Voting Rights, a Plot Twist, and a Simple Reminder
While doing some final prep for class this week, I came across a great piece of video journalism on the NYT YouTube Channel. I strongly encourage you to watch it. It’s definitely worth the full five minutes, to learn how 200,000 adults currently can not vote in Tennessee.
The scores of steps that one must go through to restore their voting rights in this state are clearly a disproportionate legal flex meant to discourage and demoralize. The video inserts an array of comedic background shots that heighten our awareness and deepen our disapproval as the list of requirements drags on.
And just when we’re all set to frame this as another opportunity to remove a Democratic Party supporter from the game, Ms. Bynum — a steadfast community servant, mother, grandmother, and central figure in the clip — hits us with the okie doke. Spoiler alert: Trump might be her guy, if only she could cast a ballot.
She laughs off her recognition of the risks involved, knowing that she might get canceled by disclosing this voting preference. But she immediately squares her shoulders up, faces the camera, and says “but hey.” Then the credits roll.
This is my only critique of the video. I really wanted to know, “but hey… what???”
For whatever reason, I find myself wanting to understand how people — and especially people of color — have resolved to affirm their electoral allegiance to Donald Trump. I’m not fooling myself into believing that I can talk them down from this ledge, even if I remind them that they are potentially dragging me, my kids, their kids, and their kids’ kids all with them. I feel like they’ve already sealed that intake valve shut. So maybe my remote hope is they can listen to themselves explain this foolishness, and snap out of the kneejerk laughter and dismissiveness, recognizing that this isn’t a game.
Maybe this will help.
In the context of “make America great again,” please point to again for me on the graphic below. Tell me where you’d like to be. (Or maybe a better way to think about this is where do you think MAGA wants to take you).
Sadly, the very roots of the voting restrictions featured in the original clip show up in the MAJORITY of this timeline, and are clearly still alive and kicking.
Why? You already know why. But just in case you forgot, here’s another useful resource that’s well worth your time and attention.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DAPdR-TtDIx/?hl=en
For the sake of our democracy, I hope that Tennessee does better, and people like Ms. Bynum are able to participate in future elections, as their citizenship grants. I also hope that she and others can critically process this moment in more robust ways, and that more people can come together to work for a greater common good. Donald Trump is by no means, shape, or form a pathway to anything resembling that.
There is no “but hey.”
