2020 Elections

Dear Roxanne Shante (aka tribe member),

Pray your week is going well. This week the plan was to introduce you to Dr. Constance Lacy. She was recently featured in Dallas Doing Good. However, today is the second day of early voting for the 2020 elections and I am a tad overwhelmed with the possibilities.

2020 Elections

It is a presidential election year which historically brings out more voters and more politics. In this particular year, our current president or as I refer to him #45 is igniting an even more passionate response. This response is both from his supporters and his opponents. The entire landscape is both scary and interesting.

Its scary because of everything that is being stirred up. I pride myself in doing life with multi-generational, multi-racial, multi-economic levels of people and communities. Before this season, we all co-existed peacefully and enjoyed each other. I’d say that some of us thought we had deep relationships. However, we are now discovering that are priorities are further apart then we thought. Different priorities are not really the problem. The problem is when your priority is a direct threat to my well-being.

Here is an example. A person I considered a good friend values religious freedom over my safety. I’ve known him for more than 15 years. My husband has known him for more than two decades. Until this season, I believed that if we called on him that he would come defend us or help us by any means necessary. Now I realize that he says he will come. However, the reality is he will come as long as his defense of us doesn’t threaten his religious freedom. This same logic is why slavery was allowed by the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution.

For the sake of clarity, let me explain my conclusions. In a private conversation, I explained to our friend the precariousness of doing normal tasks for Jamal and I. In this discussion, I gave a personal example of how a woman called the cops on Jamal for nothing. Our friend stated that he understood that this was our reality. He empathized with the anxiety. However, he also stated that this reality COULD NOT be considered when he chose which politicians to vote for. I was speechless.

For voting purpose, he chose to ignore our anxiety, our safety, or our future. It was then that I understood then that my life was not a high enough priority. So it’s not that all people who vote for #45 don’t understand the environment that he has helped facilitate.

It is not that they don’t understand the racial tension and unrest in this country. It is that something else is more important. Something else could be religious freedom, abortion, economics, or whatever. The reality is that voters in this season are either like a pig who risk losing their life for breakfast and others are like a chicken who risks losing an egg. Just to be clear for this election season lives are at stake for the black community.

My promise to you

I’m going to get off my soap box now. I’m determined to be a bridge and connector during the 2020 elections. It’s hard to not block people and reduce my circle. I’m still not sure what to do about our friend. Hey, if you have any ideas on this one, I’d love to hear it. As always, if you know that you need some additional support, call me. Okay? Or text me 682-237-9891

~dr.yolanda