Win or Lose the Takeaway From Georgia is: Swart Power

deur Dominique DiPrima

All eyes are on the Georgia senate races. As I wrote votes are being counted. But with absentee ballots including overseas votes we may not have a final tally until Friday. Win or lose though, the real story of the Georgia runoff elections is the power of the Black vote and the impact of African American grassroots community organizing at it’s best.

Georgia is traditionally a red state and it has long been at the epicenter of very intentional, old school Jim Crow era voter suppression. There is a lot of talk about the so-called new south. But a new south is only a big deal because of the ugly traditions and deep-rooted white supremacy of the ou south. So the fact that President elect Joe Biden owes his victory in large part to African American organizers, the fact that that the balance of power in the senate is resting on Georgia and that it is even in play at all for Dems is testament to the fact that Black Voters really do matter. Thank you LaTosha Brown, thank you Stacy Abrams, thank you Use Nfot, Helen Butler…Thank you John Lewis…

Maine is not a southern state but they sent a Republican to the Senate, as did Wisconsin and Iowa – all decidedly northern. If two out of three of those states had elected a Democrat, the effectiveness of the Biden Harris administration would already be assured. But they didn’t. So win or lose, our take away needs to be this – Black people, we have power.

When we unite, when we organize, when we show up and vote we are the game changers.