What’s Wrong with Black and Brown Voters of Today?

Santura Pegram

By Santura Pegram

It’s interesting to see political candidates at every level of government acknowledge that the votes of Black and Brown citizens alike are often the deciding factor in which candidates win in the majority of elections today. From kissing cute mocha-colored babies and young children on their foreheads to hugging and swooning up against beautiful chocolate-complexioned senior citizens for a quick campaign photo opportunity, nonminority candidates seemingly know how to disillusion and sway the interest of such voters, even if that candidate has done nothing whatsoever for the minority community and has no intention of doing so. Worse yet, sometimes, the candidate doing the misleading is someone who looks just like you, which is an even bigger disappointment since the world already has more than enough replicas of Clarence Thomas and Candace Owens to go around.

Voting, long believed and promoted to be one of the most powerful weapons against oppression and leveling the playing field of society, has arguably not seemed to work in the best interest of Black and Brown people over the last 40-plus years. Yet, every other year or election cycle you can be sure to see the same tactics playing out for most such candidates: kiss a few babies, hold a few young kids, shake hands with their parent(s) who almost worship candidates like a rockstar, and hug a few older citizens while lying to all of them and simultaneously begging everyone for campaign contribution dollars. It’s been the same old stale games. Talk BIG, but once elected do little or nothing.

Which invokes the question: What is wrong with Black and Brown voters of today?

Instead of bowing down and naively giving their votes away to fork-tongued candidates (frequently incumbents) who often care nothing about anyone besides themselves, their family members, and their closest cronies (which includes deep-pocketed campaign contributors & special interest groups), Black and Brown voters should be demanding much more from their current representatives and voting them out of office if the elected official has been slow to produce or failed to deliver anything tangible to residents who make up every ethnic and economic background of a given community.

Although neither side will ever accept responsibility for the destructive behavior and decision-making of their Party members, Democrats and Republicans alike have grown accustomed to taking people for granted and both groups share an equal role in continuing to cause dissension amongst voters. Remember, there are three topics that distance people like nothing else: racism, religion, and politics. So, if society is ever to rise above those elements, then people of color (which means Blacks, Hispanics, Latinos, Metro Asians, Indians & other melanated people) urgently need to stand up for themselves since no one else has or will. A closed mouth never gets fed. If economic and governmental conditions are ever expected to improve for the masses of people of color, then they are going to have to learn to stop thinking like bottom-feeders and act upon the unlimited possibilities of what they can accomplish together in large numbers; push to implement term limits at every level of government; become increasingly assertive in demanding more applicable legislation; and utilize their culture to drive progressive change as well as they have become the world’s #1 consumers of the entertainment industry, #1 occupants of courts-correctional systems, and #1 customers of funeral homes (due to Black-on-Black homicides, suicides, and killings by police). The time for monumental change is now!

Santura Pegram (santura.pegram@yahoo.com) is a freelance writer and socially conscious business consultant who has helped to advise small businesses; nonprofit organizations; city, county, and state governmental committees; elected officials; professional athletes; and school systems. He was a one-time aide & protégé to the late Honorable M. Athalie Range – the “Political Matriarch of the State of Florida.”

About Carma Henry 24459 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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