Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon is my happy movie. I have had a once a month viewing appointment with this film for over twenty-five years. It is an exquisite blend of action, comedy, and romance, despite what the critics’ reviews say on Rotten Tomatoes.
On Nov. 4 I will watch Sho’nuff, the Shogun of Harlem, wreak havoc from movie theaters to pizza shops until inevitably being conquered by the glowing hands of the protagonist, Leroy Green aka Bruce Leroy. No matter what happens the night before or in the early morning hours of that day, I will be relaxing in my comfy chair with a bowl of unsalted popcorn, enjoying Taimak and Vanity falling in love to DeBarge’s “Rhythm of the Night.” As such, I implore the rest of the Black community not to allow the Electoral College results or the pundits on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News to steal their joy and peace of mind.
The Democratic Party depends on Black voters to get elected, but too often, we get scapegoated unfairly for their losses. Hillary Clinton lost the White female vote to Donald Trump in 2016, but the fact that fewer Black voters went to the polls for her than they did for President Barack Obama, was cited as the greater problem by Democrats. Bernie Sanders’ South Carolina primary defeat was not blamed on his inability to articulate a coherent message to Black voters in South Carolina. It was blamed on elderly Black voters unwilling to accept the viability of twenty-first century progressive policies.
This is the attitude that has created the false narrative that evicting the current president from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, is the sole responsibility of Black folks. Make no mistake about it, we are going to crawl, walk, and run to the nearest polling place or post office in the land of Republican voter suppression, while dodging overzealous police officers, sidestepping AR-15 armed MAGA-hatted militias, and eluding cell phone toting maskless Karens, to make sure the reincarnation of Bull Connor does not get a second term.
But this presidential election is not about us. Black folks have been resisting Trump since he announced his presidential run in 2015. Nov. 3, 2020, is a referendum on the type of America that White Americans want. Four hundred years of evidence give us a pretty good idea of what type of America that is, and Trump embodies that America.
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