Your Vote is Actually Your Right! 2/23/2020

Your vote is actually your right!
-- Rico Rivers
@Ricotheopinionist    YouTube/Twitter/IG

Before blacks in this country had the right to vote, WE made economic and educational moves that yielded major progress in this country for many of us individually, but especially as a group. We somehow still became doctors, lawyers, college professors, engineers, business owners and home owners. Hell, a few of us even opened up colleges and universities for our kids to attend and be educated. What's more, when we did not have the legal right to vote, WE unified organized, and FUNDED the movement that led to the right to vote. So, what happened? That's a long answer, I'm sure.

However, WE (black Americans) fought for the right to vote and have been voting religiously since 1965 or 55 years ago. Every election cycle we remind each other robotically, "Hey, our people fought and died for you to have the right the vote." Hell, even people who aren't black have jumped in on this historical reminder. This mantra is repeated to the point of ad nauseam for so many of us who are black. Ok. I get it. But, I don't think the "ancestors" fought and died for the right to vote just so we can just vote. I am sure they meant for us today to cast our votes wisely, not blindly. I think they meant that since you now have the right to vote, use it to YOUR advantage as a GROUP when necessary and not when "others" think you should use it for their advantage.

It's perfectly ok to vote or NOT to VOTE. You do still have a voice either way. You're still a tax paying citizen. You still live in America. Asian Americans barely vote at all but their voice is still heard because they realized that their power lies in the domination of education, business ownership, and group economics. They have never felt the need to insult nor guilt fellow Asians into voting for anyone if they did not feel comfortable. They are smart enough to know that it does not matter who is in the political seat when you can afford to pay for a lobbyist to get whatever your community needs. After 55 years of having the right to vote, American blacks seem to have forgotten about the educational and economic power they actually possessed before gaining the right to vote. I wonder how in the hell that happened. 
Oh, well. Carry on. 🙄

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