By Antjuan Seawright, Columnist
While watching the Grammys, I witnessed the modern-day hip-hop philosopher Jay-Z from the People’s Republic of Brooklyn accept The Dr. Dre Global Impact Award. Instead of giving the stereotypical thank you speech, he took a moment to issue a subliminal clarion call to everyone watching at home.
“You got to keep showing up…just keep showing up. Forget the Grammys. You have to keep showing up until they give you all those accolades you feel you deserve until they call you chairman, and they call you a genius until they call you the greatest of all time.”
Furthermore, while Jay-Z’s remarks can be interpreted in countless ways, applying to everything from business and the arts to marriage and parenthood—it rings true in every context.
When it comes to civic engagement and our continued participation, we have to keep showing up at the ballot box—in every election, to make sure our voices are heard because showing up to vote is the only thing that keeps us moving forward as a nation and a people.
It doesn’t just mean a lot. It means everything.
“You got to keep showing up.”
For the record, I’m not pretending everything is sunshine and rainbows out here for everyone. Working families and Black folks, in particular, face real challenges with real consequences every single day, and anyone who tells you differently is trying to sell you something. Those challenges existed before Joe Biden became president.
We’re facing real challenges, and our reactions to those challenges are often summed up as our experiences. Some of us are frustrated. Some of us are angry. Some of us are confused, and some don’t care at all. But facing those challenges, however daunting they may be, isn’t a reason to stop showing up because they cannot be fixed in one or even a few election victories.
The question, “What did our vote get us?” is often asked. But let’s not pretend our votes don’t matter. Let’s not pretend our voices and advocacy have not permanently moved the needle for our community—because these are the only things that have.
Let’s not forget 12 million Black Americans showing up to vote in 1964 helped shape that generation and our entire nation for generations to come. Since then, we’ve had even more proof of our advocacy’s net worth and vote.
For example, because we showed up for President Biden, Vice President Harris and Democrats in 2020, more Black Americans have health insurance than ever. Black folks voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and today Black unemployment is at a 50-year low. The racial wealth gap is at its lowest point in 20 years and Black entrepreneurship is at its highest rate in more than half a century.
Because we showed up for President Biden, Vice President Harris and Democrats in 2020, $130 billion in student loans have been forgiven for 3.7 million Americans—with 50,000 eligible people seeing their student loans forgiven every two months. President Biden, Vice President Harris and Democrats are making historic investments to fight the climate crisis and establish environmental justice for all. President Biden, Vice President Harris and Democrats have prioritized affordable housing with the Housing Supply Action Plan to reduce cost and increase availability across the nation. President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats have invested $65 billion to provide affordable high-speed internet to families everywhere, so kids don’t have to sit in the McDonald’s parking lot to do their homework because the WiFi is free.
Remember the $1,400 check your family received during the pandemic? That was the Biden-Harris Administration—no matter what the MAGA bots say on social media. Democrats have capped the cost insulin and lowered the cost of prescription drugs across America, invested $15 billion to replace lead water pipes in cities like Flint, Michigan, delivered historic $7 billion in funding to our HBCUs, appointed more Black women to the federal appeals court than any other president and these are just a few receipts.
By executive order President Biden banned chokeholds and “no knock” warrants from federal law enforcement, signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act and launched a national database to track law enforcement misconduct. So don’t tell me or let anyone tell you, our Black votes don’t matter.
But we have to keep showing up.
I get it. We’re not where we want to be. But we’re not where we were either. We’ve made progress because we’ve been relentless in voting for our interests and against those who have no interest in our interests.
We must keep showing up because what happens if we don’t follow Jay-Z’s advice? We lose it all. We lose our health insurance when extremist Republicans repeal Obamacare and bring back pre-existing conditions. We lost our footing on voting rights when the MAGA mission to dismantle the Voting Rights Act came true, and they are making it even harder to cast our ballot. We lose our lives when they roll back the progress we’ve made on justice reform. Their efforts to stop a justice department from going after police departments that target us, like in Mount Vernon, Louisville, Phoenix, and Minneapolis, will come true.
Republicans voted to block the child tax credit expansion that cut child poverty in half and fought against the infrastructure plan that’s created countless jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges. The GOP’s activist court struck down student debt relief, gutted affirmative action in education, and took away a woman’s reproductive freedoms. What do you think they’d do if they took the White House? In one election, this progress and so much more can and will be taken away. We know this because they have said the quiet part out loud.
I understand being frustrated. I understand being confused. I understand being angry or worse. But the answer isn’t to stop pushing America to be a more perfect union. But don’t just take my word for it, remember the late, great Joe Madison because when The Black Eagle heard people bringing all the complaints and none of the solutions, he always asked the same question, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”
The simple fact is, bad policies pushed by bad politicians are a direct result of good voters who don’t show up election after election. That’s what happens when we don’t protect our interests with the strongest weapon we have – the vote. That’s what happens when we don’t show up and if we don’t show up this election, we stand to lose all the progress we’ve made.
Joe Madison asked the question and Jay-Z gave us the answer.
What are you going to do about it? We’ve got to keep showing up.
Antjuan Seawright (@antjuansea) is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC, a CBS News political contributor, and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way.
