To My Fellow Political Dreamers:

Since Clinton took away 7 states on Super Tuesday, there’s been a whole lot of media pundits sounding the trumpets. It is over for Sanders, they say. He should give up.

This was bound to happen.

When we talk about the mainstream media it might seem conspiratorial to say that they are highly biased towards establishment politics. But when your media is controlled by the wealthy and there’s a candidate that is a direct threat to the interests of wealth and influence, this isn’t conspiratorial; it is logical.

The mainstream media is going to say that this is it for Sanders because they are invested in the system as is. Wealth and power benefit in this system. Regular people do not.

The problem is we depend on the wealthy and powerful to inform us about our lives, about the stakes of an election, about who should throw in the towel and when. They write the articles. They point the cameras. They get to determine the narrative.

But this, just like our political system, should not be determined by a select few.

This election cycle’s Super Tuesday was much smaller than the one in 2008, when 24 states held their primaries and caucuses at the same time. Most of the states this time around were heavily located in the South, where there are an abundance of moderate and conservative voters. That was never going to be Sanders’s wheelhouse. His advantages lie beyond, much later in the primary process.

Most progressive states have yet to vote. In many of them Sanders is competitive and has a mountain of support. Already we are seeing that Sanders has momentum in states with more progressive voters. With a front-loaded moderate and conservative primary, Sanders was going to have it rough. But this is a long-distance run. And Sanders isn’t backing down. We shouldn’t either.

If we want universal health care we are going to have to fight for it. If we want an end to this war on drugs and mass incarceration that overwhelming impacts people of color, we have to show up and show out. If we want a living wage, we have to have courage. If we want the people of this nation to have access to public higher education — without a lifetime of economic subjugation — we have to keep pushing forward.

And if we want to end this corrupt system of campaign finance, where the wealthy have a disproportionate power over our political process, we cannot let those very same institutions tell us that we should give up on the possibility for change.

As a person of color in this country that wants more than lip-service, and more than incremental change, I am refusing to give up. I’ve been waiting for a candidate like this. Mainstream media will not speak down to me and tell me where I should place my trust or my vote, no matter how much they write off my candidate.

Don’t let this cycle of media punditry dissuade you from the task at hand. What we are working towards goes beyond one election. This is a movement. We have been overdue for a massive political shift in this country, a shift where race, gender, orientation, and class finally intersect. A shift for the whole and not just the few.

No one has authority over your vote. So vote your conscience. And keep fighting for what you want for this country. Show up and show out. All revolutions are long shots. This one is no different.

Let’s take our revolution all the way to the convention. No matter what. I’m not backing down. Neither should you.