Enough is Enough
A simple admission by Jordan Rock

“What motivates young African Americans to vote?” My editor asked me this question for the week, and it took me a bit of time to mull it over. Mostly because to me, the answer is obvious, and I hate obvious answers. They make the world seem smaller to me. Still, if you ask most young voters why they care so much about current politics, why we rushed the polls and mailed in our ballots in droves, and the answer you get will be about the same every time.

“We can’t afford not to.”

The truth is, we live in the information age. And that means we get to watch our country fail us in real time. Every single day, we get on a social media platform and we hear about how another one of us was shot by the police. We see phone footage of police and federal agents gassing and beating the crap out of BLM protesters. The American death toll from Covid-19 steadily rises.

The US Senate continues a partisan march toward hyper conservatism.
We hear about the human rights violations taking place in actual concentration camps on American soil.
We watch the news tick by about how the rich are just getting richer by profiting off the strife.
When we shut off our phones, we’re left with the sobering knowledge that we’ll be the first in line to witness the long-term effects of climate change.

What Motivates Young Voters?

The weight of knowledge is heavy. Staying apprised of current events in America over the last four years has been like a marathon over a miles-long bed of spikes.
It’s especially bad for African Americans like me.  My people are getting killed and beaten and gassed and jailed. People that could’ve been members of our family. Our friends. Our own future, bleeding in the street.

We’re tired. But we know that there is one thing we can do to make a difference; we can vote. Millennials and Gen Z make up the largest voting pool in the United States. According to NBC, the young vote is going to Biden over Trump by about 20 points, and to me that’s no surprise. While Trump rolls around in his own filth in the White House, we’re the ones that are being affected by his decisions in the long term. This age group is more diverse, educated and open minded than the last two, and we’ve had a front row seat to the erosion of our democracy over the last four years. We’ve had enough.

History

Trump’s life story has been pockmarked with decisions both cruel and criminal. There’s a Wikipedia page solely dedicated to his Legal Affairs. The depths of his depravity would have needed an entire book’s space to catalog a couple decades ago. He is not a man fit to run a small business, let alone a whole country. And we’ve seen the result of his time in the White House.

Families torn apart and put in cages. A farcical “Border Wall” that will clearly never be finished or earn its money back. An economic crash. The complete refusal to handle a deadly pandemic. A rise in hate crimes and domestic terrorism (primarily by white supremacists according to the DHS) and lies upon lies. Over 20,000 lies in the last 14 months, according to both The Washington Post and The Guardian. If we fail to vote him out, we get more of the same.

We’ve seen the seeds of fascism taking root in our country, and our so-called leadership refuses to take responsibility.
So we have to hold them accountable. Everyone in my generation and below knows that if our future has any hope
of being a place worth living in, we have to act now.
So, What motivates young African Americans to vote?
We simply can’t afford to do this all again.