Trump's policies are unworthy to represent America, such as his unforgivable roll back of the mentally ill’s restrictions to secure firearms to appease the NRA. While Trump is taking credit for Obama’s tireless effort, his trade wars with China, India and America’s Allies such as Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Europe, are threatening to ruin the American economy. His withdrawal from the Paris Climate agreement and his onslaught of environmental pollution is transforming our country into a poisonous, dumping ground. All this and more led to a devastating loss of international respect for the USA after Obama’s leadership, confirmed by Pew Research Center. In fact, Pew concluded that “in the closing years of the Obama presidency, a median of 64% had a positive view of the U.S. Today, just 49% are favorably inclined toward America. Again, some of the steepest declines in U.S. image are found among long-standing allies.”

Traditional Fourth of July
Trump is not the only reason to be critical of the Fourth of July. People long before his election have suffered at the expense of building this powerful nation. Native Americans, such as the Cahokia, Shawnee, the League of the Iroquois and others were either violently disposed or massacred to make room for the great American nation.

And, I know some would like for me to get over slavery. But I cannot forget all the slaves the Constitution ignored. In his speech “The Meaning of July Fourth for a Negro,” Frederick Douglass reminds us that Independence Day was not a victory for all people living in the United States, particularly for black people. Douglass confronted white Americans in his day:

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”

And that’s why black people celebrate Juneteenth—June 19, 1865, the day “Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.”

In fact, what does the Fourth of July have to do with all the groups that have been treated less equally than white, heterosexual, Protestant men throughout the history of the USA?

Douglass, the abolitionist who rebuked Fourth of July, also saw something great in the Declaration. He was keenly aware of

“the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions.”

The moral and ethical meanings of Fourth of July
Here's the deal. The ideal of America at its founding was poisoned with various self-interested motives. Some people wanted political power, wealth, freedom of religion, slaves. However, the American ideal or rather the American Dream means more than those selfish, cruel desires. The idea of America is a noble idea that transcend the hypocrisies and atrocities people have committed on behalf of America.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; the role of government to provide safe and fair conditions for people; the notion that religion does not govern the Constitution—these are some of America’s awesome ideas. But some people were too greedy, viscious and close-minded to honor such principles.

Even the Founding Fathers knew how shady people could be. They didn’t even trust each other with power. When they argued about what to put in the Constitution, the Founders were aware of the negative aspects of human nature. That’s why they divided political power into several parts and place restrictions every position of power. In fact, James Madison said:

"But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions" (Federalist Paper No. 51).

The Founders were anticipating the potential tyrants and demagogues. Imagine that? They placed safeguards around democracy (albeit for white people.)

The Founders were aware that slavery went against their professed ideals. Some wanted to end horrible practice, others wanted to extend it. Thomas Jefferson, who inherited slaves from his father, ironically addressed the evil of slavery in the Declaration of Independence before the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, when indicting the British Crown mentioned the

“cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s [sic] most sacred rights of life & liberty in the person of distant people . . . captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.” (Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, 1997)

Jefferson’s criticisms of slavery in the Declaration created such an uproar among many Founders that it was forced out. But that should remind us that the Declaration’s deeper meanings and significance were ignored.

Make Fourth of July Great Today
My point is that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution aspire to amazing ideals. The Fourth of July should remind us of how America has fell short of living up to them. And begin to hold this country to those ideals.

It's our job to uphold the ideals that make America great.

So, my question is: Where are the people who appreciate the meaning of “We, the people”? Where are the people who know that the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” belongs to all human beings? Where are the people who understand that government is of, by and for the people?

You are the caretakers of the deepest and grandest ideals of the USA. You are what's standing between Trump and healthcare, Ice and innocent families and children. Just like those abolitionists who did what they could to help runaway slaves.

The Fourth of July is our day. The day real patriots tell the world what America really stands for. The day we admit to our human brothers and sisters near and far that our country made big mistakes and declare we’re working correct learn from and correct our country’s errors.

The American legacy will be adorned by our protests to inhumanity, bigotry, nativism, economic inequality.

Celebrate your commitment to stand for the best you can offer your family, community, country and world!

May you all bless America!

Phote credit/source: Labourlist.org

The future of progress is in the hands of Hillary Clinton’s supporters.

