Browsing: Opinions

Black Free Speech is Different

     Many Americans don’t know what to believe, and many may not vote because everyone is not telling the truth. Many Americans believe their vote does not count, but your vote is your voice. Get help, ask questions, educate yourself, and show up and vote.

     But today’s Supreme Court is different. It’s dominated by far-right justices who have made it clear they don’t share this view. Chief Justice John Roberts’s famous quote, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” sums it up: conservatives believe affirmative action is at best unnecessary and at worst just another type of discrimination. Some conservatives would like to retire affirmative action because they claim it’s accomplished everything it set out to do. But it hasn’t. Not even close.

America having opened its arms to Cubans fleeing Castro’s regime beginning in 1959 thru 1990 welcomed more than 1.4 million refugees. By 1994, the Cuban Migration reached a crisis. The crisis was not that of a burden but how to process the new arrivals and how to provide for their transition from Castro’s Communist regime to life in this Country. President Eisenhower Republican, 1960, authorized the Cuban Refugee Program; thus, paving the way for billions budgeted to cover this influx refugees.

     Had Obama, as the forty-fourth president, behaved exactly as Trump, there would have been demand for his indictment. Neither political party would have focused on his state of mind or intent. Rather, the thought more likely would’ve been, “How dare he, as a Black man, have the audacity to attack our government?” Instead of lock him up, the calls by conservatives would’ve been, “let’s lynch him!” That ungrateful son- of- a – birther!”

     Unmotivated and discouraged are two words one could use to describe the feelings of U.S students regarding this year’s midterm election. Many students, especially upperclassmen, are currently in a period of intense focus, attempting to finish up strongly in the classroom as the fall semester concludes. With grades being their highest priority, a great number of students simply feel as if they don’t have the time to commit to researching and educating themselves about the candidates running, or the policies they bring along. For other students, uncertainty and a lack of voting experience are the main deterring factors.

         We are a few days away from one of the biggest elections in our community and country.   After the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, low turnout and apathy led to many candidates losing the 2010 midterm elections which ushered in and legitimized 12 years of grievance politics and radical hate.  

     Intimidation should not be allowed at any poll locations, but it is happening right now across the country. Many election chiefs have left their jobs because of threats and harassment. On October 28th the Department of Homeland Security warned MAGA Republicans could attack election officials to prevent votes from being counted or certified.

     While many of us have been focusing on voter suppression and the many efforts around the country to stop or frustrate the Black and Brown votes in particular and the votes of anyone who does not agree with the MAGA (Make America Great Again) attack on democracy as we know it, we seem to have overlooked, in some quarters, the issue of having enough people of color as Poll Workers for election day.

     One definition of recovery is, “a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength.” Another is, “the action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost.” I can’t think of any more appropriate descriptions of the first 20 months of President Joe Biden’s Administration. History records President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the creator of the New Deal, President Harry S. Truman as the initiator of the Fair Deal, and President Lyndon Johnson as the mastermind of the Great Society. I believe historians will one day recognize President Joseph R. Biden as the engineer of the Great Recovery.