To Vote or Not to Vote

By Monica Scott

I find myself both loving and loathing my status as an African American. I love when the Olympics comes around every four years. It’s a time I enjoy being part of some of a national collective. It’s perhaps the only time I truly feel American. Sometimes I recognize the dreams of new immigrants in the overwhelming opportunity and freedom available here. Other times I cannot see past the depression and poverty in many urban cities and rural towns to notice opportunity of any kind. Sometimes I am happy to engage in the political process, while other times I find the process annoying and trite.

Many conjure images of our ancestors marching and being jailed and hosed down as reasons to vote. I have often said the same. I voted because not only did I think my vote counted, but also because of the “sacrifices” many made so that I could. It was the typical adage to the framers of the rights we now have, and often take for granted. Yet and still, my ancestor’s sacrifices were for an America they idealized. They envisioned equality. They marched to integrate schools thinking that better opportunities would be available to our people if we had access to better facilities and textbooks. However, many of today’s public schools are more segregated than prior to the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board.1 And the mostly-Black segregated schools are among the poorest in the nation! Our ancestor’s also sought economic equality. Unfortunately, reports have shown that Black Americans seeking loans to purchase homes and small businesses are turned down up to five times more than their white counterparts.2 So, what am I to make of these things? What do I do when the only available options on the ballot may be options I despise or simply am indifferent toward? Am I honoring my ancestors if I vote just because I can? Is that really why they sacrificed so much?

The reality of voting for the “lesser of two evils” is that evil will still win. If I am to truly honor and respect the sacrifices made during the Civil Rights Movement, then I must not vote just to vote. My vote must be purposeful and a purpose-filled vote includes me only voting based on my personal vision. There are times, too, that my personal vision includes abstaining from voting altogether. The right to vote, as our ancestors so humbly fought, is inclusive of the right not to vote too! Their struggles were really about the “right.” They wanted the “right” to choose what school they would send their children. They wanted the “right” to choose who would lead their cities and states. They wanted the “right” to participate in and receive the civil liberties granted in the Constitution. They wanted the “right” to decide. They decided to vote. Sometimes I may decide not to vote. And that’s my right.