YOUR VOICE, YOUR VOTE, YOUR FUTURE
Our current health crisis has highlighted the racial inequities plaguing our country. As we see the pandemic claim a disproportionate number of black and brown lives, it becomes imperative that these voices are represented in policy-making. Your voice, your vote is more important than ever.
The United States has a long history of voter suppression. People of color overcame significant challenges in order to exercise their right to vote, yet systemic issues continue to impact our democracy and disenfranchise marginalized groups. Without a political voice, voters of color cannot advocate for policies to achieve health equity.
With 2020 being a significant election year, we must recognize the barriers to voting that many people still face and work to eliminate those barriers, so that our representatives and laws reflect our increasingly diverse country and help ensure full access and engagement for marginalized communities
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STAND AGAINST RACISM PLEDGE
YWCA is proud to partner with Greater Cincinnati Voter Collaborative to help engage voters and protect everyone’s right to vote. Check out their website, share information and posts on social media and sign up to volunteer.
LEARN ABOUT U.S. VOTING RIGHTS
Watch this video that explains that, while race and racism have a real and significant impact on our lives, race is a social construct and one that has changed over time. None of the broad categories that come to mind when we talk about race can capture an individual’s unique story.
Learn how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated two mutually reinforcing crises – political disenfranchisement and racial health disparities.
Read this article about the African American suffragists who fought for the right to vote, while fighting racist backlash from the movement’s white leadership, many of whom did not believe that any black person should have the right to vote before white women.
Watch this video that re-frames the way we look at the suffrage movement and encourages us to do more to honor and remember the black women who bravely fought for universal suffrage.
View this interactive timeline of the history of the Voting Rights Act and see how access to the vote has been expanded and restricted over time.
Read this article and see how the fight for universal suffrage began and how modern voter suppression tactics continue to deny the vote to people of color.
150 years after the 15th Amendment was passed, barriers to voting remain. Learn about how social media, gerrymandering, access to polling places and other strategies have all been used to limit access to the ballot box.
Watch this video about the difference between being non-racist and anti-racist.
WE STAND AGAINST RACISM!
