The Link Between Registering Voters and Racial Justice

You all know I’ve been losing faith in the United States.

Luckily I’ve been slowly finding my way back to hope.

I recently listed to this podcast with Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author of Between the World and Me. He says, “I can’t believe I’m gonna say this, but I see hope. I see progress right now, at this moment.” He goes on to explain that it finally feels like “the battle is legitimately joined.”

I made a list of my personal commitments that align with helping to build a world where there is “liberty and justice for all.” I want to hold myself accountable for doing more. I’ll share the full list tomorrow, but here’s #7:

I will remember that working at the personal and interpersonal level will not be enough. These issues are systemic and they need to be dismantled at the level of government and policy. I need to be part of a movement to reclaim our democracy. I will do this by figuring out how to support the mass mobilization of voters, including advocating strongly for a “mail in” option by November. Even winning the popular vote is not enough because of the electoral college. I want to figure out how to help register new voters and encourage everyone to get out and vote on election day.

My first opportunity is tonight. I signed up for the Powered by the People event to help register votes in Texas. Here’s how Beto explains it:

This past Monday more than 2,500 people signed up for our phone bank to reach unregistered voters in Texas and help them register to vote. We made over 210,000 phone calls. If we keep this up, we will help bring hundreds of thousands of new voters into this next election. They are the ones who will elect majorities to their commissioners courts and city councils that will reform local police forces and ensure more equitable investment in their communities. They are the voters who will elect a Democratic majority to the Texas Legislature for the first time in 20 years – a majority that will fight to change decades of racial gerrymandering and work for criminal justice reform.

And they are the ones, if we meet our goals of registering every likely Democrat in this state, who will award our 38 electoral votes to the Democratic nominee for President for the first time since 1976. That will be seismic. And it will guarantee, unlike anything else or any other state, that Donald Trump will not serve another term in office. Joe Biden will be our next President and with the help of every single one of us (supporting him and holding him accountable) he will help to usher in an era of true justice in this country.

This kind of action — doing the hard work that will decide the future of our state and country — gives me hope.

It is the antidote to despair and the key to victory.

I’m hopeful about the idea that Texas could eventually follow California’s lead and turn from red to blue.

Do you have any plans to support registering voters?