I was on a site that I normally find otherwise fantastic.

It’s a site that focuses on good men- as a feminist I think it’s important to recognize and celebrate men as well as women.

Especially when they organize to be better, as we all should. So I’ll link to the site, but not the article, in another post.

But it was one of those guest posts that proclaims that if black people just voted more, maybe things like Ferguson wouldn’t happen to us.

I find this woefully naive.

(Not to mention factually untrue and incredibly invalid for two reasons I’ll get to sooner or later.

But please indulge me because it’s important that you follow the logic and data instead of just believing me if you want to make this argument to someone on your own.)

It’s naive not just about black people but about all people of color who have a majority population in poverty. And I say that as a person who actively maintains a certain naivete concerning some matters- it’s handy when you create solutions no one believes exists for a living.

So why do I, of all people, find this opinion lacking in experience, wisdom and possibly even judgement?

First of all, this ignores what the problem is and what the solution is.

The problem is that another black kid is dead at the hands of law enforcement.

There’s some dispute over whether he was a “bad seed” which is another logical fallacy.

No one deserves to be gunned down in the street unarmed. Even mass murderers and rapists get a day in court.

Voting doesn’t keep the impoverished areas of the United States from being treated as police states.

In poor America, you can be locked up for not having ID on you.

In wealthy America, there’s no one around to ask you if you have your ID because there is only a police presence when what that populace defines as a problem occurs.

Do you understand how unfair that is? To be constantly under surveillance and policed because of where you live or how much money you don’t make? That’s not just or democratic.

This is the type of behavior we boycotted South Africa to stop. so why are we now doing the same thing?

If you want to get into all the stats that back that up, I’d refer you to “the Divide” by Matt Taibbi.

It’s not that I believe that our people should not participate in democracy.

It’s that voting can’t change the foundation our civilization rests upon.

Voting only fixes the problem if the system is fair to begin with– in a true democracy, yes, voting will help shape changes in laws.

But since the law is applied differently to people based on race, class, even gender, nationality and sexual orientation, if the unwritten laws supersede the ones on record, if the system favors some, voting and the result of voting won’t heal the wound.

And it also can’t retroactively fix the problems with the current laws on the books and the fact that some people get fines, probation or cases dismissed, and others are incarcerated, for the simplest offenses.

So what can we do to change this fact or get around it?

First, we have to recognize that the criminal justice system creates a cycle of incarceration for people in poverty.

The written law itself is often fair, but if people of color or in poverty often don’t know them, and don’t have access to the kind of legal representation that can stop this cycle before it begins.

Even if we suddenly had all the right people in office, however that would work, we’d still have the same problems with the entry point into the criminal justice system.

There are things that are crimes that those of us who grew up in wealth privilege can’t even fathom.

In some cities, falling asleep on trains?

Jail.

Running to the corner store without your wallet? If you are stopped by a police officer in some parts of the US, they can detain you.

Recently a man was shot dead for checking out a rifle in the gun section at Walmart. yes, Walmart has a gun section– you can apparently even buy these weapons online somehow.

I didn’t know that and apparently he didn’t either, as he was supposedly on the phone talking about what he thought was a toy in his hand, despite the lie the witness apparently told when he called police (which shouldn’t matter when police actually use basic observational skills like, listening when someone says they believe the gun they are holding is a toy and starts to put it down).

The argument about whether or not Walmart should sell guns, or if black people should know better than to do things in public white people are allowed to not die for all the time, well it’s kind of moot.

Duly noted that people may be afraid of us, but 1- that’s not the problem 2- that’s not the point. Either everyone gets shot for picking up merchandise on display in a store, under the law, or no one does.

That’s justice- sad though ridiculous it might be if everyone who picked up guns in Walmart was shot, it would be equitable, even just, for the one day it would take Walmart to at least put those guns where they aren’t accessible.

What happened to that poor man is bullshit.

Moving on… the point is that

• if the system of law is not applied fairly,
• and racial or economic groups are targeted for incarceration,
• and we’re locking up or otherwise making it more difficult for some populations to vote?

Then we’re slowly but surely supporting a prison-for-profit system that preys on the poor, then simultaneously denies the basic human rights of those people to get out of the first mistake they made, the way most of us who have privilege are able to do.

