Why Black people should vote Green Party
Aaron-Forrest Wainwright
Black people in America tend to vote Democratic, which is ironic since the Republican Party was formed in opposition to the Democratic Party to end slavery. Historically, the Democratic Party was the party of the KKK and the pioneers of Jim Crow. However, during the Great Depression, politics in the U.S. began to change. Black Americans tended to vote for FDR, supporting his socialist reforms and beginning the party migration of Black people, though the Democrats would still prove to be a party of racism as well.
After Lyndon B. Johnson pushed landmark legislation in the 1960s, the Republican Party has never gotten a significant number of Black voters since. When Nixon solidified the “Solid South” strategy, he picked up tactics of the old Democratic Party, effectively abandoning Black voters.
Today, Black Americans vote mostly based on social issues, and Black communities tend to be more socialist in ideology. Movements in the Black community have often been socialist in nature; Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. both called for socialist reform, and the Black Panther Party was a socialist party. Both major parties hate socialism.
Black Americans tend not to trust the general public or either of the two parties, but at the same time they believe it is the government’s job to take care of its citizens. That ideology differs from that of mainstream Republicans, who believe historical context has no value on present racial or economic demographics, that the government is only there to arrest people, and that Americans must pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Today there is rampant racism in the Republican Party. They never abandoned the Southern Strategy, which has its roots in pandering to the most racist parts of American society. Ronald Reagan implemented the harshest and most unfair drug laws while also selling weapons to our enemies and drugs into poor Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in a scandal known as the Iran–Contra Affair. Though the rest of the nation pretends this atrocity never happened, it has left a powerful impression on the Black community.
Most Black communities have not recovered from the failed policies of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Reagan era. Because of this, today many Black Americans have little respect for other Blacks who join the Republican Party, calling them sellouts and “Uncle Toms” for voting against their own people’s interests. This reinforcement within the Black community helps foster an idea of party loyalty, linking loyalty to the party to their culture. This has afforded the Democratic Party a staunch, powerful, and unwavering voting base they don’t have to earn. They don’t need to keep their promises; they don’t even have to make promises anymore. The leaders of the Democratic Party can write up the most racist crime bill in modern history, then get the white man who wrote it to look us dead in the eye and say, “You aren’t Black if you don’t vote for me.”
The Democratic Party’s culture of racism persists in modern times in the form of neoliberal policies like the 1994 crime bill, written and promoted chiefly by two Democratic superstars, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, which promoted racist profiling and mass incarceration.
When we go to states that have an ironclad Democratic majority, we see how these policies still linger in our communities today, with mass incarceration still at astronomical levels, blatant inequality, rising homelessness, rising cost of living, gentrification, rampant drug use, and a dilapidation of the urban environment. Democrats continue to cut taxes for the rich while inflation rises. And when we put the party under a bit more scrutiny, we see the party’s original strategy from the Jim Crow era hasn’t actually changed that much.
The Democrats continue to focus on race and racial division—not to empower the race they pander to but to empower their donors and voting blocs.
It only works because Republican pundits, Black and white alike, get on television and denounce Black culture. They constantly call for some sort of color-blindness, or they tell other Blacks that they need to stop using the historical ramifications of the racist social system as a crutch. They reinforce white Republicans’ idea that Blacks just want entitlements. The Republican Party platforms Black people who will say things that promote Republican views that specifically go against the Black public interest.
This is why the Black community at large must stop voting for the two main parties no matter what. Neither is for us, and neither party will change its strategy until it has to. And quite frankly, we don’t have the time, nor do they deserve a second chance.
Now is the time we take our votes from both mainstream parties and vote Green.
Why the Green Party?
The Green Party already aligns with most Black people’s values in America, whether they tend to lean red or blue. With a focus on community values and grassroots organization, the Green Party has no super PACs and gets no donations from billionaires—completely built and funded by the people for the people.
The Green Party already aligns with most Black people’s values in America, whether they tend to lean red or blue. With a focus on community values and grassroots organization, the Green Party has no super PACs and gets no donations from billionaires—completely built and funded by the people for the people.
