My daughter’s a freshman in college. She registered to vote and announced she’s a Democrat. She entered adolescence and adulthood during the first Black presidency. I wasn’t surprised.
If there wasn’t a Black president I wondered if she would have declared her independence like I did at that age. My independent registration wasn’t a rejection of the two party system like my White counterparts it was the only choice available in the Black community’s one party rule system.
Then I discovered the primaries were closed and if I wanted to participate I had to join the one party that ruled. But when I registered Democratic I didn’t become an individual party member. I was sentenced to the segregated block of electoral politics called the “Black vote”.
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