Page 12
October 10, 2018
O PINION
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The Unfulfilled Power of the Black Vote
Changing
the political
landscape
D r . r on D aniels
For decades I
have been ham-
mering home the
point that in a low
voter participation
environment, the group that ef-
fectively educates, mobilizes and
organizes its voters to turn-out
on election day will wield power
disproportionate to its numbers in
the overall electorate. Put another
way, a relatively small group that
registers and turns out a high per-
centage of its potential voters will
exercise greater influence than
a much larger group that fails to
register and turn-out a high per-
centage of its potential voters.
This is a Daniels political axiom.
And, as Frank Watkins, advisor
to Rev. Jesse Jackson puts it, “an
organized minority is a political
majority.”
The United States has the low-
by
est voter participation rate of any
of the western democracies. I have
suggested somewhat facetiously
that the biggest political party in
the U.S. is not the Democrats
or Republicans but non-vot-
ers. A voter turn-out in this
country in the range of 50-55
percent of the eligible elector-
ate is hailed by political com-
mentators as spectacular. This
is absolutely abysmal when
compared to western democracies
where voter turn-out is routinely
80 percent or better. But, the real-
ity of this low voter participation
environment creates a major op-
portunity for black voters to exer-
cise power disproportionate to our
numbers in the electorate. It is not
by accident that Republicans are
openly implementing polices to
suppress or disenfranchise black
voters. The forces of reaction re-
alize that if blacks maximize voter
registration and mobilize/organize
large voter turn-outs, it is a threat
to their retrograde agenda.
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson has re-
lentlessly urged black folks to
register and vote in massive num-
bers to maximize our political
power. He recently shared data
that illuminates the unfulfilled
power of the black vote, noting
that there are still 8 million blacks
who are not registered to vote, 4
million in the South. Rev. Jack-
son’s point is that a potent key to
political resistance and transfor-
mation is in black hands, the bal-
lot. The challenge is to organize/
mobilize and turn-out the unor-
ganized, black people who, for
whatever reason, do not believe
that voting matters as a means of
changing their lives.
There is increasing evidence
that a new generation of black
leaders, particularly women and
young people, understand the po-
tential of the black vote as foun-
dational to coalitions that can
beat back the conservative tide
of Trumpism by advancing peo-
ple-centered, progressive policies.
Stacey Abrams has an excel-
lent chance to become the first
black Governor of Georgia by ed-
ucating and inspiring hundreds of
thousands of unregistered, “im-
probable” black voters to register
and turn-out in massive numbers
on election day. Ben Jealous has
launched a grassroots campaign
to employ the same formula in
Maryland. The polls in Boston
showed Ayanna Pressley trailing
long term Congressman Michael
Capuano by 10 points among
“probable” voters in the Demo-
cratic Primary. She won by more
than 10 points because she orga-
nized/mobilized the unorganized;
the improbable voters showed up
in massive numbers as the anchor
of her progressive coalition.
Rev. Jackson points out that
in Florida Andrew Gillum, who
shocked the pundits by winning
the Democratic primary for Gov-
ernor, can win because there are
more than 1.8 million blacks who
are eligible to register in that state
coupled with more than 300,000
recently arrived Puerto Ricans
who fled the Island in the wake
of Hurricane Maria. When the
improbable voters from these
constituencies are energized to
march on the ballot box, there is
a very high probability that Gil-
lum will become the first African
American Governor of Florida.
In a low voter participation en-
vironment, where large numbers
of whites will remain unregis-
tered or will not vote, all that is
required is for the unorganized,
the improbable voters in the
black community and our allies
to mobilize/organize and turn-out
in massive numbers to achieve
victory!
So, the mandate is clear;
Black leaders must devise strate-
gies to educate, motivate, inspire
and energize millions of unreg-
istered, improbable black voters
to burst into the arena to become
the cornerstone of progressive
coalitions. These coalitions of the
improbable have the potential to
fundamentally alter the political
landscape in the U.S. by ush-
ering in an era of resistance to
Trumpism and more importantly
advancing progressive policies
which can create a new America!
Dr. Ron Daniels is President
of the Institute of the Black World
21st Century and Distinguished
Lecturer Emeritus, York College
City University of New York.
