Opinion
Trayvon Martin murder should spur African Americans to vote
African American voters. PHOTO/File
For more than two weeks, tens of thousands of African-Americans have been marching on public streets to demand justice for Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Miami Gardens teen killed by Sanford resident and overzealous neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.
The marches have taken place from Los Angeles to Manhattan and from to St. Petersburg to Bayfront Park in Miami. They’ve included high school students, housewives, and professional activists. Yet when it comes time to march to the polls on Election Day, African-Americans are nowhere to be found.
We can’t continue taking to the streets to cry about our civil rights being violated when we are not exercising our right to vote. That’s the real injustice. By not voting, African-Americans end up with leaders who don’t respect them as constituents.
So you have elected officials, whether it’s the state attorney, the mayor, or the governor, who cater to the segment of the population that voted for them. Rick Scott is in office today because his Tea Party supporters made sure to cast their ballots, while African-Americans stayed home. That’s why black folks on welfare can’t bitch about Scott fulfilling his campaign promise to drug-test them.
