my perfect candidate, so now, I-don’t-care.”
We don’t get to do that. We don’t have that luxury. We don’t have that privilege…
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Welp, I wrote this two years ago, and here we are. Right smack-dab in the middle of nowhere on our way to nowhere good.
Did you get what you wanted, ally? I reckon not. Because what you wanted was for the bad guy to lose without you having to lift a finger, dirty a hand, or wrestle with your understanding of what does the most good.
If you want change, you can’t do nothing. I get it, the system’s corrupt. You hate incrementalism. Something about “both sides.” But IF YOU WANT CHANGE, you CAN’T DO NOTHING. Voting changes an imperfect system. Voting restricts the system from getting more corrupt. Your vote can protect the marginalized voices you purport to support — it’s as simple as that. Black and brown folks BEGGED you to stop Trumpf. You didn’t. Now, it’s up to you, “ally,” to really stand with us to clean up the mess. You get, like, one more shot before the scare quotes are permanent.
MQ
Two years later still. Time has passed, but little else. An investigation, an impeachment, a worldwide pandemic. Still, we remain where we have always been – firmly lodged in the belly of white supremacy. We have a single SINGLE shot at this, ally. One. You can’t reject both white supremacy and the lifeline out of white supremacy. You don’t like it? Who does. But you can’t abstain from the fight and get credit for your principles. What good are principles in the abstract? What good does it do me (or anyone really) for you to hold onto your principles as everyone else fights the permanent entrenchment of white supremacy and you wait for a reason to act that will never come?
Nothing more needs to be said yo, but vote. Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote.
- If you care about your family, community, or country, vote.
- If you want to get out of this pandemic with your lungs or your grandparents’ lungs intact, vote.
- If you can conjure even a single shread of human empathy for a human being other than yourself (especially a human you don’t personally know), then for God sake, VOTE.
For the last 4 years, it’s been Election Day 2016. This is our fr fr last chance to TURN. THAT. PAGE.
MQ