Once, in my freshman year of college, I had a discussion with my friend about politics. It was a lot of great arguments from him and exasperated head-shaking from me, because "yes -- what you're saying makes sense, but the bigger picture can't work that way." Unfortunately, I am not very good at arguing unless I'm angry, and that's pretty useless, so I wasn't very articulate during his spiel on how socialism doesn't work. I ended up leaving to go to a meeting and found a text in my phone that night that went something along the lines of "this is why I don't like talking about politics with people. I hope you know I'm not one of those republican a**holes that is against Planned Parenthood." I don't know what I responded, but the big red thought in my head was "You vote against it."
I have always been into Civil, Women's and LGBTQ Rights. Being angry about domestic violence and police brutality and hate crime rates against minorities is not an unfamiliar feeling to me. My perspective is a little rosy however, so being white and middle class soothed the immediate threat of anxiety about the society we live in. Well, apparently I'm queer, and being in interracial relationships is not new to me. One of my best friends is trans, and the more people I meet and become close with as we grow, the more my friend group consists of LGBTQ people. The more people I meet and speak with, the more people I know that have been victims of sexual assault. The more I listen and pay attention, the more I understand that I got out of a ticket and my friend didn't because she is darker than me, no matter how "white" or "articulate"[how insulting] she speaks. Racial profiling is a thing.
Discrimination is a thing. Discrimination is a monster. Discrimination is running rampant in American society, bolstered by America's own roots in Manifest Destiny which could be roughly translated into: Jesus chose us because we have clean white skin, so with his grace we can own slaves, kill natives, and steal land from the Mexicans, all while trading our daughters for more land.
The pay gap exists. The education gap exists. Both the glass ceiling and the glass escalator are real phenomena. More of the black population in America is killed or beaten by police than the white population. Lesbian and Gay couples cannot adopt jointly in Florida. Rape Culture exists. People of color statistically do more time than their white counterparts. Poverty exists in America on a large scale. Access to a safe abortion is a constitutional right, yet women are denied abortions in hospitals routinely. Trans people are murdered for using the restroom.
Legislators pass bills all of the time to encourage this violence and discrimination. Legislators pass bills that intentionally limit minority voters from getting to the polls. The Equal Rights Amendment has still not been ratified by enough states (it was passed by Congress and sent to the states in 1972). Standardized testing contributes to the achievement gap. States across the country are voting on "religious freedoms" bills that would allow businesses to reject service to LGBTQ and faith-based adoption agencies with state funding to reject same-sex couples. Legislation has been written to force women to go to pregnancy centers and listen to inaccurate and nonscientific information before being allowed to schedule an abortion procedure. There are numerous ways laws are written to force women away from abortion clinics, or for clinics to shut down outside of the admittance privileges laws struck down in the supreme court decision of Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. Police are rarely ever convicted in criminal cases where they murdered civilians. State representatives refuse to expand Medicaid even though the lack of coverage causes death for those in at risk communities (ie. minorities and the poor). Judges let rapists off on minuscule sentences because of biases against rape and assault victims. Anti-trans bathroom bills are cropping up across the country as well; the United States Justice Department is suing the State of North Carolina over theirs.
When you vote for a representative, or when you spend your money at a certain store with any political stance or that donates to any charity -- you are actively giving your vote and/or money to representatives and the companies that fund them. If you vote for judges or lawmakers that have voted or acted against LGBTQ people, you just voted anti-LGBTQ. If you vote or donate to someone that voted to defund Planned Parenthood, you just voted for women to not have access to birth control (or control over their reproductive functions in general). If you re-elect your state representative after they refuse to expand Medicaid, you just voted against every person that counted on Medicaid to have access to affordable care that will now go without. On a final and even more serious note, if you vote for a presidential (and therefore vice presidential) candidate that has consistently stood against women, LGBTQ, and other minorities, you are voting against me. You cannot be neutral. You cannot vote on the fence. When we consider the social issues that we are voting on, we need to remember that black people are killed because of discrimination by some police, women lose their lives in unsafe abortion procedures, the poor die without access to health care, gay and transsexual people are the targets of brutal hate crimes, victims that are not taken seriously in court may be murdered by their abusers after going through the process.
Put your money (and your vote) where your mouth is. You cannot remain "verbally neutral" while you act a certain way.
