Voting (Or Not Voting) as a Black Man
In a lengthy, epithet-laden essay, author Marcus K. Dowling announced that he will not be voting in the 2016 US Presidential election on the basis of that he considers Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to be “equally shitty white candidates.” But a deeper examination of “I’m Not Voting For Shitty White People As A Black Man, I’m Not With Her Because She’s Not With Me, Etc.” reveals it to be a racist, sexist, and anti-intellectual piece of barbershop conspiracy theory masquerading as an “edgy”/“woke” op-ed.
Below you’ll find some of the more offensive passages (in italics) coupled with my thoughts and observations (communicated in bold type):
“And here we are. We’re roughly one month away from November 8, when, if you’re a voting-age African-American male, you’re being asked to choose between Bill Clinton’s wife…”
Brazenly sexist from the jump-off, yo. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (previously Senator Hillary Clinton, D-NY) is not just Bill Clinton’s wife. A woman is not defined by her relationship to her spouse or partner. The author is very clearly belittling HRC’s accomplishments by referring to her as simply being a former president’s wife.
“Maybe it’s time for us, as black men, in a last gasp effort to show that our lives may actually matter, to not vote AT ALL ...There’s a guy somewhere in the country who looks like me who’s murdered, wrongly incarcerated, starving, homeless or literally dying of thirst who I feel a need to stand with as their “American freedoms” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” have been taken away. Thus, in a display of non-violent protest, I’m NOT voting on Election Day.”
Considering the gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by the 2013 Supreme Court decision Shelby County vs. Holder, and the subsequent introduction of voter suppression laws that disproportionately affect minorities, Dowling’s statement is straight up ignant. Staying home on Election Day is exactly what Voting Rights opponents want us Black folks to do. Furthermore, to silence yourself in supposed solidarity with those who’ve been silenced is both counterproductive AND an insult to the people of all races who fought and died so that brothas like us could go to the polls in peace.
“As a black man desiring professional upward mobility (1), I wonder about the trickle-down effect of a white female President in the modern American workplace (2). Women’s rights and women’s equality are wonderful (3). But, there’s a deep-seated fear inside of me (and maybe other black men) that this one massive gain for women could lead to a situation where not even so much white women, but the kind of white women who could easily, for instance, hit a dab after putting a black man in prison and placate my still-free and hyper-sexualized black male existence by going on the Breakfast Club to explain herself, gain power(4). The idea that white women like these could end up in control in industries across the board is frightening to my humanity and defeating my professional upward mobility, too (5).”
WOW. Straight up, one of the more infuriating passages in Dowling’s polemic. I had to break this down even further.
- There is nothing professional about the language used in this essay.
- Progress is not a zero-sum equation. The election of a woman to the office of POTUS will be a transformative moment for all Americans, not just white American women. To insinuate that the election of a female president would be anything less than historic is demeaning to all those who laid the groundwork for HRC to come this far.
- “Women’s rights and women’s equality are wonderful”- I’ve repeated this phrase to illustrate how cosmically back-handed it is. Shame on you, sir.
- A thinly-veiled dismissal of what some of the Shea Butter Bloc of #BlackTwitter call “White Feminism.” What is “White Feminism?” It is an incorrect characterization of feminism as being exclusive to white American women/inapplicable to people of color and exemplified by the tone-deaf/foot-in-mouth observations on race occasionally made by Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham.
- The author fears that any progress made by women will come at the expense of his career/success/existence, a painfully common anti-feminist POV. Fear of a female planet. Nothing more. Nothing less.
“2016’s election is a Catch-22 for black men.”
Being black in America is a Catch-22; this year’s election is a symptom, not the disease. Our art, music, culture, slang, dress, ingenuity, athleticism, and all-around dopeness are celebrated as the best that America has to offer to the world. And yet we are routinely and systematically treated like second-class citizens in a contradictory and confusing society from the cradle to the grave. That is a proper Catch-22.