End Cruelty to Immigrant Families and Children
It will take all
of us protesting
together
m arian W right e Delman
July 26 was the deadline set
by a court for the Trump admin-
istration to reunite all children
and parents who were cruelly
separated from each other at the
border by their zero-tolerance im-
migration policy. Yet we enter Oc-
tober with about 400 children still
separated from their families.
Nearly two-thirds of these chil-
dren’s parents have reportedly al-
ready been deported without being
reunited with their children. Im-
migrant advocates say some mi-
grant parents agreed to be deport-
ed quickly with the understanding
that it would speed up their ability
to recover their children—but did
not understand that they would
be leaving their children behind.
One father from Honduras who
was deported without his 11-year-
old son told a reporter he believed
that was the only way to be reunit-
ed with his child: “They told me,
‘He’s ahead of you’. . . It was a
lie.”
These are not the only families
being threatened and torn apart
by current cruel Trump adminis-
by
tration immigration policies. We
must add all of the families bro-
ken up every day by deportation
actions; the more than 270,000
U.S.-born chil-
dren threatened
with separation if
President Trump
revokes Tempo-
rary
Protected
Status for Hai-
tians, Salvadorans and Hondurans
in 2019; and the uncertainty still
hanging over those, some with
young children, who have received
temporary immigration benefits
through the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) pro-
gram and other Dreamers.
The Department of Health and
Human Services reported last
month that there are 12,800 mi-
grant children who came across
the border alone who are still
detained rather than placed with
family members or sponsors, a
five-fold increase from a year ago.
This is dramatically straining the
capacity of existing shelters and
depriving these vulnerable chil-
dren and youths of crucial sup-
portive human connections. One
likely reason for this increase is
that sponsors are more reluctant to
come forward to care for these un-
accompanied minors given the an-
ti-immigrant actions of the Trump
administration.
As if these earlier horrors of the
administration’s
anti-immigrant
agenda were not enough, the De-
partments of Homeland Security
and Health and Human Services
recently proposed to remove the
20-day limit on detention of chil-
dren with their families established
under the 1997 Flores court ruling,
which would allow children and
families to be placed in indefinite
detention in unlicensed facilities.
And the administration is ex-
the new much broader definition
of “public charge” is already caus-
ing immigrant families not to ap-
ply for the benefits they and their
children need to survive.
What is wrong with us? As we
continue to fight for parents and
children separated at the border
to be reunified and for children
crossing alone to be treated hu-
manely, we must intensify the
call of all major faiths to protect
children and welcome the strang-
er. It will take all of us protesting
It will take all of us
protesting together against the
Trump administration’s cruel
and immoral zero-tolerance
immigration policies...
pected to soon propose for com-
ment harmful and radical revisions
to the “public charge” regulation
that would allow the Department
of Homeland Security to deny
green cards and visas to immi-
grants who receive one or more
public benefits, such as Medicaid,
the Supplemental Nutrition Assis-
tance Program (SNAP), housing
vouchers and others. The threat of
together against the Trump ad-
ministration’s cruel and immoral
zero-tolerance immigration poli-
cies, the evil separation of immi-
grant children from their families,
and efforts to detain and cut back
protections for immigrant families
and children.
For all people of conscience
ready to act—you are not alone.
You can join the Children’s De-
fense Fund and many others at the
community, state and national lev-
els to resist policies that tear chil-
dren apart from families and threat-
en those who are undocumented,
those with Temporary Protected
Status, those with DACA and other
Dreamers, and those seeking green
cards and visas.
In your local community you
can help address the immediate
needs of immigrants by support-
ing service programs providing
them needed help, offering refuge
and sanctuary, and protesting cru-
el and harmful practices. Please
reach out and support those aiding
children and families at the border.
At the national level, please join
those who will comment on the
harmful proposed regulations de-
signed to deny children in deten-
tion basic protections and threaten
basic survival benefits for children
and families with changes to the
“public charge” rules.
About one in four children in
our country has an immigrant par-
ent. This urgent child and family
tragedy is an attack on children,
on immigrant families and on the
moral decency of our nation—and
it is far from over. Please stay vig-
ilant, stand up and speak out.
Marian Wright Edelman is
president of the Children’s De-
fense Fund.