It’s an attack on many fronts that is leading to millions of people who used to be able to vote in peace, being persecuted and having their rights taken away.

We have to deal with the color and wealth privilege in this country

All privilege really, including those based on gender, immigrant status, nation of origin, and sexual orientation. Because as long as people with certain levels of privilege can exercise their rights better than people who don’t have it, we are only gaining justice for some. That is an oxymoron.

If there isn’t justice for everyone, there really isn’t justice for ANYONE.

All of these issues affect us directly, we just don’t see it until it turns into an increase in crime, higher taxes, a broken system where only money can get things done, and even then only in certain amounts.

If the poor who outnumber the middle class can’t even the score with votes? Guess who’s next?

Those legal and societal precedents repeat themselves in people with more and more privilege over time.

There was a time when that recession we just had would have affected ONLY the people on the margins so badly that they lost their homes. Now it has put a possibly permanent dent in the middle class [pdf from Pew internet]. What engine is supposed to run our economy?

If this country’s economy runs on disposable income, what happens when no one has any?

And if we had dealt with these issues when they were only affecting the poor would we be suffering through them now?

We can’t know for sure. But it’s irresponsible not to ask.

And it’s irresponsible to think voting is the answer to questions like “why Ferguson?”. Especially if we’re voting for politicians who change allegiances after they are elected.

How would voting change the fact that wealthier kids get a slap on the wrist because they know someone or don’t live in an area where these things are crimes?

You might be thinking “oh, well we’d vote the person we don’t want out, and vote a person who will change that law in.” Logically that is a sound solution. Realistically even if that happens, another law is inevitably created that amounts to the same thing.

And as previously stated, we can’t necessarily trust that politicians are going to do what they say they will in office unless we monitor them, and hold them accountable. As a nation we’ve been doing a piss poor job of that, particularly on the Congressional level.

Most people who DO vote only think it counts during a presidential election year.

But let’s “devil’s advocate” this idea that voting will defeat institutionalized racism as well as class and gender privilege.

Let’s even say that we manage to change all the laws and after say, a year,

What about all the people who have been given hard time for simple offenses in the mean time?

Who employs those felons when they get out?

How are you going to vote for something to help them?

What about the fact that they can no longer vote? That includes the ones that never should have been incarcerated in the first place.

Oh and by the way?

Black people ARE voting more, despite being increasingly and incredibly disenfranchised.

The entire argument is invalid– I just like to be prepared for all points of debate I can imagine.

In 2012, we outvoted the current US majority population. As did Asians and Hispanics. According to the Census [pdf], the black voting rate has been rising steadily since 2000, during which there was at least one voting dip in the white vote during the same period.

(Yes, I know some of our people aren’t too keen on being counted. So this number is probably higher.)

In addition? The voting district lines have repeatedly been changed since Clinton’s time. This is supposed to be in response to population changes to keep things fair.

In practice, this frequently abused  process called gerrymandering is implemented so that effectively some entire neighborhoods and congressional sub-districts could all vote the same way and they could never outvote the new, false majority.

In addition to its use achieving desired electoral results for a particular party, gerrymandering may be used to help or hinder a particular demographic, such as a political, ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, or class group, such as in U.S. federal voting district boundaries that produce a majority of constituents representative of African-American or other racial minorities, known as “majority-minority districts.”

In other words? People in power often make it so that the districts where they might lose suddenly are swallowed by districts where they couldn’t possibly lose. Thus the “problem voters” are contained and the “threat” of justice is neutralized.

And as the New York Times will tell you, even when the Democratic party had more votes for Congressional leaders, it didn’t matter.

Democrats received 1.4 million more votes for the House of Representatives, yet Republicans won control of the House by a 234 to 201 margin. This is only the second such reversal since World War II.

If this already wasn’t so long, we’d also need to talk  at length about the continued disenfranchisement of the American voter – not in some distant past, but right here in 2014. Yes. This year.

Which, yes, is unconstitutional. Not that it’s stopping anything.

I’m an independent, so take this as you will, but notice that only one side is conducting this disenfranchisement and sometimes on their own voters, people who are swayed their way, if it will suit their ends.

Does that mean voting doesn’t matter at all? No.

It means both voting and the effects of voting can be manipulated.

The moral of the story is, just because you don’t know about it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.