If our votes are good enough, then our candidates should be good enough, too [View All]

[EffieBlack]

Black folk and women folk have been watching from the sidelines for centuries as white men held the monopoly on political power - and often turned around and used that power as a club against us. Black men got constitutional protection for their right to vote in 1865 with the ratification of the 15th Amendment(although it took another century for the federal government to begin enforcing that right). Women (black and white) got constitutional protection of their right to vote in 1920 with the 19th Amendment.

Once acquired, the voting power of blacks and women was directed (and not always by choice) almost exclusively for the benefit of white men, who continued to control and hold virtually all of the major political offices. Until today, almost 90 years after women's suffrage and more than 140 years after the 15th Amendment (and more than 40 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act), despite all of our other political, social and economic gains, women and blacks have been shut out of the top of the political pyramid, which might as well have been marked with a sign: "FOR WHITE MEN ONLY."

Despite this, blacks and women faithfully supported those men, lining up - and, in the case of African Americans, facing beatings, draconian legal barriers, intimidation and worse - to vote for an endless string of white men for president. Every four years, we canvassed, we campaigned, we registered other voters and then we loyally, fervently and wholeheartedly gave our precious votes to the Democratic presidential nominee, regardless how inattentive to our needs, mediocre or unelectable they may have been.

We didn't say in 1972, "We'd better not vote for George McGovern. He's an unelectable white man. Shirley Chisholm should get a chance." We didn't say in 1984, "That white man Walter Mondale can't beat Ronald Reagan." We didn't say in 1988, "It's really time for a woman to run. But since Pat Schroeder didn't get the nomination, I'm not going to vote for Michael Dukakis." We didn't say in 2004, "John Kerry is just too white to run against George Bush. I'll bet Al Sharpton could beat Bush, but since he didn't get the nomination, I'll sit this one out."

No - we didn't trash the Democratic candidates, refuse to vote for them, throw a hissy fit and threaten to hold our breaths till we turned blue because a candidate that WE wanted didn't win the nomination, or scream loudly that it was absolutely ridiculous and shameful that white men continued to have an exclusive lock on the Democratic presidential nomination and thought nothing about asking for our votes but never once offered us a seat at the table. We supported them with all of our hearts and, as a result, are seen as two of the most stalwart and reliable pillars of the Democratic base.

And that's why, for many of us, our hearts swell with pride when we see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - even if they're not our first choice - step into the arena and hold their own against the status quo. Yet now, despite all of our hard work, commitment and loyalty, we now must put up with Democrats, of all people, COMPLAINING that an African-American or a woman might actually end up winning the Democratic nomination, INSISTING that NOW IS NOT YET THE TIME for either of them, and PREDICTING that, not only would they lose the general election, but that their loss would be BECAUSE of their race/gender and that such a loss would be an unmitigated disaster not only for the Democratic Party, but for the future prospects of blacks and women in the political world.

Well, to those people I say this:

If Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination, each and every one of you need to get in line and get to work. Women and African-Americans have given our blood, sweat and tears to this party and to this country. It is time for the party (and, by that I mean the people IN the party) to return some of that commitment and loyalty.

If you intended to work your ass off for the Democratic nominee if it was John Edwards or Dennis Kucinich or Joseph Biden or anyone else, then you need to work just as hard for Clinton or Obama, should one of them win the nomination.

Do not tell us that WE are not good enough or not deserving enough or not ready enough to sit at the table with the people who have chased after our votes every four years decade after decade.

If our votes are good enough for you - and clearly they have been, given how fervently the party and its long line of white male standard bearers have chased after our support - then our brother Barack and our sister Hillary should be good enough for you, too.