Most of Clinton's supporters have no qualms about voting for Bernie Sanders in the event he wins the Democratic nomination. For Clinton’s supporters, the difference between the two Democratic nominees is minute compared to the difference between the Democratic and the Republican candidates. However, it seems many of Sanders's supporters don't come to the same conclusion. They see Clinton as being no different from Cruz or Trump. Taking their view to its logical conclusion, if Clinton becomes president, we should expect to see the same results that a Ted Cruz or Donald Trump administration would execute. 

​American democracy is our country’s best kept secret. It's the rose that grew out of political oppression and economic greed.

Most Americans don't know that and, mistakenly, hold it in contempt.

American democracy since its birth threatened to restrict the exorbitant political and economic power some people craved. So there was a plot to bamboozle unwitting individuals into thinking that American democracy is responsible for all the corruption we see in our country.

To the contrary, American democracy is the last thing corrupt politicians and demagogues, military-industrial complexes, or wealthy CEOs and big corporations want everyday Americans to get their hands on. Their strategy is simple. Keep people away from the polls. If that fails, influence who people will vote for, by pouring money into campaigns to either work for or against certain political actors. Yes, my fellow American citizens, American democracy is your best friend.

What is American Democracy?

American democracy is a Great Idea. And, it is also a great work in progress. The project officially started when the drafting of the Declaration of Independence commenced. The Declaration stated some of the most commendable standards of human civilization.

Two key principles underscore the noble standards in the Declaration and the emergence of American democracy.

The first is, all human beings should have the basic political and economic conditions necessary for an equal opportunity to pursue the good life, or better a happy life! And the second principle is, the purpose of government is to secure and protect such conditions, within a society. There is an extra point to add about government. It should consist of and be administered by the people it governs. All of this is expressed in the second paragraph of the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . .”

In short, the founding scripture of American democracy insists that people should be free and guaranteed the political liberty to do as they please, as long as their actions don’t harm or deprive others. (This was also the foundation for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.)

As a result, in the 19C, the United States of America became the country that was known for honoring, above all countries, individual political and economic rights. One would think that means all individuals would have the right to influence and participate in the politics and economic processes of their society; and that people should have the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to equal protection under the law, the right to participate hold a position in government. And let’s not forget the right to partake in the market of public goods and services, in which individuals would be hired and receive the same pay for the same work, regardless of color, gender, or ethnicity, or religion.

Are these rights available to every American citizen right now? Not really. Some of them were fought for over a couple of centuries are still contested.

Obviously, the intention of the Declaration’s rhetoric was skewed. The late American philosopher and educator Mortimer J. Adler, who loved his American country dearly had to confessed as late as 1977: “In most cases—most notably, perhaps, in the United States—the discrepancy between democracy on paper and democracy in practice was vast at the beginning and has nowhere yet become negligible.” (Haves Without Have-Nots)

What went wrong?

Were the venerable words in the Declaration ignored or misread? Not at all. They were doubled-crossed.

Someone exploited the Declaration and the other chapters of the American Testament to serve his own purposes. Whoever he was, and we know it was a “he,” stripped the universality of “all men” to mean only white men—not even “white” women or black “men.” That is part of what many regard as America’s original sins. Sins against what? Against American democracy. Please note racism, bigotry and sexism are not the only sins. Another is the monopoly of capital and labor. (I will return to these in a future post.)

Here, I want to call your attention to a critical distinction that we must remember to make.

There’s a difference between American democracy and the sins committed in its name—what Malcolm X considers an American hypocrisy. When Malcolm X said, “in America, democracy is an hypocrisy,” he was saying the people who professed to be democratic American citizens were behaving in a manner consistent with the meaning of the term “democracy.” In other words, many Americans were not being “true” to the avowed democratic ideals of the Declaration. So as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “all we say to America, be true to what you said on paper.”

The words on the “paper”—the Declaration of Independence—are in fact the measure of American democracy. Therefore, the problem is not American democracy. The problem is that we don’t really have American democracy.

What’s in the way of American Democracy? And, what needs to be done?

Most of the problems plaguing the USA come from the neglect of American democracy basic principles.

