Our democracy is at a precipice. We would not have gotten to this point if our nation's history were not riddled w/ actions aimed at undermining citizenship, beginning w/ the right for white humans to own Black humans & extending to terrorism & apartheid upon slavery's abolition
In many ways, this current moment is both historic & horrific. But in other ways, it should be utterly predictable. How strong can a democracy actually be when its systems have systematically upheld unequal citizenship & when such inequality is treated as a reasonable position?
The history here is long & how it has culminated in this moment is multiply determined, but to give one specific example: how can we expect our democracy to not be hobbled when the right 2 vote for Black citizens is under constant attack & these attacks are treated as reasonable?
Again, there are many things that brought us to this moment, but I would ask for people to reflect on how the media has covered voter suppression. The evidence that laws are intended to undermine Black citizenship is robust. & yet we see these laws frequently presented as neutral
You cannot have a strong democracy in which the voices & choices of subsets of citizens are systematically oppressed. These are not circumstances in which democracy thrives, but rather the ingredients for an ever-growing streak of authoritarianism.
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