The virtues of the Green Party connect directly with Black American values.
Grassroots Democracy
Grassroots democracy is the practice of putting as much decision-making power in the hands of voters as possible, basically shifting the power balance between voters and representatives toward voters. The idea is that in a true democracy, representatives are held accountable by the people they represent, and those people should have a direct role in policies and lawmaking that affect them.
Grassroots democracy is the practice of putting as much decision-making power in the hands of voters as possible, basically shifting the power balance between voters and representatives toward voters. The idea is that in a true democracy, representatives are held accountable by the people they represent, and those people should have a direct role in policies and lawmaking that affect them.
This directly affects the Black community, where we are underrepresented. Whether or not the politician is Black, our communal values are typically a second thought to those in office. If Black communities had a direct say in how our taxes are spent and how communities were policed and funded, rather than being at the whim of party members who are beholden to other projects, donors, or larger populations we are lumped in with, outcomes would be different.
Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
The Green Party is dedicated to equal opportunity and social justice and is the only party that seriously considers reparations a right for the Black American population.
The Green Party is dedicated to equal opportunity and social justice and is the only party that seriously considers reparations a right for the Black American population.
Ecological Wisdom
The Green Party believes humanity is part of nature and that we can live in harmony with it. This connects to me personally on a spiritual level. You don’t have to be Black to appreciate this; however, I believe Black people can especially connect on a cultural and spiritual level.
The Green Party believes humanity is part of nature and that we can live in harmony with it. This connects to me personally on a spiritual level. You don’t have to be Black to appreciate this; however, I believe Black people can especially connect on a cultural and spiritual level.
Nonviolence
The Green Party believes in nonviolence from a realist perspective. It wants to end the nuclear threat but only through well-thought-out treaties, without being naive about the enemies our nation has made over the years. The Green Party also wants to end a cycle of violence and the glorification of violence within our culture.
The Green Party believes in nonviolence from a realist perspective. It wants to end the nuclear threat but only through well-thought-out treaties, without being naive about the enemies our nation has made over the years. The Green Party also wants to end a cycle of violence and the glorification of violence within our culture.
There is no good reason the United States has the largest prison population in the world, with hundreds of thousands more prisoners than China. It is a billion-dollar business that thrives in a culture of violence instigated through a drug war. Black people are the primary victims of this violent “drug war,” which the Green Party wants to promptly end.
There is no conspiracy now that the U.S. government pumped drugs into Black communities to justify a war they wanted to wage against Black political movements; all evidence was uncovered by journalist Gary Webb in the 1980s. Putting an end to the drug war, as the Greens want to, will officially end the siege on Black America.
Decentralization
Wealth in America is concentrated at the top, and every year the poor get poorer and the rich get another tax cut. Even in liberal states like Maryland, dominated by “blue” policies for decades, the main tax burden still shifts onto the middle- to lower-income population.
Wealth in America is concentrated at the top, and every year the poor get poorer and the rich get another tax cut. Even in liberal states like Maryland, dominated by “blue” policies for decades, the main tax burden still shifts onto the middle- to lower-income population.
The Green Party wants to pursue a progressive tax plan that makes the rich pay their fair share while simultaneously decentralizing the control of resources by helping communities become as self-sufficient as possible. This directly impacts the Black community by putting power in the hands of historically disenfranchised communities to shape their own industry.
The Green Party also advocates for Medicare for All, healthcare as a human right, 1they connect with Black America. Another beautiful thing about the Green Party is that if enough of us join, we will outnumber any other demographic in the party, making our political agenda the main concern for the party. Even if we can’t win a national election alone, both parties will have to negotiate with our political leaders for our support, giving our community real political power.
Don’t vote blue out of fear. Don’t let them push you into a corner and bully your vote out of you. Don’t vote red. I know they promise revolution, and we need it now more than ever, but their revolution isn’t for us. Only a party by the people can do that.
Join the Green Party today!