In his litany of the injustices the people of the United States experienced--A People’s History of the United States—the late historian Howard Zinn explains how America has been exploited. For Zinn, America is a system. Not just any system it “is the most ingenious system of control in world history.” Zinn also describes America is a conniving a scheme—a bag of tricks that allow the few to exploit the many by keeping fusing with each other and cajoling the middle class with respectable and powerful career opportunities and financial incentives to maintain the status quo of the capitalist, acquisitive society that serves the 1%.

Zinn explained: “There is no system of control with more openings, apertures, lee-ways, flexibilities, rewards for the chosen, winning tickets in lotteries. There is none that disperses its controls more complexly through the voting system, the work situation, the church, the family, the school, the mass media—none more successful in mollifying opposition with reforms, isolating people from one another, creating patriotic loyalty."

​Interestingly, Zinn also acknowledged that the so-called American scheme he observed is not foolproof. He writes: “The scheme never worked perfectly. The Revolution and the Constitution, trying to bring stability by containing the class angers of the colonial period—while enslaving blacks, annihilating or displacing Indians—did not quite succeed, judging by the tenant uprisings, the slave revolts, the abolitionist agitation, the feminist upsurge, the Indian guerrilla warfare of the pre-Civil War years."

Indeed, even one of the most censorious critics of America admitted that the political and economic cons in America have been unsuccessful maintaining a firm grip.

Like Zinn, I see that the American scheme cannot beguile and oppress Americans for too long. I see more people recognizing and protecting the great ideals and great principles of freedom, equality, respect and compassion. I see relentless roses of American democracy growing from a concrete of wealth and chicanery.

What are these roses of American democracy telling Americans?

In spite of all the political shenanigans, economic collusion, and the various ideological, religious and cultural skirmishes we witness on a daily basis, the political and economic DNA of the United States is actually wired to provide her citizens with “liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness.” But her development is stymied.

Let's put it like this: American democracy reflects the better nature of our humanity and is under constant pressure from our selfish natures. It needs our help to develop more fully in order to provide the society we deserve. Our challenge is to not confuse American schemes for American democracy. That is, don't confuse government with certain individuals who exploit their positions.

Although not perfect, there are many hard-working and honorable citizens in our government strengthening American democracy. Look for them, encourage them, and vote for them.

Don't sell American democracy short. 

Comments are welcome. And, don't hesitate to recommend topics you'd like me to address. Sign up to receive future blog posts and updates on Voting Matters events via email. All subscribers before the release will receive a 20% discount off my upcoming book Voting Matters: Don't Sleep on the Polls. 

This post was last edited on 3/22/2017.

“Unbought and unbossed” black women are here, fellas.

Olivia Pope, the iconic character played by Kerry Washington in Shonda Rhimes' popular political drama TV series Scandal, is symbolic of the political and economic ascendancy of black women in the USA.

Once an innocent, blithe, daddy’s baby girl, Olivia is now an independent, decisive, thick-skinned power player in the dangerous world of American politics ruled by alpha males.

If you put aside the scandalous love affairs, entertaining political chicanery and exploited personal flaws, a powerful black woman stands center stage.

​What makes her so special?

She embodies three fundamental qualities that make her a successful political power broker. She has the audacity to hope and be all she can be in a world full of obstacles. She is well-educated, extremely intelligent and can think on her feet. And, finally, she knows how to survive and thrive in the game of power, she never gives up, and she wants to use politics to make the world a better place.

Those same qualities are actually the three reasons why black women are increasingly becoming political gladiators in the USA today.

The three integral factors behind the recent political ascendancy of black women in the twenty-first century are: the audacity to hope under the weight of the overlapping oppressions of racism and sexism, the ambition and hard work to take advantage of higher learning, and the endurance to play and stay in the game of politics in order to nurture a just society.

The black woman's plight in America is unique and is arguably the most burdensome. Since the beginning of their stay in the land of the free, black women on the whole were forced to reside in the American political and economic basement. They endured the intersecting oppressions of racism, from white men and white women, and sexism from white men and black men. They were, in a sense, oppressed within their already oppressed black communities.

But, black women resolved to assiduously overcome their cultural, social, economic and political obstacle course.

