Many of the people who are up in flames about non-voters are people whose “activism” ends at voting and getting people to vote. A lot of these people condescend non-voters and sarcastically ask leftists, “Well then, what do you want me to do?” Which begs the question… What can you do instead of voting?
“White Democrats who are pushing for Black folks to save America from itself have demonstrated our relative unimportance by refusing to help us strategize around safety during participation in electoral politics.” – Brittany Lee Frederick.
White voters, what are y’all doing to ensure the safety of Black voters and the follow-through of white politicians? What are y’all doing to ensure the safety of BIPOC period? There’s more work to be done than just voting on the ballot and never doing any other work. Still, we don’t want to encourage defeatism or inaction by overwhelming people with the amount of work that needs to be done; that’s the opposite of what any of us should focus on.
It’s when we renounce electoral politics and also refrain from doing other work that we feel most defeated and eventually, guilted into “at least” voting… and the cycle continues. That guilt and impotence that stems from inaction is diminished when we get involved in our communities and see our power first hand. We can’t invalidate the work people are doing outside of the system just because they didn’t bubble in their ballots; that’s just one action in their lives as opposed to many. Even if we all bubbled in ballots, the real change will come from doing the labor and building support networks within our own communities. So much attention is focused on voter registration and information, especially with the upcoming elections.
But how different could things be if we reallocated our resources and numbers from politics and directly into the community? The refusal to participate in this system comes after divesting from the system itself, a slow process that comes after the realization that no politicians will come to your rescue because they simply don’t care. Instead of letting that instill fear and hopelessness in you, let it radicalize and empower you. Choosing not to vote isn’t fatalistic, as some believe; in fact, there’s more hope in trusting that our communities can fend for themselves without relying on puppets. When we redirect our idealism and hope from the system and into ourselves, there is a higher likelihood that our needs and the needs of our communities will be met.
The reality for most is that we don’t have the resources to fully invest in electoral politics and also resist them. The truth is that with jobs, school, families, and downtime to account for, most can’t fully invest in phone banking for politicians and still have the time and energy to commit to organizing in their community. When we talk about dismantling and defunding and abolishing, it’s easy to get lost in the commitment to destruction and forget that we also need to build and nurture. A big part of the fight lies in how we build support networks outside of the structures we hope to destroy. There are already people and projects across the IE getting involved and helping their communities.
Do you have clothes you never got rid of during spring cleaning because we got stuck in quarantine? Consider putting together a clothing drive or clothes swap with some friends. Do you have a space in your yard and like to garden? Plant some herbs and veggies and distribute produce around your block. Do you like crafting and working with your hands? Make some face masks and hand sanitizer to give out to the houseless population. Anything from skill sharing – cooking classes, financial literacy courses, political education, translation services, and more – to providing services – child-care, ride sharing, community gardening, running errands for the elderly (especially during COVID) – is useful.
Everyone has a skill, an interest, a talent. We can all build on what we already have and share it with our community instead of waiting on politics to save us.
Further reading:
“Reaching Beyond ‘Black Faces in High Places’: An Interview With Joy James” from Truthout
“Socialist Faces in High Places: Elections & the Left” by Black Rose/Rosa Negra
“Voting is Not Harm Reduction” by Indigenous Action