Six Reasons Why Black People Must Vote!

I have organized Black voters in the South for over thirty years. The question I get asked most (in barbershops, church basements, on porches, in the DMs) is the same one, in different words, every time. Why should Black folks even vote?

I understand the frustration. It is valid. We have felt betrayed by a system that has not protected us from mass firings, attacks on civil rights, and the unraveling of so much we fought for. The disillusionment is earned. But do not let anyone tell you both parties are the same. They are not. That false equivalency is the lie powerful interests need us to believe, because they are counting on our cynicism. Unchallenged power is the easiest kind to wield. So know what time it is. This moment is not about the candidates or the parties. It is about whether we will use voting for what it actually is: a tool of resistance.

Here are six reasons we must vote. Take them with you.

Related: Supreme Court Hands Down Ruling in Closely Watched Mail-In Voting Battle

1. A non-vote is a vote—just for the other side

This is the math nobody wants to talk about. When you do not vote, you do not stay neutral. You amplify the weight of every vote cast against your interests. The people working to harm our communities are voting in every election, at every level, without fail. Your silence is not absence. Your silence is a contribution to their power. Sit out an election and you have not abstained. You have endorsed.

2. We are at war. You use every tool.

Our fore-parents knew this. They risked their lives for the right to vote because they understood what the people in power understood: the vote is a weapon. We are at war. The Voting Rights Act has been gutted. Our history is being erased from classrooms.

Our representation is being diluted in real time. When a community is at war, you do not put down weapons. You pick up every one you have. By any means necessary means by every means available.

3. Voting is not about participation. It is about power.

This system trained us to think voting is civic duty. A box you check. A lever you pull. That is the lie that keeps us small. Every aspect of our lives (schools, housing, policing, healthcare, jobs) is governed by policy made by elected officials. When we do not vote, we leave our power on the table for someone else to use against us.

4. Voting disrupts the people trying to consolidate power against us.

They are not afraid of us because we are Black. They are afraid of what happens when Black people leverage our collective power. That is why they close polling places, draw maps to dilute us, and spend hundreds of millions convincing us that voting does not matter.

When we vote in numbers, we slow them down. We force them to negotiate with us instead of running over us.

5. Voting leverages our collective power and voice.

Mighty rivers are filled drop by drop. Every single vote is one of those drops, and together our votes become one of the loudest voices in American politics. No other group in this country votes as unified as we do. That collective voice has shaped policy, flipped elections, and forced power to come to the table.

When we vote together, we leverage everything we are. Our history. Our pain. Our genius. Our refusal to disappear. The people counting on us to forget how much weight we carry are about to be reminded.

6. Voting shapes the next 250 years.

If we are going to be the founders and architects of the next era of this country, we cannot stay passive participants. Voting shapes the future by what leaders we select and what reforms we fight for. It is a vehicle for self-governance, and self-governance is what the next chapter of this country will require of us.

The political reality we live in was shaped by the people who showed up. The next one will be shaped by the people who show up next. In November, they will know.

The Bottom Line

This series, The Resistance Vote, is built on two words. Block and build. Block the harm. Build the nation we deserve. The vote is one of the tools we block with. It is also one of the tools we build with. Use it like it matters. Because it does.

If you missed Read One, They Gutted the VRA. Now We Block., that is the rapid-response companion to this piece. Read it. Share it. Show up.

And come find me on Substack. The long-form versions of these arguments live at Spirit, Song & Soul: Elevated Strategies for Building the America We Desire and Deserve. Subscribe. Bring a friend.

We are the architects now. Pick up the tools.

LaTosha Brown is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund and the founder of the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium. Follow her on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok at @MsLaToshaBrown.