In a democracy, especially a robust and vibrant one like in the United States, there shouldn’t be anything easier than voting. But that’s not the reality.
Why Reading Books About Voter Suppression Matters
In early July, Texas Democrats decamped from the capital of Austin to Washington, D.C., to break a quorum while Texas Republicans were in the process of pushing forth controversial voting legislation that would restrict access to voting, especially for lower income communities and communities of color. This in a state that already made it difficult to vote. Some Democrats have since returned. An earlier example from 2018 includes none other than famed voting rights activist Stacy Abrams, who lost the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election to Brian Kemp. The race was fraught with accusations against Kemp, who was the Georgia Secretary of State at the time, for using his office to suppress the Black vote. Unfortunately, Abrams lost the race, but fortunately for all of us, she created Fair Fight Action, “after witnessing the gross mismanagement of the 2018 election by the Secretary of State’s office.” In 2019, Abrams created Fair Fight 2020 to monitor voting practices in battleground states, such as her home state of Georgia. The initiative was key in bringing the public’s attention to voter suppression and registering thousands to vote. Coming from an immigrant family, I was always espoused with the marvel that was American democracy. To a family like mine, it was an honor and a privilege to vote. I never once thought that my vote could be discounted. Fortunately for me, my family fell squarely in the middle class, so even when we lived in the Deep South, we had all the paperwork to register and cast our ballots. But this isn’t the case for thousands of voters across America, who live in gerrymandered districts and are subjected to cruel hurdles to cast their own ballots. The topic of voter suppression is complex and nuanced, which is why I’ve gathered the following titles that’ll give you an overview of America’s broken voting system. If you’re looking for more books to further your political education, check out these lists: Goldstone walks through how this systemic suppression stole the rights of Black citizens with the backing of the Supreme Court. This book isn’t specifically about voter suppression. However, I wanted to include it here because voter suppression is intricately linked with how Black people are subjected to “white rage.” This book is also an excellent precursor to Anderson’s next book (below), One Person, No Vote.
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