They decided that their voices would not remain silent and that their bodies would not be indefinitely bound by man-made cultural, social and religious proscriptions. In the 1830s, they began to stand up and speak out. Maria W. Stewart, the "first black woman political writer," sounded a call to duty that continues to ring today. Stewart charged black women to realize their potential in politics, economics, education, and in their religion (namely Christianity). In her address to the American Female Intelligence Society of America, Stewart proclaimed:

"O woman, woman! Upon you I call; for upon your exertions almost entirely depends whether the rising generation shall be any thing more than we have been or not. O woman, woman! Your example is powerful, your influence great; it extends over your husbands and your children, and throughout the circle of your acquaintance." (Maria W. Stewart: America's First-Black Woman Political Writer)

Countless black women, those who were inspired by Stewart’s inspirational words and those struck with a similar conviction, signed up to beat back the behemoths of racism, classism and sexism. Women such as Frances Harper, Anna Julia Cooper, Sojourner Truth, and Ida B. Wells are some of the key founders in the nineteenth century of an unsung crusade for justice for black women and men, including all other oppressed souls.

The unwavering hope, which we hear in Stewart's words, galvanized these ladies to lay the groundwork for others to travel and to take up their crosses and go on to accumulate a multitude of breakthroughs in the USA, during the past two centuries.

The second noteworthy factor responsible for the ascendancy of black women is education. They activated their dreams with higher learning to become religious leaders, writers, teachers and politicians.

There is no doubt that black women have clenched the opportunity to get a college education today. Presently, black women are leading the nation in college attendance. 

Here are a few details that will grab your attention. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, a scholarly peer-reviewed academic research journal on black educational matters, keeps a close eye on the trends in education among black Americans. Research confirms black women are an undeniable thriving force in higher learning. First of all, "black women make up 58 percent of all the African Americans who have completed four or more years of college in the USA.” In fact, they make up "62 percent of all African Americans with master's degrees."

Indeed, black men have historically maintained a lead over women in professional and doctorates degrees, but black women are quickly closing the gap.

In recent years, the tables have begun to turn, as black women receive close to "two thirds of all new professional degrees earned by African Americans" and 65 percent of the doctorate degrees awarded to black people. In fact, black women now exceed black men "in enrollments in almost all undergraduate and graduate programs" and they are expected to outnumber black men with a “bachelor's degree by a ratio of 2 to 1." And, as zealous members of the elite educated class, “black women also hold a majority of all African-American enrollments in law, medical, and dental schools."

Speaking of enrollment, it seems that black women are actually ahead of all groups in college enrollment—that includes black men, Asian women and men, white women and men, and Hispanic women and men.
(See http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2014/02/know-black-women-lead-groups-college-enrollment-watch/; http://blackyouthproject.com/black-women-lead-all-groups-in-college-enrollment/)

Why is this achievement in higher learning important? Studies have repeatedly and decisively shown that education is one of the best instruments to "close the black-white income gap" and one of the best weapons to “[break] the back of race discrimination.”

The third reason why black women are political gladiators is that they learned the game of politics, fearlessly jumped in it, and are taking the political stage by storm. 

While the largest voting bloc in the USA are women, women of color, in particular, are the is the fastest growing voting constituency. Women of color "represent" half of the impending majority. In fact, they played an major role in getting Obama elected in 2008 and in 2012.

That's right. Women of color hold a decisive advantage in the electorate. And within this group, black women are proving to be some of the most fervid citizens to be engaged with the political process. In fact, they "represent the largest share—43 percent—of vote-eligible women of color and 13.4 percent of all vote-eligible women,” and they accounted for 55 percent of eligible black voters. This is why black women were even more critical than most other voting blocks to the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. In fact, their turnout rate was 74 percent, of which 96 percent supported President Obama.

A recent editorial in The Washington Post discusses the powerful role black women are expected to have in the upcoming presidential election. Keeping in mind that "black women voted at a higher rate than any other group," political experts are deliberating whether they will turn out just as big as they have in the past two presidential elections.

The focus and dependence on the black women’s vote is extraordinary given that women of color, particularly black women, face daunting obstacles to voting. Not to mention that just approximately ten years ago, the black voter turnout was roughly 47 percent. It jumped to 69 percent in 2008 and 67 percent in 2012, according to The Washington Post.

Confluent with their increasing involvement in politics and voting, more black women are occupying seats of political power. To celebrate Women’s History Month, The Root commemorated thirty-one top black females “flexing their muscles in elected office, the Obama administration and the judiciary.” Some of whom are Valerie Jarrett, Lisa P. Jackson, Susan Rice, and Maxine Waters, and Kym Worthy.

