A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
Welcome to Alcatraz, not merely the infamous prison that once stood in San Francisco Bay, but the state of mind now infecting our government.
It is a mentality built on cages, fear, intimidation, and control. It is the belief that government should rule through punishment instead of serving through justice. It is a political philosophy that sees immigrants as inmates, Black and Brown voters as threats, and dissenting citizens as enemies who must be silenced.
Florida gave that mentality a physical address in the Everglades with the detention center callously nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The facility has since closed, but what happened there must not be forgotten. A federal watchdog found that detainees were confined in cramped metal enclosures, denied adequate space and subjected to conditions that violated federal detention standards. A federal court also had to order officials to provide detainees meaningful access to legal counsel. These were human beings, many awaiting immigration proceedings not animals to be caged or political props to be displayed. (Associated Press; ACLU)
The guards may wear different uniforms. Some carry badges. Some sit behind government desks. Others stand at podiums and speak into microphones. But the mentality is the same: control the people, restrict their movement, limit their access to justice and punish anyone who refuses to fall in line.
That same Alcatraz mentality extends far beyond immigration detention.
We see it whenever polling places are closed, consolidated or relocated in Black and Brown communities, making citizens travel farther and wait longer to exercise a constitutional right. Research has shown that polling-place closures and increased travel distances can disproportionately reduce turnout among Black and Latino voters. (NAACP Legal Defense Fund)
Changing voting locations shortly before an election, especially without aggressive public notice, transportation assistance and accessible alternatives this can become voter suppression by inconvenience.
You do not have to place chains on people to restrain their freedom. Sometimes you simply close the neighborhood polling place, complicate the mail-ballot process, shorten the window for participation and hope frustration accomplishes what outright prohibition cannot.
When government makes voting harder for selected communities, citizens are no longer being treated as the sovereign owners of democracy. They are being treated like prisoners asking permission to exercise rights that already belong to them.
Then comes the language of fear.
Candidates who speak about affordable housing, accessible healthcare, stronger public schools, fair wages and protecting Social Security are branded “socialists.” The word “socialist” is then deliberately blurred with “communist,” as though any public program that helps working people is an attack on America.
That is not honest political debate. That is propaganda.
The same people shouting “socialism” rarely complain about public subsidies, tax breaks, and government contracts when the beneficiaries are wealthy corporations. Their outrage begins only when government assistance reaches poor people, working families, Black communities, immigrants, or anyone else they believe should remain outside the gates of opportunity.
We cannot allow loaded labels to do our thinking for us.
Know the candidate. Know the record. Know the policies. Know who benefits and who suffers when those policies become law.
Now, more than ever, we must vote. If not for ourselves, then for the children who will inherit whatever country our silence permits others to create. Vote for the elderly person whose Social Security is threatened. Vote for the student whose history is being erased. Vote for the family that cannot afford healthcare. Vote for the worker who deserves a living wage. Vote for the citizen whose polling place has been moved and whose voice somebody is hoping will disappear.
Understand this clearly: in an election where democracy itself is being tested, choosing not to vote does not make you neutral. A no-show vote strengthens the side that benefits from your absence.
But we must also reject the shallow politics of symbolism.
For goodness’ sake, let us not be fooled into believing that “making history” means voting for someone merely because of the color of that person’s skin. Representation matters, but complexion without conviction is not liberation.
A Black face carrying anti-Black policies is not progress. A historic candidacy supporting an agenda that weakens voting rights, undermines civil rights, and treats vulnerable people as disposable is not a victory for our community. We have traveled that road before. We should not celebrate making history by revisiting the very history that harmed us.
The question is not simply: What does the candidate look like?
The question is: Whom will that candidate serve?
Will that person protect our right to vote? Defend our public schools? Preserve our history? Respect immigrants’ humanity? Strengthen working families? Stand against policies designed to push Black, Brown and poor citizens back into second-class status?
Alcatraz was built to isolate, confine and silence. That same philosophy has no rightful place in a democracy.
America should not be transformed into a prison where elected officials act as wardens, enforcement agents serve as guards and citizens are expected to obey without questioning those in power.
The ballot is our key.
Use it before the doors of democracy are locked from the inside.