Don't Tread On Me: Maintaining Voting Etiquette

Don't Tread On Me: Maintaining Voting Etiquette


I'd like to tell you that my voting experience was pristine and symbolic and deeply spiritual but fellow African American people showed up and showed out.

I arrived at my polling place which is literally down the street from me at about 5:56. I was all excited about possibly being one of the first to vote but was brought back to down to Earth when I looked at the outstretched line of roughly 18 or 20 people, all African-American to my surprise or rather I shouldn't have been. We'd be fools to believe that a big part of this election is not due to racially motivated reasons. Radical Republicans voting to regain some unwarranted notion of racial supremacy and frustrated African-American voters seeking to counteract those bigoted attitudes. For this election outside of middle class and women's rights there seems to be this urgency from the black community to keep our sense of identity. With this in mind I was proud to see that vision of an all black voting line. The warm fuzzies pretty much end there.....

First off, I'm not a morning person. Ask anyone who knows me since birth through adulthood I have not been accustomed to early rising. Add that to the fact that I hadn't brushed my teeth or barely washed my body and face thrown on some sweats and crudely thrown on a headscarf, I was not in the mood for discussion but when in the communal presence of those of my mutual race you tend to have to participate in some form of communication. I tried to answer "yes" and give an amicable head nod to signal agreement but some of the people in the crowd, in true "black rage" fashion, started to get loud in the crowd when they found the line not moving to their pace. And almost verbally berating a voting official that, though inefficiently, was just trying to do her job. Then once I happened to mention I blog from time to time and was seen taking pictures of some of the voters and the precinct area the lady behind me all of a sudden wanted to ask a million questions and then tried to vicariously sate her journalistic lust by poking and shaking me every time something in the voting area happened. She keep saying, "Ooo did you get a picture of that?!" or "Hey why aren't you writing all this down?" And I'm just in line thinking, "maybe if I blow my breath on her she'll leave me alone?"

All jokes aside seriously people, please try to keep some tact when heading out to the polls this evening. By all means speak out in the face of injustice but not every official is out to suppress your vote. Stay vigilant and be respectful because we are out making history. A lot of people in America think voting is unnecessary and that a secret panel of people have already decided the choice. It's your right to believe that but for me voting is symbolic that we as a people remember what it means to rally together to stand for a cause. That if we ever needed to again that innate function would come out and have us pull together once more. Voting is a right that many people fought and died to gain so please...whether you are an extreme conspiracy theorist or a weird space invader hovering too close to my hind quarters...please don't tread on me.

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