Commentary

COMMENTARY: Two years until the 2020 elections — time to get to work

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — Why are we consistently faced with only being able to choose between the lesser of two evils each election cycle?

Published

5 years ago

January 2, 2019

Oscar H. Blayton

By Oscar H. Blayton

Most readers will be familiar with this scenario. A White politician that you have not heard from in two years starts to show up at Black churches, glad-handing the pastors, reciting his or her accomplishments for the congregation that you’ve never heard of, and reminding you to vote for him or her in the upcoming elections.

It’s a scenario that is played out in most political districts where Blacks make up a significant portion — but not the majority — of the electorate. We know very little about these absentee politicians except that they are “the lesser of two evils” — the choice offered to those Black folk allowed to vote since the end of the Reconstruction era.

Why are we consistently faced with only being able to choose between the lesser of two evils each election cycle? Or to put it another way, why can’t we have more options when selecting who will represent us?

The answer is that we do have more options. We must constantly stay politically “woke” and not wait until the last minute to pay attention to who the potential candidates are. Politicians interested in running in 2020 already are lining up at the starting gate.

People aspiring to become the next president of the United States already have advance people in Iowa and other key states preparing for the primary elections. Those eyeing congressional seats, state and local offices are organizing their political teams in order to hold on to those offices or to unseat an incumbent.

2016 has shown us that if we do not get engaged, we are in danger of being saddled with a lying racist, bent on erasing all of the gains people of color have made during the last five decades.

2018 has shown us that when people organize, they can overcome many of the obstacles that are strewn in our paths to equal justice and the freedoms promised to us by the U.S. Constitution. 2018 also has shown us that there are those who would deny people of color justice and freedom by blocking us from our guaranteed right to vote.

The Georgia governor’s race shined a light on how bigots and racists will go to any lengths to tilt the vote in their favor by removing voters from the rolls and by making it more difficult for voters to get to the polls to cast their ballots. Republican Brian Kemp ran for governor of that state while refusing to step down as its secretary of state, the office that oversees elections in Georgia. Over the years, Kemp systematically removed Black voters from the rolls through various questionable means, giving himself a clear advantage by increasing the percentage of would-be voters who were White.

There are those who will try to cheat us out of our rights, including our right to vote. There are those who will try to steal elections in the way that Trump did in 2016 with the help of Russian interference.

These people can be stopped, however. They can be stopped by you and by me. The way we stop them is by looking for people qualified to run for office in federal, state and local elections and helping them to win. These people can be found among your parents and your voting age children — and your aunts and uncles and cousins and friends. They must be identified and then encouraged to run for office.

And when they run, we must support them. We must support them with our time, our labor and with our money. There may not be many of us that can give much of any of these things, but we can each give something.

If we make more of an effort, we can get more elected officials of the type we want and deserve. The proof is in the pudding. 2018 saw a record number of women of color elected and it is expected that these women will work to steer America back on the correct course to fulfilling the promises of our Constitution.

According to the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, women of color will occupy:

● 38 seats in Congress

● 9 statewide elective offices

● 456 state legislative seats and

● 10 mayoral offices in some of the nation’s 100 largest cities.

We, as people of color, are in a pitched battle for our rightful place in this nation. And it is a battle that we will not win if we do not enlist as many people as possible in the fight. If we do not identify, enlist and support candidates who champion our best interests, then we deserve the callous and unjust treatment that we receive from elected officials who do not respect us.

The clock is running and so are the same tired old politicians. It is time we bring some serious champions into the fight.

Oscar H. Blayton is a former Marine Corps combat pilot and human rights activist who practices law in Virginia.

This article originally appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

Oscar H. Blayton

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Commentary

Opinion: Lessons for Current Student Protesters From a San Francisco State Strike Veteran

How the nation’s first College of Ethnic studies came about, bringing together Latino, African American and Asian American disciplines may offer some clues as to how to ease the current turmoil on American college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war. After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning. Protesters did the same in 1968.

Published

17 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock Photo

By Emil Guillermo

After the deadline passed to end the Columbia University encampment by 2 p.m. Monday, student protesters blockaded and occupied Hamilton Hall in a symbolic move early Tuesday morning.

Protesters did the same in 1968.

That made me think of San Francisco State University, 1968.

The news was filled with call backs to practically every student protest in the past six decades as arrests mounted into hundreds on nearly two dozen campuses around the country.

In 1970, the protests at Kent State were over the Vietnam War. Ohio National Guardsmen came in, opened fire, and killed four students.

Less than two weeks later that year, civil rights activists outside a dormitory at Jackson State were confronted by armed police. Two African American students were killed, twelve injured.

But again, I didn’t hear anyone mention San Francisco State University, 1968.

That protest addressed all the issues of the day and more. The student strike at SFSU was against the Vietnam war.

That final goal was eventually achieved, but there was violence, sparked mostly by “outside agitators,” who were confronted by police.

“People used the term ‘off the pigs’ but it was more rally rhetoric than a call to action (to actually kill police),” said Daniel Phil Gonzales, who was one of the strikers in 1968.

Gonzales, known as the go-to resource among Filipino American scholars for decades, went on to teach at what was the positive outcome of the strike, San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies. It’s believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Gonzales recently retired after more than 50 years as professor.

As for today’s protests, Gonzales is dismayed that the students have constantly dealt with charges of antisemitism.

“It stymies conversation and encourages further polarization and the possibility of violent confrontation,” he said. “You’re going to be labeled pro-Hamas or pro-terrorist.”

That’s happening now. But we forget we are dealing not with Hamas proxies. We are dealing with students.

Gonzales said that was a key lesson at SF State’s strike. The main coalition driving the strike was aided by self-policing from inside of the movement. “That’s very difficult to maintain. Once you start this kind of activity, you don’t know who’s going to join,” he said.

Gonzales believes that in the current situation, there is a patch of humanity, common ground, where one can be both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. He said it’s made difficult if you stand against the belligerent policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. In that case, you’re likely to be labeled antisemitic.

Despite that, Gonzales is in solidarity with the protesters and the people of Gaza, generally. Not Hamas. And he sees how most of the young people protesting are in shock at what he called the “duration of the absolute inhumane kind of persecution and prosecution of the Palestinians carried out by the Israeli government.”

As a survivor of campus protest decades ago, Gonzales offered some advice to the student protesters of 2024.

“You have to have a definable goal, but right now the path to that goal is unclear,” he said.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. A veteran newsman in TV and print, he is a former host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”