by Curtis Bunn
“One in four Americans could not name the three branches of government. Trump supporters’ chants of ‘stop the count’ outside Philadelphia election centers as the votes were being tabulated—and not in his favor—provide bitter testimony to a lack of knowledge of how America goes about the business of democracy, as does the millions of Americans who chose not to vote in probably the most important and contentious election of their lifetimes.”
Richardson called for mandatory teaching of civics as a start to developing an informed electorate.
“How civics has almost vanished from school curriculums doesn’t matter as much as it be returned posthaste and is made mandatory for every pupil, from elementary through college,” he said. “We expect people who want driver’s licenses to learn the rules of the road, and test their knowledge before legally being allowed to drive. Surely we can demand as much from people we entrust to help choose, with their vote, the course of a nation.”
Neil Foote, the president of Foote Communications public relations and marketing group, said Kamala Harris becoming the first Black woman vice president inspired hope that cannot be calculated.
“The added bonus is the historic election of Harris, who fueled hope for all of us, but particularly for Black Americans and South Asians who see that America, despite its imperfections, offers the opportunity to live up to the promise of equal justice for all,” Foote said. “As a team, Biden and Harris serve as beacons of what America is becoming: a vibrant, diverse, multicultural community where race, culture, ethnicity is the norm, not the exception; where the politics of hate can be drowned out by the politics of hope.”
“But hope demands action,” Gilliam said. “It is not static. It demands forward movement. We saw hope in the election in part because of the leadership of Stacey Abrams and great hope in the election of Kamala Harris. But it happened because of the work of Black Lives Matter and protesters who were in the streets, day and night.
“One urgent step African Americans must take is to take back our power and stop yielding it to whites who will use it to create a reign of fear and terror. When we focus on what we have in our ancestors—not what we don’t have—we will see God’s power within us in a way that white people don’t possess.”
Craig Kirby, the civil rights activist and nonprofit CEO, said the energy around the 2020 election and the future evoked memories of his grandfather, who told him, “Sonny Boy—keep on living, you will come to appreciate life’s second acts.”
He said the 2020 election was a second act for the country after Trump—and a good setup for the future.
“I developed an appreciation for this axiom after spending nearly four decades in national politics and civil rights,” Kirby said. “I also recognize that the racial reckoning of 2020 and the socio-political implications for Black Americans embodies the principles that my grandfather spoke of that day to an eleven-year-old boy as we stood on our family farm in Rocky Mount, Virginia.
“The social environment in 2020 which compelled more than 161 million Americans to the polls was eerily reminiscent of the 1988 election when nearly 91 million Americans cast votes. The climate then was led by Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.’s chants of hope and keeping it alive. Today’s call-and-response touches on everything from Black Lives Matter to defunding the police. But the common thread, which seems to rear its head every few decades, is the unfettered will of the people to be heard, to claim their sovereignty above tainted political whimsy and capricious external influences.”
Former president Barack Obama’s historical election in 2008 spawned hope over his two terms in office. But Trump was a different commander in chief, changing the course of Black people’s outlook, Kirby said. Indeed, the inspiration Obama provided was quelled almost instantly by Trump’s undisciplined, anti-unity, and bombastic approach.
“We all celebrated President Obama’s message of change, but the nation changed after his eight-year rule and in response to the harbinger of a turn from liberal democratic traditions, increasing tolerance, and an intolerant regressive era,” he said. “Which leads us to now a divided nation, a disgruntled nation, and a nation both disturbed and in despair. We are evolving from a four-year period in which power was pursued based upon the perceptions of the five senses—an external power which has metamorphosed in the pursuit of authentic power—a power that is based upon the perceptions and values of the unseen and unheard.”
Richardson said the country has not been helped by media outlets that do not abide by the principle of fair and balanced reporting, and instead push a singular, jaded agenda, which contributes to the divide and the idea that the future can be bright for one side, not all.
“The Fairness Doctrine held that, because the airways were publicly owned and televisions stations public trustees, they would best serve the nation by presenting all sides of controversial issues,” Richardson explained. “In practice it meant news programs tended to balance their presentations.
“[But] in 1987, in the declining days of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the FCC announced it would no longer enforce the Fairness Doctrine,” Richardson said. “Partisanship rapidly ensued, devolving to the current debacle, where not only do entities like Fox News and her subsidiary newspaper, the New York Post, not present opposing arguments, they present lies as fact—Fox personalities Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have made outrageous lies part of their brand.”
So, Richardson said, there is only one recourse: reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, the idea being that impartial reporting on the issues, political candidates, and the like will diminish some of the vitriol that is so prominent.
“It would make sure people are at least exposed to all sides of an argument. There was a time, in recognizing the tremendous influence news organizations had on the nation, that few newspapers, radio, or television news organizations offered opinions not clearly labeled as such,” he said. “Even then these groups were compelled to present the opposing argument to whatever point they were making.”
In its time of American healing, Foote was reminded of the words Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, spoke about infamous ex-president Richard M. Nixon, who was a divisive presence in the White House that Trump seemed to emulate, times ten.
Foote quoted the words of Chisholm in 1972, when she announced her run for president: “We have looked in vain to the Nixon administration for the courage, the spirit, the character, and the words to lift us, to bring out the best in us, to rekindle in each of us the faith of the American dream.
“Yet all that we have received in return is just another smooth exercise in political manipulation, deceit and deception, callousness and indifference to our individual problems, and the disgusting playing of divisive politics, pitting the young against the old, labor against management, North against South, blacks against whites.”
Foote recalled those words because he found them meaningful in America nearly fifty years later.
“Fast forward to the election of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden,” he said. “They, too, got elected by people who sought out healing from global warfare and economic turmoil. As President Trump ripped away at Obama and Biden’s legacy, he dug a hole deeper for himself, piercing the soul of America so deeply that his failures blew up in his face.
“Enter Biden and Senator Kamala Harris. Finally, there was a prospect of hope.
“Finally, there was the belief that the president and his vice president would honor their roles to protect and serve the interests of the American people. Finally, there was a sense that world order would be restored, particularly as the world battled against the horrific COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, there was the belief that the hateful, shameful, embarrassing disdain spewing from the White House would be silenced.”
So the counterpoints of caution and optimism pushed back on a presidential term that exposed the worst in people, in America. Black people being Black people—a population that has been conditioned to seek the
best in a situation because it always exists in the worst situation—the future promises something upbeat, particularly with the faith entrusted to the Black vice president.
Gilliam, who has written brilliantly about the ills of the country, burst with optimism for Black people based on more than 2020 election results.
“That explosion of hope—despite voter suppression and systemic racist policies—was shocking to many people,” Gilliam said. “But the fact is hope—a spiritual principle—has been threaded into the fabric of the lives of Black Americans since 1619…I believe the key to Black hope is our ancestors. As he lay dying, George Floyd called on his ancestors. There was hope in his cry for his mother. The country and the world turned a new page after his death.”
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