Ever since George Floyd was killed in broad daylight by Minneapolis police, the pain, rage, and grief across the Twin Cities has been palpable. At the same time, our trauma is being transformed into the creation of something beautiful. TakeAction Minnesota continues to follow the leadership of Black-led organizations and Black leaders across our multi-racial base. We are also operating through our lens as a multi-racial, statewide organization, lifting up the wisdom of members most directly impacted by injustice and violence inflicted by police and white nationalists. Thousands of people have put their bodies on the line during a global pandemic to bring justice for George Floyd: Blackness, sexism, Islamophobia and antisemitism, transphobia and bigotry in all forms hurts all of us. Police brutality hurts all of us. We all benefit from a more fair, just, and egalitarian society where Black Lives Matter and nobody is left behind. In the short-term, we can collectively sharpen our political understanding of the Minneapolis Police Department and how the police union, led by Bob Kroll, a white supremacist, has wielded its power to operate with impunity. It’s a painful, tender time. Self-love is radical. We are committed to caring for ourselves and each other. This includes healing together in public. A better world is on the horizon. We’ve seen it in our dreams, and we’re ready to build it.
Kenza Hadj-Moussa is director of public affairs & communications for TakeAction Minnesota, part of the People's Action national network of grassroots groups, building power for a people-centered democracy through policy change, narrative strategy, and strategic communication.
American oligarchs have led a five decade-long, well-funded campaign to convince whites that safety net programs, taxes on the wealthy, unions, and government regulations were not in the interest of whites but were just designed to help blacks and other minorities. Billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Jamie Dimon may personally associate with individual African Americans, Latinos and other minorities. They might even employ them. They might even attend dinner parties with them, and, one-on-one, display few outward manifestations of overt racism. But make no mistake about it: Their vast fortunes and the economic and political power they wield are based on the active and passive promotion of racism and white supremacy. The Republican Party’s “Southern Strategy” to win elections by appealing to poor and working-class white people’s fears of Black people, and their fear of no longer being able to feel superior to another race, as the Civil Rights movement gathered steam - was an intentional strategy to use white supremacy to protect the wealth and power of the oligarchs. The logic of white supremacy that underpins the Southern Strategy was, and still is, a part of a conscious war by the billionaire class to dismantle any limits on capitalism in the United States, and destroy the social insurance programs brought about by the New Deal and the Great Society aimed at putting a floor on poverty, or at least ensure that such policies won’t be extended further.
When demonstrations erupted across the country after George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers, Donald Trump portrayed the protesters as America’s enemies. He threatened to unleash America’s military on them and fled to a White House bunker while demonstrators gathered in Lafayette Square. But the protesters posed no threat. They’re the nation’s true patriots. For more than 200 years, ordinary Americans have taken to the streets to oppose injustice and improve their lives. These activists wanted a better America, one that actually realized its ideals of equal justice and ensured life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Some sacrificed their bodies for the cause, just like the protesters in Washington did when Trump’s flunky of an attorney general ordered heavily armed federal police in riot gear to attack the peaceful rally in Lafayette Square. Without the right to protest, there can be no democracy. Injustice does not cure itself, and protesting can be the only way of seizing the attention of a government that refuses to heed citizens’ pleas for action.
Nine presidential primaries took place on June 2, the largest day of voting across America since the pandemic broke in mid-March, where most of the states and the District of Columbia responded by shifting to voting with mailed-out ballots rather than voting centered on local polling places as in previous elections. Many voters who were not used to voting from home, especially in metro areas, did not get ballots as expected. They went to vote in person, but often found traditional polling places closed. They ended up in long lines and sometimes faced hours-long waits, where social distancing could be challenging, and, in the worst case—in Washington—police were telling voters to go home because of a curfew. Voting in quasi-militarized settings was not confined to the nation’s capital. In Philadelphia, on election eve, the mayor announced a curfew that was slated to take effect an hour before its polls closed, but subsequently delayed it after an outcry by other city officials and activists. The curfews, which have never before occurred on an Election Day in recent times, were a response to looting that occurred after generally peaceful protests against police violence and racism. However, the curfews also come in a climate where the Republican Party, led by President Trump, has been repeatedly making false claims that voting by mail is rife with fraud. These trends, both better and worse, offer lessons and warning signs for the fall’s elections.
This is a critical election year, and even before the pandemic, it was a voting season unlike any before in the nation’s history. Initially, voter turnout rates were projected to be high throughout 2020, and the primaries started out by living up to that prediction. But even before COVID-19, the U.S. had one of the lowest voter turnout rates among developed countries. Almost 92 million eligible Americans did not vote in the 2016 presidential elections. Now, the pandemic is pushing more states to quickly adopt election reforms such as mail-based voting to make sure elections are accessible. If every state in the country were to implement a mail-based voting system that was free and easy to access, they could potentially dismantle many of the current barriers to voting and reduce the potential for future emergencies to interfere with the democratic process. It is both possible and beneficial to U.S. democracy to make voting easier for all.
In 2020, we can take back our country for the values we all share - solidarity, justice, and a fair economy - state by state, seat by seat, and vote by vote. But we can only do this with your help. Give now to support People's Action at this critical time.
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