In Support of Green Party Candidates McKinney and Clemente
Posted on VidaAfroLatina.com on November 4, 2008

Borrowing from our sisters over at “Document the Silence” blog (on violence against women of color), I feel the need to quote my Caribbean-American lesbian sister, Audre Lorde: “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” You said a mouthful, Audre.

Former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney, is yet another Black American woman who not only has understood, intuitively and explicitly, but repeatedly— so often virtually fearlessly—has acted upon this deep mantra of social, environmental and self-knowledge--like myself, writer-activist Barbara Smith and many, many others, through our people's spiritual, physical and political evolution, rather than random, superficial “change,” over and over again, daily, cumulatively, over three long centuries in what is now the United States of America . This evolution and regular willingness to take action in spite of fear are just part of the experiences and ethnic-cultural characteristics of Black Americans, and of Black American women in particular, that have been ridiculed, censored and ‘disappeared’ in the course of this 2006-2008 U.S. presidential election cycle.

Martin Luther King affirmed, “We shall overcome.” And yet, noting the endemic sexism toward Black women over three centuries of the Black Liberation Movement that is native to what is now the U.S., as well as in the current presidential selection process, it is entirely possible that Dr. King may have gotten this phrase from someone else. Much like “I have a dream” actually came from the lips and mind of Mississippi native daughter Fannie Lou Hamer.

In addition to being a member of the Black ethnic population of the U.S., Mrs. Hamer was not male, and like most Black Americans, did not have a Ph.D. or any kind of university degree. And yet she was an eloquent, timeless, courageous and an effective leader. Unlike almost all of his Movement Sisters whom I will call the “Movement Women Elders” and the “Movement Young Sistas,” Dr. King is consciously and constantly remembered, enshrined, re-enshrined and re-interpreted, even as hundreds and thousands of incredible Black American women remain obscured and unknown, and too often even ridiculed, derided, discounted, and finally left behind; most often quite deliberately.

In this context, it’s worth noting that this contempt and disrespect which Black American women encounter comes from all around us: from White women and men alike, regardless of nationality, from people coming from other countries and societies, from more than a few Black men, again of varying ethnic and national backgrounds, and, most sadly and most intimately, often from some of our own sister Black women whether of U.S. or other backgrounds.

Some of us know exactly whom I'm talking about. And yet, in spite of the course of election 2008,  this most historic 2008 U.S. Green Party presidential ticket of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, the obscurity, derision and media whiteout will NOT be the enduring characteristic of this campaign, nor of these two sistas and all the people who are choosing to support them at the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 4. (Power to the People 2008— www.runcynthiarun.org.)

This dual candidacy, is not just of two women (which is significant), not only of two women of color, but more precisely and most historically, is of Afrodescendant women of the Americas. It is at least three centuries overdue for Black people of what today is the U.S. and for all Afrodescendants of the Americas.

It is also high time that on Tuesday, Nov. 4, as opposed to an essentially empty promise to “some day” vote for someone like ourselves—(another Black woman in a non-specific, non-existent future)—that seemingly discounted but significant numbers of Black women voters will actively choose to put ourselves first, go to the polls and vote for ourselves.

During the 2008 U.S. presidential election it is time for everyone to vote in favor of our own most deeply held values as opposed to a common “logic” of voting the lesser of various “evils.” For more and more of us, our values—no matter how much money a candidate raises or how he smiles and speaks in chosen tones—do not include either so-called clean coal (i.e., mountaintop decapitation/removal) or nuclear power (i.e., uranium mining, uranium tailings, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, massive amounts of lethal, radioactive nuclear waste, groundwater contamination, radiation—including contamination of the Navajo Nation and other Indigenous communities, and uranium miners suffering from uranium-induced cancer). A statement about needing to exploit coal and nuclear power was made by the 2008 Democratic candidate.

In 2008, simply by choosing to work together, Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente and the U.S. Green Party have modeled for us all that not only is it better, it’s now “imperative,” to quote Rosa, for us to run for office, participate in society, to vote, and also to speak.

Marian Douglas-Ungaro is a Washington, D.C.-based communications expert. She blogs at http://marian.typepad.com/.