As someone who is a huge fan of the NBA, I’ve been highly in touch with the way the NBA has reacted to and taken a part in the growing support for the Black Lives Matter Movement over this summer. While both the league and players have expressed countless times how disappointed and angry they are with the state of the nation, there seems to be one common “solution” being promoted: Voting. People like Lebron James have been particularly outspoken, creating a voting rights group and notably wearing a shirt reading “Vote or Die” just this week. Perhaps an even larger embodiment of this focus on voting was that a key bargaining piece in the negotiations for the players to end their recent three-day strike, which came in the middle of the playoffs, was to have NBA stadiums converted in polling sites (and it is fair to assume that those stadiums reside in predominantly black urban areas).
At first to me, this focus on voting seemed like a rather passive way to bring about social justice. Why was there not more focus being put on getting into the streets in protest (be it peaceful or not entirely so)? Was this course of action forced on the players by a more conservative league ownership? To answer these questions, I found it very helpful to reflect on Martin Luther King’s 1967 “Black Power Defined”. In that text, King points to the black vote, when fully participated in by the black population, as a form of Black Power. On the surface, voting seems to be a much slower and much more conservative form of Black Power than the breed supported by the likes of Malcolm X and The Panthers. However, while choosing to live out Black Power through voting as MLK advised might not be very appealing to those who want immediate change, I do believe that it is often the wisest choice in the long run. As was discussed in class on Wednesday, it seems that history idolizes and remembers the most uncontroversial parts of the Civil Rights movement. It is the nonviolent protests spearheaded by MLK that are best remembered, not the impassioned calls to fight back against white oppressors made by Malcolm X. As a result, I would argue that MLK set a framework for how we ought to most effectively stand up for social justice, an example that lives on in the countless protests of today. Perhaps, albeit on a much smaller scale, sticking to a focus on voting will make the message of the NBA more powerful in the long run.
Despite seeming more conservative, I believe that voting is not only a true form of power but also one that society will admire. This country has always prided itself upon democracy, placing a great reverence on using the individual vote to produce desired changes in society. If black voters could mobilize en masse to get high voter turnout, I feel that they could exhibit Black Power in a way that could earn the admiration of huge swaths of society, winning over people who previously may not have supported the Black Lives Matter cause.
I agree with you that voting has an incredible power behind it. This is something that I only more recently realized. I have a lot of frustrations with our system and often times I’m unsatisfied with political candidates, however, using my voice to better things goes a long way. Voting is one of the few means I have to change what happens. I’m curious as to how the civil rights movement thought about voting back in 1968. Given that black people were often prevented or discouraged from voting, did they hold different views on the process than civil rights communities today? Also, though I’m committed to vote, I wonder how much good voting does when it takes place within a corrupt or faulty system. It often seems like regardless of what people think, the money is the only thing that really makes change.
I strongly agree with the comment you made about mobilizing black voters to exercise their power to vote could sway people into supporting the Black Lives Matter cause. As MLK states in the “Black Power Defined” text, a “major area of untapped power for the Negro is the political arena”. Forcing Presidential candidates to be accountable for their role in the Black Lives Matter movement is crucial for the progression of the movement and for racial equality. Donald Trump has called the Black Lives Matter movement a “symbol of hate” showing a complete lack of support for the end of racism in America. However, it is not only up to black voters to use their political power to end racism, it is up to every voter in America to use their power to fight against racism.