It’s unclear who initially came up with the Twitter hashtag #VoteLikeBlackWomen, but it is one that everybody should heartily embrace. Had it been the guiding principle for not-black Democrats and folks who call themselves progressives during the 2016 election, we would not be fighting for our lives against a white supremacist traitor ruling over a Republican party which is happily supporting racism, misogyny, homophobia, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.
My mom raised me to believe voting was a sacred duty, and to honor the sacrifices of my ancestors who fought and died to garner the ballot—against all odds.
I was thinking about the women of my family when I tweeted this last week:
I vote like those black women.
When the Republican Party of the past offered more breathing space for black folks: we voted for them. When the Dixiecrats, White Citizens Councils, and Klansmen fled into the Republican embrace, the women of my family became staunch Democrats.
When I made a decision to vote for Hillary Clinton, I did so knowing that my mom would have done so and I followed in her footsteps. No matter my own lefty leanings, black women had spoken.
The young black women (like Amene) and young black men I follow on black Twitter pull no punches. They fight to get Democrats of all colors elected. We are well aware of the fact that we are the ones who have suffered and will continue to bear the brunt of a right-wing controlled Supreme Court.
They point to voting data. Look at Virginia:
Look at Alabama:
Polling by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, The Washington Post, and other media organizations revealed that 93 percent of black men and 98 percent of black women voted for Jones, compared with 26 percent of white men and 34 percent of white women.
I wrote and ranted about Alabama here:
In spite of concerted and ongoing efforts by white people to suppress and disenfranchise the black vote—not just in Alabama—we continue to be the most dependable Democratic Party voting block. Period. Especially black women, though our brothers are far more often disallowed from voting due to having a record or being incarcerated.
While we have been dismissed, ‘buked, scorned and dubbed “low info,” and “not progressive” especially those of us who live in what are called “red states”—why is it you don’t get the fact that those states have been painted red with our blood ‘cause they are rigged for white racists?
The majority of black folks still live in the South. Just take a look at the states with the largest black populations. Instead of chasing the white working class bigots who voted for Trump due to so-called income insecurity—I have been saying for years that the Democratic Party needs to focus major efforts on getting black folks their voting rights.
There is nothing progressive about ignoring black Democrats.
Look at the timeline:
Why do you think black women have been able as a group to throw their support behind candidates —and then turn that support into actual votes?
Just examine our history.
In “The ballot and black women,” I wrote:
One of the most solid Democratic Party voting blocs we have today is composed of African-American women. That fact is not an accident and is deeply rooted in history—a history of organizing and struggle that illustrates the intersections and conflicts within the socio-political categories of race and gender.
Just as the abolition movement spawned a struggle for women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement was the impetus for both second wave feminism and LGBT rights, the historical role of black women in the context of the suffrage movement is a key to understanding the founding of black women's clubs, sororities and political organizations. That history also explains the roots of the racial contradictions of second and third wave feminism and the development of black feminism.
History repeats itself. The southern strategy the late-20th century Republican Party instituted by the forces arrayed against integration and desegregation was not the first wielding of the tool of racism to retard forces on the left. That same southern strategy was first used in the battle for women's suffrage.
We experienced the betrayal of white suffragists, and kept on steppin’ ‘til we got the right to cast a ballot.
Then we faced Jim Crow and being denied the ballot, and black women played a key role in that battle and in reshaping the Democratic Party, though our contributions are often overlooked. They were women like Victoria Jackson Gray Adams, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Annie Bell Robinson Devine, pictured above.
From Women Make Movies:
In 1965, when three women walked into the US House of Representatives in Washington D.C., they had come a very long way. Neither lawyers nor politicians, they were ordinary women from Mississippi,and descendants of African slaves. They had come to their country’s capital seeking civil rights, the first black women to be allowed in the senate chambers in nearly 100 years. A missing chapter in our nation’s record of the Civil Rights movement, this powerful documentary reveals the movement in Mississippi in the 1950’s and 60’s from the point of view of the courageous women who lived it – and emerged as its grassroots leaders. Their living testimony offers a window into a unique moment when the founders’ promise of freedom and justice passed from rhetoric to reality for all Americans. Through moving interviews and powerful archival footage, STANDING ON MY SISTERS' SHOULDERS weaves a story of commitment, passion and perseverance and tells the story of the women fought for change in Mississippi and altered the course of American history forever.
I have gotten pretty sick and tired of reading comments opining about how “conservative” black folks are as a voting bloc. We are not conservative. We are simply not suicidal. We are “preservative.”
How in the hell do you think we have managed to survive a system of white supremacy built into the genocidal foundations of this nation?
Black women not only managed to keep families together and pass on traditions, we also had to at the same time clean white folks’ houses and nanny their damn children—with no real thanks but more oppression heaped onto our shoulders.
We know that history. It didn’t stop us from voting for Hillary, a white woman, because we are not stupid.
And before somebody comes in here to talk about “not all black women” and point out the loony few who are cooning for Trump, like Diamond and Silk, we also know that the clown show in black is for the benefit of white bigots who want to feel good about themselves. So we laugh and come up with new monikers for them. The Root’s Michael Harriot has dubbed them “Rhinestone and Rayon” and “Q. Bic Zirconia and Polly Ester.”
We did not fall for Russian propaganda:
Later on, Russian operatives used accounts they controlled — including an account called “Woke Blacks” and “Blacktivist” — to urge Americans to vote for third-party candidates or not to vote at all. “Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein,” one such message read. “Trust me, it’s not a wasted vote.”
As a demographic group, we don’t swarm to support token black faces anointed by the white left, either. I’m sure some of you know of whom I speak.
We have watched many white Democrats fail to step up and support our “Auntie” Maxine Waters. I wrote:
What some (mostly white) people need to get is that Maxine Waters — the longest serving black woman in Congress (first elected in 1990) represents more than just herself up there on the hill — she is our very own kick-ass momma, auntie, grandma, sister and friend.
When you come for Maxine, you come for all of us. You fuck with her and you are gonna hear from us. In spades, and with shade. Even some of us who may not agree with her on everything will jump up and have her back.
And those who think they are gonna silence black women — it ain’t gonna happen. No way, no how. They are attacking Joy Ann Reid, they are attacking April Ryan, Kamala Harris, Barbara Lee — and none of them are going to back down.
Sister JoanMar wrote “Auntie Maxine always has the last word! She responds to faux outrage #Civility”:
Judging from media coverage today, the most egregious transgression this weekend was Congresswoman Maxine Waters calling for cabinet members of this mal-administration to be made uncomfortable whenever and wherever they show their faces in public spaces. Ooh la la la! On-air personalities have never heard such incivility in their lives! Get the smelling salts...quickly!
But Auntie Maxine is not to be messed with.
We are already aware of how much she is hated by racist white folks: a simple Google image search will show you the level of vile attacks she faces. She has been calling Trump a Russian stooge for a while, and been attacked for it.
We will stand up and push back against what we see as disrespect—and we will keep on voting for Democrats. We are not children who get mad and take our bat and ball and go home.
We’ve withstood far too much, and lost too many of our children, brothers, sisters, husbands and fathers.
We vote to survive.
Perhaps those of you who are not black female Democrats should follow our example.
#VoteLikeBlackWomen