Operation Black Vote Roundtable

I often discuss the power of voting with my community and have become accustomed to being met with resistance and apathy. So I was honoured to attend Operation Black Vote’s inspirational roundtable with Reverend Al Sharpton, where we heard invaluable contributions regarding the potential for a unified voter registration campaign.

The key takeaways that I want to share with my community, particularly those who (understandably) don’t see the point in voting or engaging with politics are as follows:

We have to acknowledge our apathy

· Things are getting worse for our communities — key to this is voter apathy. Our non-vote is a vote. We are voting for our oppressors because we’re not voting against them

· They believe in our power, but we don’t — people have died for our vote so we need to take it more seriously

· Engage with schools. There’s the assumption that young people aren’t interested in politics, but they are very clued on and if they are energised, they can energise their guardians to get out and vote. It is incumbent on all of us to get young people voting

When we don’t vote, we hand our power to others

· We tend to have an expectation that government will look after us without our vote. If we don’t vote, who in the government is going to vote for our interests?

· To those who are focused on economic empowerment: you put your money in a bank that is regulated by a government. Even a career in music is regulated by government — they decide what goes on the airwaves, so you still need to vote

· Voting is a service. And service is power.

Politics is a numbers game

· Elections are won and lost in the margins — that’s is where our power lies

· The tragedy is, we aren’t the majority in the UK, but we have the numbers and nobody wins without our edge. It’s in everyone’s interest to keep our numbers down so they have a better shot of winning. Voter ID is a tactic that was used in the USA and is being rolled out here

· If people were to vote on a non-partisan Black manifesto, parties could be obliged to deliver on it if they want to get our vote. But we must be voting in the first place if this is to hold weight

We have to be just as strategic and work together even if our tactics don’t align

· The Black vote can change any election in this country

· Our vote isn’t monolithic and it doesn’t have to be to make change

· We’ve seen in the US that opposing parties will unite, just to keep us disempowered

· G7 and NATO are examples of different sides sitting down together to protect the interests of their countries. We must sit down together to protect the interests of our people in those countries

· Use the power of the vote regardless of beliefs. We can no longer afford to let our differences get in the way of our shared goal of empowerment

· Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good with regards to choosing between parties

You don’t win the fight with one round

· “A lot of people wanna be Mandela but don’t wanna do 27 years in prison” — meaning change is a process, it won’t happen overnight and we won’t get instant gratification.

· Two years from now will be the decisive election. They’re introducing photographic voter ID rules now, so our process must start now. We can’t start organising late then play catch up. We lose if we don’t plan right.

· Like coffee beans that change the water that they’re submerged in, we need to be so strong that we change how they govern. We need to be so strong that the water doesn’t change us, we can take the heat and change the water.

We must stop speaking for people that we are not speaking to

· Young people know what they don’t like and will tell us what will engage them with voting. We need to give young people the resources to talk politics with their peers.

· Comprehensive citizenship education is also needed, so people understand how institutions work

· Local authorities are closer to communities, so borough residents and central government could be better utilising them to represent our needs

Diversity doesn’t mean representation

· Suella and Priti are prime examples. Most recently, Suella reneged on the Windrush scheme because she doesn’t believe she will face any real consequence from our community

· Tyre Nichols is another example, killed 5 mins away from where Martin Luther king Jr was killed for fighting for the rights of the police officers who went on to kill Tyre

· Sewell report is yet another example — claiming that there is no systemic racism in the UK. If this is the case, we’re simply less employed because we’re less talented, or overrepresented in prisons because we’re more criminal. When we disaggregate the data, it is clear that the Black community is disproportionately oppressed in the UK, but it’s not everyone who looks like us that wants this to change.

The blood that binds is thicker than the water that divides us

· How can we define ourselves by titles, locations and categories that the oppressors gave us? We can’t let those that oppose us define us. We can’t give them the power of definition (good, bad, underclass, urban, disadvantaged, BAME etc)

· We need to organise globally and join hands across communities. Everything we do as a movement must have an international focus because if we don’t respect Black people in one place, we won’t respect them anywhere. We must support each other

· For individualists who think they are okay because they’re developing or experiencing economic empowerment: the reason you were able to get to where you are is because of a movement. No gains have come from passivity.

Big thanks to Operation Black Vote for such a timely event, which has inspired hope in the midst of multiple crises. I look forward to joining the movement and hope that someone reading this will be galvanised to do the same. Voting is a service. And service is power.