Photo / John Ramspott
To this day, the centuries-long fight to make America a real democracy continues to revolve around the struggle of Black Americans in particular to have their lives and their human and civil rights respected. Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The 1619 Project, has written that “centuries of Black resistance and protest…have helped the country live up to its founding ideals. And not only for ourselves…” Every time Black Americans have advanced, there has been a democratizing effect for everyone, and every time the powerful have decided to turn back the clock on democracy, they start by attacking the rights of Blacks. We see this today, for example, in the police killings that disproportionately affect Blacks, in the voter suppression efforts focused on Black voters but aimed at everyone, and in the efforts to censor or prevent the teaching of Black history.
Such attacks on Black Americans are more than the product of racism. Behind these attacks stand the billionaires and corporations, regardless of party affiliation, that dominate our government and country. To ensure their power and that our tax dollars benefit their corporations, they fuel the attacks that blame and pit one section of the people against the other to keep us divided in a time of crisis. This leaves the people unable to unite on their common interests. The result is that everyone suffers.
Thus the fight for equality is key to the unity necessary to get what people need and break the power of corporate America. And this unity is especially critical today when our country is sliding into fascism. Attacks such as the police killings, the voter suppression, and the censorship of Black history ultimately undermine everyone’s rights and our social solidarity, making it harder to resist whatever program the billionaires want to impose at the moment.
One glaring example of the divisive targeting of African Americans was seen in the voter suppression efforts reflected in the U.S. Senate’s refusal to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA). The U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby County decision in 2013 had gutted the existing Voting Rights Act by eliminating the preclearance provision. That provision required states and localities with a history of racial discrimination to get proposed changes to their voting laws approved by the federal government before they could go into effect. The Voting Rights Advancement Act would have restored the preclearance provision and made other positive changes, such as prohibiting gerrymandering, increasing disclosure of money spent in federal elections, and fighting election sabotage by protecting the independence of election officials.
There were rallies, hunger strikes and a growing movement led by Black Americans and many others demanding the passing of the VRAA, but after passing the House, the VRAA failed to pass the Senate in January 2022 when two Democrats (Manchin and Sinema) voted with the Republicans. Last September, the VRAA was re-introduced in the House and is still pending there.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in the wake of the Shelby County decision, as of June 2023 at least 29 states had added 94 restrictive voting laws. The Center says that, “The restrictive laws passed in the last 10 years target every aspect of voting, including making voter registration more difficult, curtailing early voting opportunities, closing polling places, and limiting voter assistance. However, a substantial portion of the restrictive laws passed since Shelby County coalesce around two major trends: strict voter ID legislation just after the decision, and limitations on mail voting after the 2020 election.”
The pace of adding restrictions ramped up noticeably in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. The Brennan Center says that, “if not for the Supreme Court’s [Shelby] decision, approximately one-third of the restrictive laws passed in the last 10 years would have been subject to pre-approval by the Justice Department or a panel of federal judges, and many of them may have been barred from implementation. Indeed, several of those laws were later struck down or enjoined as racially discriminatory. But others continue to pose barriers to the ballot box.” (The Brennan Center also notes that a number of states have passed laws expanding voter access to the ballot, so the picture is not all bad.)
With regard to police violence against Americans, blacklivesmatter.com reported that 2023 was one of the worst years for police violence in the U.S.:
“A non-profit research group called Mapping Police Violence recently released their updated database for 2023. And while the data is imperative and meaningful — it’s also not surprising. We also must remember that this data is based on public and reported records and that there are likely countless victims of police brutality that the state has managed to cover up.
“Here are some of the key takeaways from the database:
- Black people are the demographic most likely to be killed by the police.
- Black people are 3x as likely to be killed compared to white people.
- Black people are 1.3x as likely as white people to be unarmed.
- 95% of America’s major city police departments kill Black people at higher rates than white people.
“Most killings by police begin with traffic stops, mental health checks, and non-violent offenses — times where no crime was alleged.”
Regarding restrictions on what the schools can teach, given that Black history is at the heart of American history, restrictions on teaching Black history are especially dangerous.
On Oct. 30, Education Week reported that, “Since 2021, at least 18 states have imposed bans or restrictions on teaching topics of race and gender. Within the last year, Florida has particularly drawn national attention after Gov. Ron DeSantis, [then] a Republican presidential candidate, banned the College Board’s AP African American Studies course and supported new Black history standards that include a clarification to teach ‘how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.’” The publication also reported that recent polling data showed that “A strong majority of voters [85% nationally] want Black studies curriculum and the history of racism and slavery and its legacy taught in K-12 public schools.”
Yet new restrictions continue to be proposed. Axios reported Feb. 1 that “lawmakers in 30 states have proposed new restrictions during the past year on what schools can teach about the nation’s racial history.” Axios also noted that “Elementary school teachers, administrators and college professors, meanwhile, have been threatened with physical harm, fines, or being fired over accusations — almost always false — that they’ve taught CRT. [‘critical race theory’].”
Despite the ongoing violence and oppression on all these fronts, resistance keeps rising, whether in the form of marches and demonstrations, lawsuits, voter registration drives, teachers declaring they will teach the truth despite restrictions, or new progressive candidates running for office. Each wave of pressure from above produces a broad wave of resistance from below. Young people, especially, are answering the call to resist the fascist offensive by standing for unity and equality. Examples include the Black Lives Matter protests, particularly the world wide protests over the killing of George Floyd. The unity across the color line shown in these marches is what is necessary if we are to have any hope of preventing an open corporate dictatorship in this country and having a truly democratic society where everyone’s needs are taken care of.
