Presidential Polls Predict Landslide--Don't Count on it!

By Mildred Robertson

According to recent polls, Joe Biden will rout Donald Trump on November 3.  A Quinnipiac University poll taken July 9 – July 13, 2020 show that 52% of Americans support Joe Biden while only 37% support Trump. The poll of 1273 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8%.  Sounds like good news for Democrats. However, voters who are lukewarm on 2020 candidates and think their vote is not needed should probably rethink their position.

The 2020 Presidential election has a unique set of challenges which make the final outcome less predictable than past elections. Factors include a repeat of 2016 when Russia interfered in the presidential election, a possible drag on the youth vote for the Democratic nominee’s moderate stance on many hot button issues, and voter intimidation and suppression attempts by Republicans and other conservatives.

Republicans have made concerted efforts to limit early and mail-in voting. Their stance seems to be that a large voter turnout will result in their defeat, and have, therefore, pulled out all the stops as it relates to limiting minority access to the voting booth.  

False narratives run rampant in ads and among TV talking heads who repeat conservative tropes regarding widespread voter fraud. Many states are limiting the number of polling  places, all but guaranteeing that there will be long lines and ridiculous wait times come election day. These factors, added to the Corona virus pandemic, are designed to stymie the Blue Wave being predicted by state and national pollsters for the 2020 Election. If America has in fact turned against Donald Trump, conservatives seem to believe that they can stem the tide by discouraging voter turnout and making it difficult for those who chose to do so.  

The fact is, voting has never been easy for African Americans. From poll taxes, to night riders, to work schedules that make it difficult to get to the polls, many Americans found the challenge too tough. But it was not too tough for people like the recently deceased John Lewis who sacrificed his body to win you and me the opportunity to vote. It was not too tough for Dr. Martin Luther King, or the young men and women of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or the Freedom Riders, many of whom gave their lives for our right to freedom and human dignity.

As we mourn the loss of Civil Rights icon John Lewis, it would be fitting that they change the name of the "Edmund Pettus Bridge" to the "John Lewis Bridge." But what would be even more fitting would be a record turnout of minority voters in the 2020 Election. That is the best way to honor his memory.

We cannot depend on polls to deliver our fate on November 3, 2020. We must take our destiny in our own hands and vote in numbers like we have never voted before. Check your registration to make sure that you have not been subject to one of the many voter purges occurring across the nation. Request your mail-in ballot as soon as they become available in your state. Make sure you mail in your completed ballot at least two weeks prior to November 3, 2020. If you choose to vote in person, take off November 3^rd so that you can stay as long as necessary to make sure your vote is cast. Go to the polls early. Talk to your family and friends to make sure they are registered and that they intend to vote.  

It is true that many polls across America say that the 2020 election is over. But a poll is just an educated guess. Don’t leave your future to guesswork—VOTE on or before November 3, 2020. 

Contact your local Board of Elections now for early voting locations or to obtain your absentee ballot

Seizing the Moment – While Black Lives Do Matter

By Mildred Robertson

My 30-something-year-old son has been active in the protests in San Diego, California triggered by the George Floyd murder. He has marched, he has been tear-gassed and clubbed by police, and he is frustrated. While his passion for immediate social change is still red-hot, he wants to know the end game. He wants to know what will happen when the marching stops.

His first response when he took to the streets is that it appeared that no one was in charge. It was a knee-jerk response from a group of young people overcome by the brutality they have witnessed over the course of their young lives. And they are outraged.

You see, while America’s duplicity is familiar to me…a near Septuagenarian, many youths, both black and white, have been sheltered from the race hatred that bubbles just beneath the surface of American society. America has never addressed the festering sore of slavery and its incumbent racial animus.

It is, perhaps, the fault of our generation who witnessed the transformative 60’s and experienced the benefit of a society where we could walk on the sidewalk and not have to step to the side to let a white person pass…or when we got to move outside the redlines…or when we were able to drink from whatever water fountain we chose. It all felt like progress. It WAS progress.

Our school systems white-washed the history of slavery and Jim Crow, and many of us, traumatized by the brutality of racism ignored it, striving instead to achieve the American promise of peace and prosperity. At least those of us who could. But far too many of our people were trapped in the dysfunctional strata of our society where they faced substandard schools, inferior housing, inadequate healthcare, food deserts, and over-policing.

While young people like my son were not unaware of racism…of course, I had “the talk” with him about policing…It had not touched many of them on a daily basis as it had those who were less fortunate. But this current administration has ripped the scab from our barely healing racial strife to expose the ugly hatred nurtured by white Americans who blamed their failures on our successes. Blacks who have not been able to dig themselves from the poverty into which they were grandfathered under the oppressive systems of slavery and Jim Crow were viewed as lazy, criminal, and not entitled to the American Dream. Those who became successful and moved up in society were viewed as interlopers who stole the Dream from deserving white citizens.

But polite society barely acknowledges this reality. You see, we work in integrated workplaces. Our friendships are many times interracial. We go out to clubs and share a drink after work, or have an occasional social dinner meeting.  We even sometimes worship together. Our lives have become intersectional.

But it is not where our lives meet that causes problems. It is when we walk out of the hospital and take off our lab coats, when we leave the bank and change from our Brooks Brother’s suits to our jogging pants and hoodies, when we come home from the fire station or the police station and put on our casual clothes. When we look like all the other black folk in the world…That is when the problems start--when we become the threat.

When we are walking to the corner store like Trayvon Martin, or lying in bed like Breona Taylor, playing in the park like Tamir Rice or driving our car like Sandra Bland; the threat is real. But it is we ourselves who are threatened.

Though touted as the land of fairness and equality; America, since its inception, has always had a strange taste for violence. From the slaughter of native Americans, to the brutalization of slaves, to the ruthless marauding of Black communities throughout reconstruction, to the viciousness of the attack on civil rights activists, to the inhumane policing in Black communities that have resulted in the death of thousands of folks like George Floyd. Blood lust has been a part of the White American nature.  Yet White folks clutch their pearls when a young protestor, angry over these 400 years of injustice, raises his or her fist and possibly throws a brick.  It is this disconsonance that has caused many White Americans, not only to see but acknowledge their duplicity.

And now, with eyes open, many White Americans are persuadable. Many can acknowledge the shame of slavery, the burden of servitude, discrimination and racism on the Black community and the disparities that are rooted in them.

Unfortunately for George Floyd, it was his televised execution that caused many White Americans to see. But his death has created a moment. A moment when Black Lives do actually matter. The moment will be fleeting, so we must seize it now to create the change we need in order for America to be great for the FIRST time.