Preparing for a Biden / Harris America

THE FOX AND THE WOLF

By Damon Davis

I can’t remember ever feeling the way I do right now. This time in my life has my stress levels fluctuating up and down, day to day, sometimes minute to minute. A mass of emotions from fear, despair, hope, and grief attack my senses and psyche daily. Everything from police, plagues, government attacks, is out to kill my black ass and at times, I am overwhelmed with the constant tragedy and disinformation in my media feed. On top of all this stress and strain, I have to pay my bills. Even then still, one of the most “significant elections” (or so they say) of my lifetime is on the horizon.

“Vote” is such a loaded word to me.

Because it implies that I am taking control of my life, by giving control to another.

I am trusting that the person I vote for will have my best interests in mind and therefore implement changes where needed and fight to keep things that protect the greater good. Well, honestly in this election I don’t feel

like any of them have my best interests in mind or are really going to change shit on a level that will ever reach me, let alone the folks at the depths of American society.

I am honestly jaded by the American election process and how blatantly corrupt and laughably “not-for-

me” it is. We have a choice between the sitting ruler of the free world who clearly favors the destruction of everything that I love and cherish. Who emboldens domestic terrorists to murder people that want safer and more fruitful lives, and outright would love to exterminate us in the name of “Making America Great Again.” Then on the other side, we got a ticket that represents a slightly slower and softer death and destruction of me and my loved ones. One that says they care about us but, have shown us time and time again, they represent

the same system that is killing us every day.

So, what do you do when your choices are between bad and worse? Common sense says you pick BAD.

Let’s be clear--this election is not about getting what we want and changing the world into the one we

want to see. It is about mitigating harm to us and our loved ones. This is a lunch line and the choices are gruall or a happy meal, neither are good for our health as Black people, one is just more appetizing for the moment. Understand we will be fighting the same fights with Republicans as Democrats, just one fight may be easier to win than the other. One wise man said to me the other day,

“We aren’t picking a champion, we are picking an opponent.” So in picking this battle, choose wisely.

BLACK MEN BUILD 2020

KNOW THINE ENEMY

By Phillip Agnew

“Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every battle.”

Let’s start here: There are no “Lesser of Two Evils.” There is just Evil. Neither party has answers for the crisis facing Black people. They ARE the crisis facing Black people. They are both our opposition.

Now that we got that out the way, the question facing us is not “Does our vote mean anything”?

The question is

“What are we prepared to do to make our votes mean something?”

Are we thinking critically? Are we thinking strategically?

I think not.

Let’s look at the business world (since everybody loves business). What do businesses thrive on? As much as they tout disruption it is actually consistency and predictability that help Billionaires sleep at night.

This election isn’t about Trump/Pence vs. Biden/Harris. It’s about unpredictability vs. predictability.

A Trump presidency will not be “four more years of Donald Trump”: it will be four (or more) years of chaos, unpredictability, shit we’ve never seen before, shit that we can’t plan for.

This is not favorable terrain to operate in. We need predictability in our opposition. The Democrats are that predictable opposition. They are the Devils we know.

A Biden/Harris Administration is predictable: nothing but symbolism and band-aids. They’ll try every day to make things feel “normal” as they pander and smile and convince you that they’ve saved the world; that we all can relax because they have everything under control. This is the terrain we know. It will be a close carbon copy to the Obama presidency.

In their own ways throughout their careers, both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris proudly waged war on Black people, poor people, immigrants. We must return the favor.

BLACK MEN BUILD 2020

BLACK MEN BUILD 2020

ELECTION PROTECTION

I’ll tell you one thing, If my momma or pops goes to the polls and is intimidated by one of these racist clowns, We gon have a problem.

This idea isn’t to come out of nowhere. In 2012, a white man drove a truck with a trailer attached that had a dummy of Obama hanging by a noose all over the state of North Carolina. He even came to the Democratic National Convention with it. And when early voting started in October, he parked it outside of polling locations in the eastern part of the state where most of the Black people in North Carolina live. If you think for one second that these racists ain’t feeling big enough to do even more than that this time around, you’re kidding yourself. The same way we like to try

to be organized in the street is the same way we got to be organized to actually protect our communities from white supremacists this election cycle...And

that’s for real for real this time.

And what’s wild is that Voter Suppression is as American as apple pie. Literally. After the Civil War, southern states were forced to rewrite their constitutions to acknowledge the end of slavery. Immediately following there was a period known as the Reconstruction Era where Black Men were elected to offices from the mayor to state representatives all over the south. Matter fact, Mississippi sent two Black Men to the US Senate!* Black people began to build political power for themselves, establishing cities businesses and even remaining true to their connections to the continent of Africa. If you don’t believe me, answer this; why is there a First AFRICAN Baptist Church founded 1777, long before black people were counted as whole humans in the US? None-the-less, here we are, in 2020, facing the same question over and over again-

By Josh Sankara

will black people’s right to vote ever be fully protected in the US?

My answer; not unless we take active steps to guarantee it. Even more, we don’t get to any real political power, voting or otherwise, unless we do what we need to do to protect our right to exist in this world as whole human beings. They already stripped section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (the part that actually named counties and states that needed to be monitored by the Department of Justice because of a history of racist tactics) just a few years ago. We already know the way Black voters are targeted by false ads and intimidation since 2000 in Florida. We also know what they bout to try to do to bros that were locked up but gained the right to vote in Florida. I

ain’t saying all we gotta do is vote, but damn, if they wanted to make sure you could do it, why would they make it so damn hard?

We already know, this election cycle is about to be wild AF. Covid19 gettin’ at us, we tryin’ to eat, the economy taking a hit and all that. Let’s be honest, this is about to be the first time since 2000 that we prob won’t know who is the president for at least a few weeks after…And what happens if Trump loses and doesn’t want to leave office? We gotta get ready to defend our communities because they coming to protect Trump and everything he represents.

It’s some of us that DGAF, either way. And least we can do is show up to make sure auntie n ‘em make it in and out the polling place without incident. Let’s ride.

BLACK MEN BUILD 2020