The Gantt Report
By Lucius Gantt
Next year, 2024, will be an election year in America and next year Black citizens in the United States will continue to be misled, tricked, and bamboozled into thinking that a Democratic or Republican candidate will finally open the doors to a path for political and economic progress.
When Black men and Black women say, “I don’t care about politics and I don’t care about voting”, it is an insult to the multitudes of brothers and sisters that fought and died to get voting rights for America’s most oppressed and exploited citizens.
If you don’t know, in 1868, African Americans were granted citizenship rights, but our so-called citizenship did not stop racists and white supremacists from blocking Blacks from voting.
In 1870 Congress passed the 15th Amendment which said voting rights for US citizens shall not be denied by any state on account of race, color, or previous servitude but it didn’t stop states from suppressing Black votes with poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud, voter intimidation and other devilish means.
In 1964, the 24th Amendment ended poll taxes and in 1965 a “Voting Rights Act” was passed.
Well, we still catch hell right now trying to vote in every state in the United States!
Precincts, where pre-dominately Black voters vote, are moved without notice, mailboxes are removed to prevent mail in and absentee voting, armed white nationalists park their trucks near polling places to continue to intimidate or scare Blacks who want to cast their votes.
And, in Georgia’s last Presidential election, Black women were harassed and threatened for working to make elections in Georgia and America free and fair.
The Gantt Report can go on and on but people who read this column must continue to vote, and encourage their family members, friends, and neighbors to vote.
Our problem is, the bamboozle comes when our people are told who we should vote for or against by people who have no plan or strategy that will benefit us economically or politically.
You see, America is a capitalist country where capital, or money, is the most desired asset, the primary motivating factor.
If you know your American political history, there have been Democratic and Republican political devils. Strom Thurmond and Lester Maddox were no better or worse than Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, they are basically the same.
At one time or another, members of both American political parties have pretended to be Black American’s friends, protectors, providers, benefactors, and comrades.
To get a Black vote today, all a candidate has to say is, “I love Beyonce, LeBron, Martin Luther King, all HBCUs and I eat chicken and collard greens.”
Candidates don’t have to support increased Black participation in government purchasing transactions, increased contract opportunities in political campaigns, reparation payments for Blacks, land grants for Blacks, or access to capital and financial support from the government or the banking industry.
One more thing, political parties want your presidential votes. They don’t want to talk to you about state and local races and candidates.
Guess who voted to gerrymander every political district they could. You got it, the political beasts did.
I know you don’t like me to write like this but let me tell you something your so-called leaders would never acknowledge.
The State of Florida turned three Democratic Congressional districts into three new Republican districts. The U.S. House of Representatives has a Republican majority of only four votes. One Black Floridian, Al Lawson, lost his seat in Florida’s Blackest part of the state, North Florida.
It’s not just the voters that are being bamboozled, Black candidates who are encouraged to only work with people approved by white Democrats lose just like other candidates who don’t assemble the campaign teams that are best for them.
Vote! Every race on every level is important!
Don’t cast your ballot for The Gantt Report, vote for yourself and for your ancestors who fought and died for your voting rights.
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