We are days away from the 2016 presidential election. This time around, the feeling isn’t as exciting. In fact, deciding on who will lead America next is quite depressing and feels like pending doom. Choosing the next President is a serious task. The winner is married to us and this country for at least the next four years. Unfortunately, when you think of this election as a marriage you realize that it’s like choosing between the person who betrayed your trust or the person who gets married just for the actual wedding and nothing more.

However you choose to view the looming election, both candidates have a lot of work to do if they plan to sway young black voters to hit the polls, let alone vote for them.

Christopher Prudhome, head of a nonpartisan group that is dedicated to registering young voters told the New York Times, “Young people feel discouraged and apprehensive about the political process as is, and then they look at the two options in front of us.” In regards to Hillary Clinton, he added, “Nobody has seen an agenda for African-American millennials. I don’t think they believe she cares about them.”

GenForward is a survey created by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associate Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The monthly survey is comprised of racially and ethnically diverse young adults. The survey asked a couple of questions that prove the indifference when it comes to options for young black voters.

The findings show that many of us are so anti-Trump that we feel forced to vote for Clinton. The survey also determined that participants wanted a better 3rd party candidate as a buffer. There was hesitancy when it came to whether or not Clinton was qualified, yet Bernie Sanders was a clear favorite for this demographic of voters. Sanders was also the most voted for among the group in this year’s presidential primary and caucus.

Clinton has tried to follow in the footsteps of Bernie Sanders and launch an HBCU tour, but there’s one huge difference. She’s not the one showing up. Outside of her appearance at Johnson C. Smith University Thursday in Charlotte, her absence is felt by sending in campaign surrogates.

Clinton and Donald Trump both have converged upon sacred ground by visiting black churches.

Can you imagine how painful it must feel to go to your place of worship and see the man whose overseer mentality makes him believe that he can make America great again? As if slavery and the Jim Crow era are something we would willingly sign up for.

Just like the record turnout of young black voters in the 2008 presidential election, there is a high expectation for elected officials.

More than ever black millennials are calling out the injustices that plague our community and stand in expectation of reform. Think on Clinton referring to some young criminals as “super predators” and how as First Lady she watched her husband sign legislation imposing stiff sentences for nonviolent offenders. How can you not feel the sting of betrayal and the hollow sound of our souls as we watched our brothers and sisters snatched up in a system that it took a powerful black man to get them vindicated?

But she isn’t alone in this.

On too many occasions Trump has described us as living in poverty and crime-stricken neighborhoods. He has used a community’s grief as foundation for a 140 character tweet. He even had the audacity to ask us, “What do you have to lose?” in regards to voting for him. The answer? Everything. Are our lives an experiment that will go up in flames like your failed businesses? Will you bankrupt our souls too?

So the feeling of being without options, the desire to not be sold dreams that aren’t in stock, the need for lies to not be camouflaged as a woman with a cape, are well warranted.

At the end of the day if you look at our criminal justice system, systemic racism, and the fact that we will have allowed black people to live in communities where fresh water and clean soil are optional, what do you expect from us?

It’s either #GirlIGuessImWithHer or #MakeAmericaGreatAgain.

Do you feel hopeful about November? Tell us your thoughts about election day below in the comments.

Stay connected to all things Black Twitter, news, and the best content on the Internet by signing up for Blavity’s newsletter.

young black voters

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week