Page 2 The Skanner October 10, 2018
®
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
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Founder/Publisher
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2017
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Opinion
Don’t Believe the Hype — Vote, Because It Matters
I
n the 2016 U.S. presidential
election, we were wrong.
Political forecasters, poll-
sters, elected officials, and
even media told us that the
45th President of our nation
would be a woman named
Hillary Clinton, but they were
wrong.
In many cases, the margin
between who became presi-
dent and who lost the race was
a slim few thousand votes. For
example, in the 2016 Presiden-
tial election, the winning mar-
gin was less than 2 percent in
Michigan, Florida, Wiscon-
sin, Pennsylvania, and two
other states. Though the pop-
ular vote was won by Hillary
Clinton (in excess of 3 million
votes) and the margin between
victory and loss was small in
many states, the “near vic-
tory” serves as cold comfort
to those communities whose
civil rights are slowly being
rolled back under the omi-
nous weight and rise of racism
and White nationalism.
Today, like in 2016, we hear
the predictions of a powerful
political shift in the House of
Representatives and possibly
the Senate. While these pre-
dictions are promising, they
alone will not ensure that the
interests of the Black commu-
nity will be affirmed by the
Derrick
Johnson
NNPA
President &
CEO
winners of the midterm elec-
tions. The only way we will
get the respect we deserve is
to show up and show out at
the polls in November.
When we take our well-de-
served seat at the table, we
know our impact is always
powerful.
We’ve seen the collective
power of Black women im-
pact key races for office in
special elections and prima-
ries. Black women, according
to our recent poll which ana-
lyzed the 61 most competitive
midterm races, are tired of
feeling disrespected by the
Trump Administration and
have made it a much higher
priority to voice their displea-
sure at the polls. Black men
are not far behind them. They
too, along with other commu-
nities of color, are tired of the
relentless racism permeating
our nation and fueled by pol-
iticians.
As we approach November,
we hear the faint yet consis-
tent refrain — elections have
consequences — ringing in
our ears.
Today, as we fight against
the nomination of Brett Ka-
vanaugh, we are reminded
of the harsh reality that his
presence would remake the
Supreme Court of the United
States into a bastion of con-
servatism reminiscent of yes-
“
Civil rights
are slowly
being rolled
back under
the ominous
weight and
rise of racism
and White
nationalism
teryears when access to our
democracy was parceled off
according to skin color.
For the Black community,
November is a watershed mo-
ment. If we fail to vote in num-
bers respective to our actual
political power, future gen-
erations will suffer for our
apathy. We don’t have to tell
our people how to vote, only
that we must vote as if our
lives and our children’s lives
depend on it. Because it does.
The NAACP has decided to
fight back and we ask you to
join us by using your ballot as
the weapon of choice.
We ask you to visit NAACP.
org to download and share
resources to help those you
know get registered and mo-
bilized to vote. We are asking
you to reach out to five people
in your personal or social net-
works and bring them with
you to the polls. If you under-
stand the importance of this
year’s elections, we know that
you will sound the alarm, con-
nect with others, and express
your power by casting your
vote.
Voting is not just about pol-
itics, it’s about fighting police
brutality, preserving civil
rights, providing public ed-
ucation, protecting the right
of workers to organize, and
giving those who need health-
care access to it. But most im-
portantly, voting is about our
ability to live as equals in a so-
ciety that doesn’t always view
us as such.
For resources on getting out
the vote in your community
visit:
www.naacp.org/cam-
paigns/fighting-for-democracy.
Stand strong and vote — our
lives depend on it! See you at
the polls.
Time Stopped for Me on September 27
I
did not intend to watch Dr.
Christine Blasey Ford’s
testimony before the Sen-
ate Judiciary Committee
regarding her allegations
of sexual assault on the part
of Judge Brent Kavanaugh. I
was busy preparing to head
out of town. I figured that I
would get the relevant parts
of her testimony later in the
day online. And, at the end of
the day, I knew what she was
going to allege.
For reasons that I cannot
explain, something led me
to turn on the television to
watch the testimony. I found
myself glued to the screen.
Everything else seemed to
get blocked out as she spoke,
very convincingly and very
passionately, about her expe-
rience.
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
The Global
African
I fumed when she was asked
questions by Republican
hired gun and prosecutor
Rachel Mitchell. Despite her
pretend appearance as a sym-
pathetic inquisitor, at the end
of the day, as demonstrated
this past Sunday in her memo
on the case, she turned out to
be anything but sympathetic.
Due to my schedule I was un-
able to listen to Kavanaugh’s
response. Yet what struck me
was the immediate response
to Dr. Ford’s testimony by so
many people across the polit-
ical spectrum. Several com-
mentators immediately noted
that her testimony was dev-
astating for the Republicans.
Despite that, and true to form,
the Republican propaganda
machine went to work at once
attempting to reverse the
current, suggesting that Dr.
Ford’s testimony and other al-
legations against Kavanaugh,
were aimed at destroying the
reputation of a good man.
But what about the good
woman? What about someone
who is facing death threats for
coming forward? What about
the person who has been rid-
iculed by the political Right?
As I wrote last week, the
continuous suggestion that
there must have been some-
thing wrong with Dr. Ford
and others who have brought
forward allegations against
Judge Kavanaugh because
they failed to raise their con-
cerns earlier is specious. It
is an allegation that can only
be made by someone(s) who
has not faced ridicule, ha-
rassment and self-doubt in
response to their experiences
with sexual harassment or as-
sault.
And, to top this all off,
Trump worries that the #Me-
Too movement and those who
aligned with it, constitute a
threat to powerful men.
Maybe Trump is correct.
Indeed, maybe rich and pow-
erful men who believe that
they are the masters of the
universe and masters over
the bodies of women should
be worried.
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