Posted by Kevin Robinson on October 27, 2020 · 1 Comment (Edit)

Widely excused as a simple compromise of political apportionment, the answer became a clause of Article One of the U.S. constitution. Squarely baring this compromise’s load were thousands of nameless, faceless slaves trapped in this insensitive chest game of the powerful. 

The slave population declared three-fifths of a person as a whole by this clause back at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, meant to devalue the enumerated people. Sacrificing the personage of the Black or melanated individual emerged as the unfortunate solution to this constitutional conundrum. 

This solution was a way to bolster the southern states’ political power in congress. The missed truth of these wranglings meant that the headcount benefited only the white population. The melanated group or individual received nothing out of the deal and had no say, representation, or Vote. The plan from the beginning was never to address the melanated only to use the men’s strong backs and the women’s voluptuous backsides and physiques to act in servitude of the pleasures of the Anglo quest of the American Dream.

Today, another chapter of give and take is in play for the melanated to be used as an ends to the powerful’s means to attain more power. In the 2020 election, both major political parties are vying for the black vote. African Americans need to make sure they aren’t used as pawns but must make demands in exchange for votes.

All that being said, there are many attempts to eliminate black people’s votes through voter suppression. These attempts are sophisticated and covert. They include spreading rumors that the courts can overrule these votes. This becomes the mechanism to discourage and keep the black vote home. Also, making voting harder through fewer voting locations will also deter people from voting.   

Interestingly enough, the right to vote is not in the Constitution. The issue of representation is not a given. The Constitution’s original intent was to keep voting in elites’ hands and not the masses i.e. the mob. The prerequisite of voter eligibility was land ownership of white men. A caveat of the constitution’s intent protects the individual’s rights and the political minorities in a democracy vs. the masses. 

 The mastery of this moment is that people of color have some leverage. What started as a disruptive moment in protest of systemic racism in policing initiated by the George Floyd lynching has morphed into a movement.

Protests have revealed America’s infected scab’s underside dating back to the Three Fifths compromise and further back to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That Declaration’s creation never accounted for melanated hues. Therefore, the original intent of America is an illusion. Melanated populations have tried to use the Constitution to correct injustices. 

So why should one vote? Try these two on for size. First, the proposed John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act responds to current conditions in voting today by restoring the full protections of the original, bipartisan Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Second, TheGeorge Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 is a civil rights and police reform bill drafted by some members of the United States Congress that address systemic racism in policing. To be very clear, this is just a start.

“This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.” Fredrick Douglass.

The caricatured Mob has been the pejorative dog-whistle phrase of choice to describe those fighting injustice. The multiethnic masses/mob vote can breach the elites’ privilege; therefore brings justice and freedoms to the oppressed and marginalized.

What’s at stake, one may ask? Plenty, or it may be said the whole House of Cards. What lies in peril for the dominant population is, the whole House of Cards of systemic national racism falling, involving all of its systems vs. the status quo. White supremacists are very aware of this inflection point.

“police murder of unarmed black men has been an American way of death across centuries. After seeing the most comprehensive police reform bill ever introduced into congress, I’ve begun to wonder if now is the time the protesters finally win.” Lawrence O’Donnell

I rest my case, and now it is up to you to Vote for the things you live for and change the things you die for.

Kevin Robinson Executive Director of Accord1