To be sure, the explosion of black women in politics that I am honoring is recent, and there is a very long road ahead, as Dr. Kelly Dittmar and Glynda Carr confirm.

Nonetheless, Shirley Chisholm, the first black women elected to Congress, founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the first major black candidate to run for president of the USA, would be proud. Chisholm would be thrilled to see so many of the barriers that hindered women falling apart today, because she was well acquainted with the women's struggle and was fed up with the status quo in her day. In her book Unbought and Unbossed, Chisholm asked: “Why are women herded into jobs as secretaries, librarians, and teachers and discourage from being managers, lawyers, doctors, and members of Congress?” Her answer was—“Because it is assumed that they are different from men.”

Chisholm exemplified the three strategies to disprove that assumption.

First, she reminded us to hoped "in spite of hopelessness" in order "to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo." Second, she taught us that "education, no doubt, is the key to long-range, although jobs and decent housing are the immediate needs." And, third, challenged us to be political. She explained: "'I'm not a fool, brothers and sisters,' I have told extremists groups. 'I'm a pragmatist. What is the sense of shooting, burning, killing? What will it bring? . . . You are fourteen or fifteen percent of the population, with no real economic or political power.'" (Unbought and Unbossed)

Black women, it seems, have heard Chisholm loud and clearly. 

In sum, joining the ranks with Maria W. Stewart and Shirley Chisholm, black women have come a long way. White supremacy and patriarchy could not prevent them from scoring phenomenal achievements in the grand American political and economic Olympics.

Their recent feats are admirable and instrumental, not only because they help African American racial uplift, but because they also are victories for all Americans. One step forward for black women is a leap for American society.

Lastly, in no way do I mean to put black men down or discredit the social trappings that sabotage them (i.e., the pre-K to prison pipeline). Nor, do I mean to disregard the achievements of other women.

I'm simply pointing out the undeniable progress of black women in the modern politics in order to show that hope, higher education, and determination in politics, as black women have proven, are reservoirs of empowerment and shuttles to progress.

Comments are welcome. And, don't hesitate to recommend topics you'd like me to address. Sign up to receive future blog posts and updates on Voting Matters events via email. All subscribers before the release will receive a 20% discount off my upcoming book Voting Matters: Don't Sleep on the Polls. 

I want black people to be more involved and effective in American politics. But three obstacles stand in our way—pessimism, a lack of liberal education, and resignation. Here are the three keys to unlock the path to successful black politics and democratic progress: Hope, Education, and Persistence.
​

Key #1. Rebuke Hopelessness and Keep Hope Alive

Every American citizen, black and white, should be angry about the systemic mistreatment of black Americans. Police brutality and mass incarceration, indeed, have been tormenting the black community since Barack Obama became president. Actually, we can trace these social plagues back to the black codes and penal codes set up during Reconstruction.

Unfortunately, yet understandably, the recent killings of black youth by police officers who escaped indictments have cast a spell of despair over the black community, precisely when it should be evermore proud, determined and united. Now many African Americans are possessed by a spirit of pessimism and hopelessness.

This can happen to any one of us. Even the enlightened legendary spokesperson for justice and social progress, Dr. Cornel West, succumbed to a malignant spell of negativity and despair in the Age of Obama. West said, “The state of black America in the age of Obama has been one of desperation, confusion and capitulation.”

Becoming victims of despair,  West and copious other blacks have turned long-standing issues into divisive instruments, playing a black-on-black blame game as to who's behind everything that's wrong in Black America today. To be honest, I was tempted to acquiesce to the constant hash tagging of bad news in black America.

I've heard, and I'm sure you have as well, African Americans say that we are doing worse under Obama’s tenure than we were in the past. Before I could cede me audacity to hope, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned me that pessimistic people in his day said the same thing, as they reacted to the backlashes they experienced. He recalled Ramparts magazine stating: "After more than a decade of the Civil Rights Movement the black American in Harlem, Haynesville, Baltimore and Bogalousa is worse off today than he was ten years ago." (Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?)

If we let pessimism become our reality, black people are going to be slaves by 2017.

