Freshman Kelly Washington marched to the voting booth with fear powering her every step. The College Park, Ga., college student is very afraid that a Republican takeover of Congress will reverse President Obama’s positive momentum and initiate a repeal of the assistance she needs to continue her education at Atlanta Technical College.
“I heard that if Republicans win they will try to take away HOPE money for schools. And that’s absurd because so many people can’t afford co
llege; they need help,“ says the first-year student who took a break from class to vote. “That’s how I’m able to go to school. So that’s just crazy.”
Many of Washington’s contemporaries in the black electorate also expressed trepidation on a variety of fronts related to the future of the nation after the Republicans and the Tea Party powered a political tsunami that wiped out all vestiges of Democratic control of Congress.
Doctoral student and educator Mashawn Young (pictured with her children, her mother and her sister) is very concerned at how the election results will impact Obama’s pledges towards education.
“I think Obama is doing a great job dealing with the circumstances that he had to do deal with initially,” Young said. But, like Obama, her ability to implement positive changes in her field will be greatly impacted after the election. “I want to be able to make some policies and changes. That’s why I think it was very important to vote to support the Democratic Party and President Obama. So I wanted to make sure that I did my part as a Democrat to support the party and make sure they are represented properly.”
Unfortunately, not enough of her fellow African Americans followed her into the voting booth. That’s why the Democratic side of Congress is looking like a crime scene.
Trey Luce, an African American male, sums up America’s sentiments about the economic stability of the country. “I got mixed feelings about what Obama’s doing. But you can’t change the county in 18 months. He needs more time.” But he also echoed all the interviewees when he said, “you can’t complain about it if you don’t do anything about it. So that’s why I came out to vote. A lot of people think it [doesn’t] matter,” he said. “But a lot of people fought and lost their lives so that we would be able to do this.”
Since many black and brown voters did not exercise their right to vote, Obama and the Democrats suffered a brutal bludgeoning at the polls. For voters like Washington, they have to begin to brace themselves for what is likely to come. “They [Republicans and Tea Party leaders] already said what they are going to do. They are going to block everything that Obama is trying to do and they are just going to be totally against him and that’s just that.”
–terry shropshire
