Tag Archives: us presidential election

Registration of black people and young surged after George Floyd murder

From TargetSmart

The entirety of the Trump presidency has been marked by uncertainty and volatility for our country, exponentially more so during the coronavirus pandemic. As we focused our efforts on understanding how a pandemic which has seen people of color impacted more severely than white Americans, the creation of an economic recession, and an inspiring movement for racial justice and equality might impact the November elections, we turned our focus to voter registration and turnout trends.

While we will have a more comprehensive analysis to share soon, I wanted to share some of our initial findings, as I believe they at once demonstrate the challenges that lay ahead of us while providing hope that we can and will prevail.

As we shared in our recent analysis, voter registration slowed immensely in the first several weeks of the pandemic taking hold in our country. Election offices were closed, and in-person voter registration efforts were halted. Our analysis showed that, while those who were registering to vote were slightly more likely to be white, Republican, and older as compared to prior to the pandemic, the overall gaps were minimal and generally no more than a few hundred voters per state.

Following the activism that took place after the murder of George Floyd and demands for justice and equality, along with states gradually re-opening around the country, we took this opportunity to check-in on voter registrations and reflections in the electoral process.

The earliest sign came from Georgia, as the state began allowing voters to cast early ballots in person for their June primary. We found a significant surge in turnout among Black voters, who comprised 35% of early ballots cast before the demonstrations, and 47% after they began. Youth intensity also surged as well, with voters under the age of 30 seeing their early vote share almost double in a day:

Voter registration in Georgia

And all the hard work paid off in driving Trump out of office. But we will need to stay on the street to win justice.

https://blacklivesmatteruk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/trumpthefinger-1.mp4
F**k off Trump

Back to normal? Under President Obama Trayvon Martin was murdered

CNN wants to “finally get back to normal”.

What is normal in the USA?

Sadly, racism is normal and the killing of black people by police has long been normalised.

It was nice having a black man in the White House but nothing changed apart from the personnel.

Real comes up from the street. After the election, the struggle continues.

No illusions in Biden and Harris!

“When Obama was President, I was marching for Trayvon Martin fresh out of college”

https://blacklivesmatteruk.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/getbacktonormal.mp4
Rest in power – Trayvon Martin – killed for being black while eating Skittles on his way home in 2012

Trump loses election but wants to discount black votes

Trump has lost the US election but he wants to go down in flames and take the rest of the USA with him.

In a typically dishonest statement yesterday, in which he claimed ‘corruption’ in Detroit and Atlanta was endemic, his thinly disguised racism was again on display for all to see.

The postal vote is overwhelmingly Democratic and the metro areas being counted are heavily African-American, given the racist residential segregation which is still such a major feature of American life.

On that basis, with Biden now in the lead in Georgia and expected to overtake Trump in Pennsylvania, Trump is finished.

We appreciate that Trump doesn’t want to lose because he knows he will also lose his presidential immunity and could be looking at a prison cell given his clear and present corruption.

Democrats fails to harness the power of the streets at the ballot box

But there is a bigger story about the US election, which was the refusal of the Democrat leadership to focus on harnessing the anger and enthusiasm of the BLM movement, or to articulate and advance policies that will attract working-class people, black and white.

Trump is now planning to unleash his fascist friends against American democracy, such as it is.

The right has been calling for insurrection and violence to stop the count.

Mad man Glen Beck has called for the overthrow of the US government.

Buy peole are taking to the streets again – and again the police are showing whose side they are on. In New York City 25 people were arrested on a peaceful protest and an advocate observer was roughed-up by the forces of racism and disorder.

NYC cops attack peaceful protesters (pic: NYT)

Solidarity with the fight to stop Trump’s election steal

We send our solidarity to our sisters and brothers in the BLM movement in the US and progressive forces beyond that as the y prepare to meet the threat from the deranged christian and fascist right and others among the delusional (and disappointed) MAGA hordes.

But to date, the protests by Trump supporters have been small and violence more at the level of threats and talk than actual action.

But make no mistake, Trump is pushing to block democracy by any means. necessary, and that unfortunately is not confined to unfounded law suits.

Shame of the black rappers in bed with Trump

Finally, how dare Trump and his racist supportes try to stop black peoples’ votes being counted in Detroit and Georgia.

For those black people who were foolish enough to vote for the enemy, hopefully things are a little clearer, although we suspect there’s no telling stupid – yes we are talking about you 50 Cent, Ice Cube and the other rich backers of white supremacist Trump. They let the myth and cult of the entrepreneur cloud their judgement – it is working people, black and white, who make the world go round.

Rappers are not essential workers – especially the ones who have turned their back on the community to assist the architects of the new Jim Crow.