Lol@ otherwise intelligent. Thanks, I guess.
Perhaps you missed the introduction to ados on this board so let me give you a lil rundown.
We were told by folks, who had formerly said for years they don't vote because voting doesn't matter and both parties are the same, that they would not vote for any one who was not pro reparations and were encouraging other people not to vote and posting Tariq videos like they were gospel.
Naturally, I found this alarming. We have ongoing voter suppression efforts and messaging targeting black folks in an effort to get us to sit out as it is. I have said multiple times that I do not have a problem with reparations and that we are long overdue to get paid, even though I don't know what the end result would look like. I'm also all for supporting candidates concerned about your issues and pushing them to commit. If you vote dem, however, the time to do this is turning
primaries. Once a candidate has emerged, and it's dem vs GOP, it is stupid, imo, to concede power and let win the one group we know will actively seek to destroy and oppress us.
But we were told by ADOS supporters that both parties are the same and dems shouldn't feel entitled to our vote and they might just vote GOP. Ok fine. So what part of the GOP platform speaks to our issues and is beneficial to black folks?
Crickets. So what GOP candidate has expressed support for reparations?
Crickets. So which GOP candidates are you targeting to gain their support?
Crickets. Why aren't you lobbying the GOP also?
The GOP- who we were told earlier
are the same as dems (now follow THIS logic)
, won't go for it. (They are the same tho.)They also aren't for contributing money to get access like other groups do while hoping for the same results.
Ok. So if you aren't voting in dems, who imo would be able to be persuaded, and you aren't lobbying the GOP, how does this make it into legislation where we get our reparations?
SHUT UP AND STOP HATING ON ADOS! WHY DONT YOU WANT US TO GET REPARATIONS? YOU'RE AN IMMIGRANT AND YOU HATE US AND THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN US AND DON'T WANT TO SEE US GET AHEAD! SHOW ME YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND BILL OF SALE FOR YOUR GREATGREATGREATGREAT GRANDFATHER!!!
Now I am ADOS, but in between all this were comments and slights made toward some of the non-ADOS menfolk here who have been contributors to BGOL and members in good standing for years, who ALSO all said they support us getting reparations and understand it would be for U.S. blacks, but that anything telling us to shit on each other and not vote should be closely examined.
Then it pops up that the Yvette chick they keep quoting is part of an anti dem conservative think tank who just so happens to think withholding votes to teach dems a lesson is just a grand idea.
Then we see the rhetoric about getting rid of black immigrants, dissing legal black folks who come from elsewhere. The mess over the black actors and all the other nonsense. I realize that that could be simply individuals speaking out but when we have folks calling British Born blacks, possibly our cousins as many ADOS who made it to England stayed behind in freedom, "filthy and hideous" and
crickets from all these ADOS supporters when asking if they support this sentiment, we have a problem. None would say they didn't agree with it, they would only say THEY didn't say it. Attitudes flow from the top. Just like I took issue with Bernie not getting his BernieBros in check when they were attacking black folks on social media and he didn't rein them in and just like we hold Trump responsible for the corruption in his administration because he allows and encourages it, I hold the folks pushing ADOS responsible if they are not checking and pushing back on hateful, dehumanizing rhetoric against other black folks.
Then there is the stuff with the illegal immigration. I have said REPEATEDLY that I don't care if we deport folks or not. However inhumane treatment, dehumanizing rhetoric. The same things done to us, even if not to the same extreme? I can't get with that.
I've spoken in the past about how we can parlay advocating against mistreatment of immigrants into reparations for ourselves numerous times. I've spoken about how we need superpacs for black issues to be an influencer like other groups and how I only found one with no info on how to donate to it:
Immigrants are not only Latino. We have folks saying the immigration issue doesn't affect us but we have black immigrants also. So when we have ICE stopping folks asking for citizenship, they will be stopping
us - you know the black Americans that look
just like the black immigrants.
I've already shared Peter Brown's story here. He is a black ADOS American detained and almost deported to Jamaica. ICE agents won't be acting in good faith. They aren't checking for white or fair skinned illegals. This will just be another vehicle to harass black folks. People want to talk about statistics indicating so few people being affected, but getting caught up, assuming you don't die in the conditions, can cause loss of job, home and children. One black American detained or deported is too much. Most folks are one paycheck away from homelessness. They are destroying entire lives. Trump is breaking law to do most of the stuff he does, and possibly using black sites. Just like they can be disappeared, WE can be disappeared. These folks are so short sighted they don't see that we are one step and shade away from the Mexicans that CURRENTLY have Trumps attention. Trump has Chicago dog whistles also, designed for black folks. The Mexicans are safer to attack for the time being tho, and since we have black folks and other groups who hate immigrants too, less push back. Making Trump follow the law with the least of these makes us all safer.They need to be held accountable.
Now I realize dems are not perfect, but without the ACA, I would have been dead a couple of years ago. When I disappeared for over a year it was after my health crisis. I only got insurance again because my job offered it to everyone as a result of the ACA. I got back it about 1-2 months before I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Dems are also for uncoupling healthcare from employers. The only reason I'm at my same job now is because I need the insurance. Dems are for combating climate change, and as it is getting harder and harder for me to breathe each summer, and we are having all these natural disasters, that also is important to me. They are for a living wage. Against police brutality. For affordable college education. For having a safety net during hard times. For eliminating private prisons. Against chemicals in our food that can cause cancer and other diseases. For holding companies accountable that fleece consumers. For making sure women get paid fairly. They are anti-fracking, and pro job training to reskill folks.
I have a full thread here of all the stuff the GOP has tried to roll back. Most importantly, dems don't pass laws and legislation at the national level designed to fuck with me and make my life harder. They basically leave me alone. Do we still have issues at the local level? Yes. The answer is to get involved and have your voice and perspective heard, not sit it out. Would I like to see more progress? Yes. Since we aren't going to get it without an overwhelming dem congress and dem president for more than 12 months at a time, I'm ok with a party that is just going to leave me the hell alone and keep the other GOP monsters at bay.
Folks think Trump's open racism is good. That knowing who the enemy is is good. We've always known who the enemy is. And they aren't coming out to confront us in daylight, they are doing their deeds in darkness, normally against black women and children, which further endangers me. Give it time tho. We are going to get 2.0 of this if Trump doesn't tone it down:
The only thing Trump is doing that
might benefit us IS getting rid of illegal immigrants, but he is doing that to keep America white, not because of how they affect our economy. Prisons are already renting out convicts to pick crops and I believe the backlash of this anti immigrant rhetoric is going to come back harder on our community than anyone else's. We are allowing precedent to be set that may be used against us, and we are ok with it because we get to see a different shade of brown suffer for a lil bit. You may think all this is reasonable and good, but I can extrapolate what happens with the variables we have now. Aside from prison reform which others championed while he simply went along with it, Trump hasn't done anything for us but not mess up the trend Obama started us on with jobs and unemployment, but that's going to blow up soon.
So like I said, any negative view I have is based on how this is being presented on here. Its obvious that one of the main people posting the most tweets is not forming his own thoughts, he is simply parroting the words of others, so I don't expect much, but there has to be a better way to do this that doesn't involve shitting on other black folks, becoming savage and cold hearted like our oppressors, or giving up power and doing the work of white supremacy by targeting other minority groups and encouraging black folks not to vote.