Black women have always served as loyal members of the Democratic Party. For decades, it has been black women that have been the political gatekeepers, standing firm by the side of the Democratic Party through the good, the bad, and the ugly times. Black women have organized, rallied, raised funds, passed out the water, served well-cooked meals, got out and voted at the party's continuous promise of better days ahead. But, Democrats seem to continue to endure selective amnesia when it comes to the recognition of the significant strides black women have made to support and build the party. It was black women that supported both of Bill Clinton's elections (1992,1996), Hillary Clinton's battle against Barack Obama (2008), both of Barack Obama's elections (2008 & 2012), Hillary Clinton's battle against Donald Trump (2016), and handed Doug Jones his position as United States Senator in the State of Alabama on a silver platter (2017). Even with diligent support, black women continue to receive the political shaft from the Democratic Party.
Back in 2017, a number of Black women elected officials, activists, civic and community leaders wrote an open letter to Tom Perez, the Chair of the Democratic National Committee; calling out the Democratic Party for taking advantage of black women’s continued support and offered a stern warning that black women are not and will not be expendable. Since that time, Perez has publicly taken to Twitter and posted a number of Tweets acknowledging the significance of the black woman to the Democratic Party.
On Sept. 22, 2017, he posted: “We have to do better and that change starts right now. We’re ready to put in the work to earn back the trust of black women.” On December 13, 2017, he posted: “Let me be clear: We won in Alabama and Virginia because #BlackWomenled us to victory. Black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party, and we can’t take that for granted. Period.” But like talk, tweets are cheap! There hasn’t been much action on the part of the Democratic Party to rectify black women’s concerns, outside of the implementation of a few short-term solutions and half-assed attempts to make things look better on the surface. The Democratic Party’s leadership is attempting to use a Band-Aid to treat a severed limb, by failing to properly address its real issues with Black women.
With the most recent actions of Democratic Party leader Nancy Pelosi’s public call out (jumping off the ship) against Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ comments encouraging political protest against the actions of President Donald Trump and the members of his administration; some black women are now in a tailspin due to what appears to be a lack of support shown towards Waters, who is the most senior black woman elected on Capitol Hill. Waters has been one of the few Democratic representatives has the courage to regularly confront the misrepresentation, racism, mischaracterization, illegal activities, wrongdoings, and straight up lies regularly spewed by Trump.
Congresswoman Waters has taken on the role of becoming the matriarchal figure of the Democratic Party, as no one else in the party has stepped up to the plate. Her recent channeling of the late and great Shirley Chisolm’s “unbought and unbossed” attitude towards the Trump Administration has even sparked her a new-found fan club of supporters, who have proudly coined her as “Auntie Maxine“ and frequently cheer her on like a member of the Marvel “Black Panther” superhero crew to go get’em and fight the good fight against the bad Republicans. But some of the same Democratic Party leaders cheering on “Auntie Maxine” to fight against the good ole boys, have sat as quiet as church mice while Trump and members of the Republican party regularly disrespect the 79-year-old Congresswoman by taking jabs at her IQ and mental stability.
Black women time and time again, we continuously hear of the same stories and have had the same experiences when it comes to the Democratic Party’s treatment of us as voters, candidates, and elected leaders. Where do we go from here? One of my favorite quotes is by the late Maya Angelou “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” The Democratic Party has shown us, black women, many times over who they are and what we mean to them. Why exactly do we continue to support a party that continues to treat us like a partner that is just not that into us? Only willing to entertain and be with us during late nights, behind closed doors, or just as long as we are footing the bill. The reality is the Democratic Party will never fully commit to us, as long as we continue to serve as their metaphorical booty call running to save them during their cries of distress. It is high time for us to “kick rocks,” organize and take our money, our votes, and our matters into our own hands. We should have had ENOUGH my sisters!