To move forward, we need to cash in on the opportunities of hope.  Instead of preaching despair, we need people to tell us what opportunities did the Age of Obama provide for African Americans. What positive trends have changed in our school systems? We need people to tell us where can we find mentorship for our kids, the steps to get good affordable healthcare, which minority businesses we need to support, what steps can be made to dismantle the pipeline to prison, and how to build a stairwell to college. Contrary to the popular incorrect opinion, Pres. Obama has initiated and contributed to a lot of these opportunities.

If we focus only on the negative, the positive will not get its deserved attention.

Here’s what’s interesting. When people say Pres. "Obama hasn’t done anything for black people," I give them a list. And after glancing at the list they quickly go on to say, “well, he hasn’t done enough.”

That’s the effect of pessimism.

The bottom line is that wherever there is an opportunity African Americans need to cash in on it. We have to stop stomping on our black roses of opportunity that grew from concrete. Instead, let's water the beautiful black roses.

Take a stand for hope, because someone else's hope provided an opportunity for you. Let your hope be an opportunity for yourself. Let your hope become an opportunity for someone else. Besides, hope makes winners, which I’ll talk more about later. For now, remember that losers get stuck complaining and spending most of their energy pointing out what's wrong.

Once you've taken the first step to rebuke pessimism and to have the guts to be hope you have to arm and equip yourself with education and knowledge. That is the second key.

Key #2. Find Your Passion to Learn

The former slave Frederick Douglass, reminds us in his Narrative that “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world.” When he discovered the importance of learning he said, “From that moment on, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.”

Every champion of freedom and justice, from Maria W. Stewart, W. E. B. Du Bois, Malcolm X to the outspoken radical Angela Davis knows that education contains the keys to the chambers of nearly all the critical stations of power.

We have to learn what the late American philosopher Mortimer J. Adler and the late president of the University of Chicago Robert M. Hutchins called a liberal education. Hutchins wrote: 

"This is what a liberal education is. It is the education that prepares us to be free men. You have to have this education if you are going to be happy; for happiness consists in making the most of yourself. You have to have this education if you are going to be a member of the community; for membership in the community implies the ability to communicate with others. You have to have this education if you are going to be an effective citizen of a democracy; for citizenship requires that you understand the world in which you live and that you do not leave your duties to be performed by others, living vicariously and vacuously on their virtue and intelligence. A free society is a society composed of free men. To be free you have to be educated for freedom. This means that you have to think; for the free man is one who thinks for himself. It means that you have to think, for example, about the aims of life and of organized society." (The Great Ideas Program: General Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education Vol. 1)

A liberal education prepares women and men to engage the most pressing social, cultural, philosophical, political, and economic problems. A liberal education is the study of the Great Ideas. Many black people shun these ideas because many of them are thought to be Western or European concepts. In other words, they belong to white people. Some reject a so-called Western education because they believe it's nothing but a bunch of stolen legacies. Whatever one thinks about a liberal education or great ideas, there is no excuse or benefit in not learning them. Marcus Garvey said it best: "All intelligent people know that one's nationality has nothing to do with great ideals and great principles." (Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey)

Knowledge is the human mind's public domain. It doesn't belong any particular race. All knowledge is the accumulation of the past fragments of information. In order to do smart and effective black politics we need to educate ourselves. And learn as much as possible. Even Malcolm X, the champion of black politics, understood this. Education was vital élan of Malcolm's resurrection, when he was imprisoned.  Not only did he study black history, he read everything he could get in front of his eyes. Manning Marable reports Malcolm's appetite for education:

"Once he had started reeducating himself, there was no limit to his search for fact and inspiration. Through Norfolk's library, Malcolm devoured the writings of influential scholars such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter G. Woodson, and J. A. Rogers. He studied the history of the transatlantic slave trade . . . . Nor did Malcolm restrict his studies to black history. He plowed through Herodotus, Kant, Nietzsche, and other historian and philosophers of Western civilization." (Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention)

Lastly, the appetite to learn great ideas helps us to find our genius. Alaine Locke, one of the pioneers of the Harlem Renaissance, teaches us that "genius is the most fluid social capital." ("Should the Negro be Encourage to Cultural Equality: The High Cost of Prejudice")

Social capital is the building block of a community's social, political, and economic infrastructure.

