The American presidential election season is upon us and it is now all but inevitable that a senior white male will be asking for your vote in the federal election this November. According to a January 2024 Reuters/Ipsos poll, 70% of Americans do not think President Biden should have run again and 56% of Americans do not think 45 should have run again. Well, neither them nor their political cronies listened to that poll because…well, power is a hell of a drug.

If you’re interested in closing the social equity gap, you probably know that the 45^th president is specifically interested in deepening the gap, in fact he believes himself entitled to profit from said gap. So let’s hard pivot to President Biden’s record and agenda (or lack thereof).

A Bridge Runs for President

We have all heard about the collapsed Baltimore Key Bridge and that weird response from American racists but did you know a bridge can also run for president?

In Ramy Youssef’s latest comedy special he summarizes, “Biden just has crazy substitute teacher energy.” During the 2020 election cycle Biden himself said, “Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else.” When you think about it, this is an odd analogy for someone seeking to be the most powerful government official in the United States. We suppose this may be why it feels like poll tested statements are running the executive branch and not a strong political coalition elected on an agenda by and for the people.

Dana King, artist and former news reporter, posited at the Ida B. Wells Symposium at Columbia School of Journalism that Black people have, “two bad choices.” One choice could end in setbacks not seen for 60+ years and the other represents the possibility for Black people to live to fight another day. But her point put simply was that Black people will either be stagnant or hurt even worse by our countries next chief executive.

The disappointment with these election choices is palpable across multiple communities. But how did we get to a place where the top issue for women and people of color, equity, has not been the core subject of one single law passed?

Three-Fifths

The first enslaved African’s arrived to colonial America in 1619 as highlighted in Nikole Hannah-Jones ground breaking 1619 Project. In 1662, the first American colonial law to ever mention people of African ancestry was passed in the Virginia house and it was to allow White male slave owners to rape enslaved Black women to “replenish their workforce.” Many states passed the same laws across colonial America. In 1787, the American framers of the constitution stated enslaved people were three-fifths a person. Today, the three-fifths compromise shows up in American economic apartheid.  Black women make almost exactly three-fifths the wages of their white male counterparts—$0.63 cents to a white male’s $1.00. This shows the system of America is working as it was intended.

The Longest Match: Stagnation and Moderate Politics

What did it mean to moderate on the issue of slavery? What did it mean to be moderate on repairs to Black people during reconstruction? What did it mean to be moderate on Jim Crow laws? What does it mean to moderate the issue of racial and gender equity?

Centering the white moderate as the Biden Administration has been doing (Hi Kirsten Synema and Joe Manchin) has never been a path to progress. Dr. King famously stated in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice…”

Post-reconstruction, white moderates grew tired of reconstruction after 12 years when slavery had lasted 246 years. The rights act was signed in 1965, gradually reaching full enforcement across former slave states over the following decade. 48 years later the white “moderate” supreme court declared voting discrimination over and threw out enforcement of the voting rights act. Meanwhile, the Brennan Center has cited multiple voter suppression laws passed across mostly former slave states post the Shelby decision:

• Florida Senate Bill 90
• Georgia S.B. 202
• Iowa Senate File 413
• Arizona 8 (8 voter suppression bills)
• Texas (ongoing passage of multiple bills)

Biden Administration Failing at Social Equity

The Biden Administration has gotten no social equity gap focused laws passed. Even after Black people in South Carolina clinched the nomination for Biden and people of color across the country showed up in record numbers to support Biden in 2020, Biden and his team have failed to pass even the most pressing priority for Black people, protecting the right to vote.  They couldn’t even pass part of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Other failures:

• On Biden’s watch, women’s health gap has widened - no plan to pass a national law abortion rights law after the Dobbs case
• Immigration policy shortfalls are affecting dreamers and asylum seekers (negotiating with republicans on the backs of brown immigrants)
• Running over the sovereignty rights of Indigenous Americans (ruining water supplies, building oil pipelines)
• Wealth gap remains unchanged and unlegislated

Conclusion

The system is working as it was intended. The state-based republic is giving former slave states and white moderates outsized influence over policy. Our saying for our newsletter is to celebrate, uplift, and reflect. Let’s just say when it comes to national politics, there is not much to celebrate. But whether you vote or don’t vote, do so consciously.