These Black and brown Americans explain why not voting is their chosen act of resistance
October 1, 2020The 2020 elections are on the horizon and non-voters are the topic of interest once again. In recent months, there have been an influx of campaigns, tweets, and articles aimed at getting people to the polls. But in attempts to sway those who are non-voters by choice, many of these resources fall into the trap of painting them as politically inactive and apathetic because they are, somehow, unaffected by the Trump administration’s policies.
In 2016, non-voters became the scapegoat for President Trump’s victory, and they are quickly being positioned as the culprits if he wins again. However, these tendencies to mischaracterize non-voters ignores that a number of them are people of color for whom Trump’s America is not a departure from the norm. Rather than being politically inactive, many non-voters organized outside of electoral spheres long before Trump took office, and argue that Trump is not exceptional. Instead, he is part of a much larger problem that they believe voting will not do away with.