One of the most self-rewarding things you can do is to pursue your potential—your genius--and encourage others to do the same. The more all of us focus on our genius the more we will develop the necessary habits to move forward in life. Our attention will be rerouted away from obstacles and directed at our human potential. We have to search our souls to find our genius. But that’s the ingredients for healthy success, in the face of adversity. The genius dedicates his or herself to the craft. And, she creates works and offer services that benefits human society. In fact, that might involve creating the social, political, and economic conditions for other people to become a genius.

Key #3. Get in the Game, Stay in the Game

Politics is more or a less a game with endless rounds. Actually, the game of politics will continue as long as people exist. Too many black Americans are leaving the game and decided not to vote. They mistakenly believe that their actions don't matter, and worse, don't affect others. Too bad W. E. B. Du Bois and Dr. King are not alive to help Pres. Obama remind African Americans who give up of the importance of political power and the ballot.

Du Bois in 1903 knew which weapon was needed most to strike down behemoth of injustice in America. He explained, "Of such weapons the greatest, perhaps, in the modern world is the power of the ballot . . . political activity." Over a half a century later, King recognized that "the final major area of untapped power for the Negro is in the political arena." (Where do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?)

Frankly speaking many of us are now giving up on our political community and choosing to retreat into chaotic fragments of frustrations.

That’s a losing strategy. Giving up squanders the black political capital that has accrued in American politics and in the ballot box during the past 150 yrs.

So, if you have recently given up, get back into the game and stay in it to win it. The winners are those who stay at it, constantly learning how to play the game better. That’s why it is not helpful for African Americans to not vote and try to avoid politics.

Refusing to show up at the polls or be involved in politics is resignation.

You might wonder: “why does Kasaun care if other African Americans vote or not?” Basically, there are a number of issues that affect black communities, such as mass incarceration, police brutality, a lack of good educational, social and financial resources. And, unfortunately, black people have to make these concerns known and make efforts to correct them. It’s going to take team work.

If any member of a team refuses to help, the entire team is negatively impacted. In fact, he or she is actually helping the opposing team. To use a basketball analogy, it’s like standing in the middle of a basketball court and sabotaging your teammates chances at succeeding.

Sometimes, I feel that black Americans who don’t want to participate in politics or vote should leave the country and join another political team there. They might be more helpful to the overall cause at a distance. Apart from the sarcasm, my point is that we need to do more than complain about issues and stop refusing to learn where these issues come from and start doing everything we can about them.

People have died for us to have the opportunity to join the game, and now many of us are saying: "I don't want to get into the game of politics." If someone says that to you, explain to them what I'm saying here. Or, send them directly to me.

In sum, politics and voting matters for African Americans. Black politics can only move forward if black people continue to stay in the political game.

Unlocking the Door

The black agenda, the human agenda, succeeds by means of hope, education, and persistent political organization.

We have to maintain focus while under pressure. When doing black politics, we have to focus on the destination and on every single opportunity to reach it. We have to commit to a positive mindset. There is no room for doubt. If we doubt ourselves, then we’d certainly fail.

Be a winner and rebuke pessimism. Be a winner and become a disciple of the world of ideas. Be a winner and stay in the game of politics. Being a winner is tough. You have to face your loses and your fears. Winners learn from their mistakes. Winners study progress. Winners capitalize on opportunities. 

After reading this post. Pick one of these steps to act on. Act on one a day, one a week, or one a month. The key is to keep moving forward, keep looking out for your brothers and sisters, keep making an effort to make a better society for those who are disenfranchised.

P.S., for those of you who feel threatened or are offended by black politics . . . black politics, at least how I have presented it on my blog, is not an insurgency. It is better understood as surgery. It is a corrective measure. Black politics is nothing more than a set of measures to correct specific racial, economic and political injustices. The black agenda, unlike many other political agendas, aims to heal a specific organ of our democratic body. Think of black politics as a surgical operation on a severely damage part of your body. In other words, if you're having a tumor remove, surely you wouldn't complain: "hey doctor, don't all of my organs matter?" Obviously, they do. But if the tumor is what's killing you right now, then let the doctor do the right thing by removing the tumor.

Comments are welcome. And, don't hesitate to recommend topics you'd like me to address. Sign up to receive future blog posts and updates on Voting Matters events via email. All subscribers before the release will receive a 20% discount off my upcoming book Voting Matters: Don't Sleep on the Polls.