Black labor's role in US politics

By Deauwand Myers

"To be a Negro in this country [America] and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time ― and in one's work…it's what's happening all around you and…in the face of the most extraordinary and criminal indifference, indifference of most white people in this country, and their ignorance." ― James Baldwin, from a radio interview, 1961

Living in South Carolina all my childhood through college, you'd think my racial experiences therein would have some trauma to them. Quite the opposite; surrounded by white people in my neighborhood and in undergrad and graduate school, there was never a moment where some overt act of racial bias took place. The only overt kinds of anti-blackness I've experienced have been in Korea, Japan and China.

However, James Baldwin's quote does encapsulate my experience with race in this way: the more I have read about American and world history in regards to the African diaspora, people of color and religious minorities, especially Jewish people and Muslim minorities, the angrier and more melancholic I have become. I concluded (and after all these years, this feeling has not changed) that the human condition is inextricably connected to evil.

I think the rage Baldwin speaks of isn't just about the indifference white folks had/have about the Black American experience in America, but the amount of unpaid and unappreciated emotional, intellectual, physical and academic labor Black Americans constantly expend to pull America closer to its moral aspirations of being a truly just and fair society.

Equally as infuriating, much of the blood, sweat and tears expended in this effort is not shared equally or consistently by other racial or sexual minorities in American society. Far too often, everyone benefits from all this Black labor, but has not put in the hard ― and often deadly ― work of making America into what it promised on paper.

Black women, especially, are burdened again and again, generation after generation, to perform the miracle of transformational justice, often unsung both in the annals of history and in their contemporary moments.

The recent election of U.S. President Biden is one example. Disproportionate to their population, Black women engaged in the hard work of civic mobilizing, constantly working within organizations and on their own to get people to vote. In miraculous fashion, Black women's engagement with their respective communities toppled Republican candidates in the reliably Republican state of Georgia, netting two Democratic U.S. senators: a Jewish man and a Black man, both firsts in Georgia's history.

Turning Georgia blue, and indeed, nominating Biden to be the Democratic presidential nominee in the first place, delivered the presidency, the Senate and the House to the Democrats in a rather spectacular display of sheer will. Indeed by percentage, Black women vote more than the citizens of Australia, a country where voting is mandatory.

Now, these same Black women and men are looking for their return on their investment. Sure, Biden's COVID-19 relief package was a success ― the benefits of which will echo far beyond the next election cycle. This bill alone will lift over half of all American children out of poverty. The added money given to states to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic will benefit all citizens, and in particular, state and local government jobs, which are disproportionately occupied by Black people and other people of color.

But the latest fight to restore and protect voting rights is far, far more existential than any monetary policy or commonwealth legislation. Since gutting sections Four and Two of the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court's decisions have unleashed waves of restrictive voting laws meant to dampen voter turnout, particularly among people of color, the young, the elderly and the disabled.

Republicans know they aren't popular and that they have no good policy ideas. So instead of tailoring their ideology to better suit the changing times and demographics, they plan to rig the election process to favor them. Power, then, is all they care about, and they will do anything to keep it, including actively and/or passively supporting the Big Lie that Trump and his ardent followers maintain, which claims that the election was stolen. The Republicans downplay the January 6 Insurrection and back members in their party who publicly support insane conspiracy theories and/or white supremacist, anti-Semitic groups.

President Biden has been refreshingly normal and in some ways, far more progressive in his policy initiatives than those on the left originally anticipated. Fair enough. But his antiquated notion of rules and norms within the U.S. Senate (i.e., the overtly racist filibuster) harm his agenda and could make voting exceedingly more difficult for the very same people who put him into office: Black folks. In politics, you dance with the one who brought you. The Biden-Harris Administration needs to do more ― far more ― to fight for the interests of their constituents, and not simply rely on the possible success of Black labor.

Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside of Seoul