By Teka Lark (December 13, 2017)
I am happy that sexist and racist Moore went down, barely, but I’m not happy that the Democratic Party felt that the Black community wasn’t worth a dime or any effort.
The Black vote is treated like absolute trash by the Democratic Party. This last hour campaigning with no money. This expectation that Black owned media doesn’t deserve any ad dollars, this going to the church and getting people to work for free while white consultants are paid enough to live in the tonier part of Washington DC and fly in to save the day. This pathologizing narrative that finds a way in every analysis of us even when Black people have consistently helped the Democratic Party over and over again. Black women saved you, we’re not your fucking mammy. All of this is just disgusting.
This is no victory for Black people. I doubt Jones will do anything to make life better for some of the most economically oppressed Black people in the United States, just like the Democratic Party has never done a damn thing exclusively for the poorest of Black people.
Black people regardless of who we vote for will still be paid less, be more likely to be unemployed, be more likely to be killed in urban cities by the police, be more likely to be hypersegregated, be more likely to die by crash crossing the street, be more likely to live in a community with polluted air and trashy and unhealthful fastfood restaurants, and to be more likely to die giving birth to a child.
But like white liberals keep going to the well of white racists for support, Black people continue to organize and work for free for the Democratic party that I can see clearly when I walk up the streets of Compton, Oakland, and Brooklyn, all cities with Democratic Governors and Senators, don’t care about us.
The Black community is used for street cred, it is used for grants, it is used for votes, but when it comes down to what we think and who we are as a people the neoliberal Democratic machine doesn’t care. We’re just objects to use, paths to get to where they are going, we aren’t people to them.
I’m not happy for Black people, because us helping in Alabama has just cemented in the Democratic Party’s mind that they don’t have to do anything for us.
If they weren’t racist they wouldn’t think that, they would think, “Wow this is awesome, how they came out. We need to put more resources into this demographic.” But they are are racists, so instead they will think they can invite us to the party at the last minute after the food is already eaten and the drinks are all gone and we’ll still dress up and be pleasant.
If voting is the way out Black people don’t need the machine of the Democratic Party to get out of this oppression, because they surely aren’t giving us the money and time they spend on everyone else.
If we have to work for free or on the cheap, if we have to organize ourselves then why can’t we build a better anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-classist, and anti-war party without these racist people?
The Democratic Party is dedicated to racism, they show that in their strategies, one of which is spend no money on Black people and another of which is to not offend white racists.
Black people, we can’t keep giving our vote to the Democratic Party and asking and expecting nothing in return for it.
