DON’T VOTE!

by Tre Millyanz

Just kidding….maybe. I’ve been reading Malcolm X Speaks edited by George Breitman and I ran across an interesting quote I thought I’d share (actually I found a ton, but I’ll post this one first). My commentary follows the quote

We’re neutral. We’re for ourselves. Whatever is good for us, that’s what we’re interested in. That doesn’t mean we’re against you. But it does mean we’re for ourselves.

This is what you and I need to learn. You and I need to learn how to be positively neutral. You and I need to learn how to be non-aligned. And if you and I ever study the science of non-alignment, then you’ll find out that there’s more power in nonalignment than there is alignment. In this country, it’s impossible for you to be aligned – with either party. Either party that you align yourself with is suicide. Because both parties are criminal. Both parties are responsible for the criminal condition that exists. So you can’t align yourself with a party.

What you can do is get registered so that you have power – political potential. When you register your political potential, that means your gun is loaded. But just because it’s loaded, you don’t have to shoot until you see a target that will be beneficial to you. If you want a duck, don’t shoot when you see a bear; wait till you see a duck. And if you want a bear, don’t shoot when [you] see a duck; wait till you see a bear. Wait till you see what you want – then take aim and shoot!

What they do with you and me is tell us, “Register and vote.” Don’t register and vote – register! That’s intelligent. Don’t register and vote – you can vote for a dummy, you can vote for a crook, you can vote for another who’d want to exploit you. “Register” means being in a position to take political action any time, any place and in any manner that would be beneficial to you and me; being in a position to take advantage of our position.  Then we’ll be in a position to be respected and recognized.  But as soon as you get registered, and you want to be a Democrat or a Republican, you are aligning.  And once you are aligning, you have no bargaining power – none whatsoever.

You hear people talking about politicians (specifically Democrats) taking the Black vote for granted, and Black people not demanding anything in return for their votes. Then we want to get upset and start protesting when stuff doesn’t go our way. All those people didn’t give their lives during the Civil Rights Movement to secure our right to vote only for us to throw it away. Not registering to vote is disrespectful to them and, frankly, downright stupid. But registering and voting blindly for a party is even worse.

There are approximately 40 million Black people in this country, or about 13% of the population, and we always vote as a block (with 85+% voting the same way). When you consider that the average point spread of the 11 presidential elections from 1952 to 1992 was 7%, you’ll see that we can easily swing an election.  Everyone knows that independents win elections.

But this information is only helpful for you poor, lost causes that actually think we can fix the institutional racism inherent in the system before your great grandchildren die. You Negroes that will be left behind to suffer, sit-in, march, and protest every time a cop kills a Black man, predatory lenders prey on the poor & Black, and the government abandons you after a natural disaster destroys countless lives. Me, I’d rather us have our own government, but that’s another article for another day.