Quote:
Originally Posted by BraveMaroon
In all seriousness, there's a huge "get out the vote" effort in my neighborhood, which happens to be predominantly African-American - and most of my neighbors are senior citizens. So yeah, the local churches always come around asking if we need a ride to the polls on election day - but it has never come with the condition that we had to vote for someone specific once we got there.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by knight_shadow
@ the bold - This is what I've seen, too. It seems like amanda6035 may be referring to The ObamaBus or something going around picking up voters, but I've never seen something like that.
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Churches have always been active in Black communities to get people out there. That is supposed to be neutral and in contrast to when Democrats and Republicans are the sponsors for these voting trips.
Howeverrrrrrrr, churches doing this is not always neutral. The Black Church is predominantly comprised of Democrats to the point where Black Republicans and Black Independents like myself are ostracized in a discussion of politics. I have heard Black pastors talk about politics (specifically supporting candidates and political parties) at the pulpit and the average predominantly Black gathering consists of people who do not want to meet Blacks who are not Democrats. Also, church members sometimes wear Democrat t-shirts (like those hideous Obama t-shirts that Black folks were wearing and NPHCers got for their respective orgs), etc. All of this is done with the assumption that the Blacks who are being brought to the polling stations are Democrats who will be voting Democrat--or, they are Blacks who can be "persuaded to vote Democrat."
Examples of things that happen:
Busing students to vote
I am still in favor of organizations getting citizens active in the voting process. It is impossible for humans to be completely impartial and neutral. I simply want people to see these biases and find ways to address these biases.
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