ROUNDUP WEEK 22 – OCTOBER 30, 2020
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Hi friends,
Two scary days coming up: Halloween and Election Day! To process both, we’ll be holding an open-ended Zoom conversation this Sunday night, 7PM EST / 5PM MDT. No formal questions, no formal topic; we just want to create a space pre-election to talk through some of our fears, hopes, action plans (regardless of the outcome), and other lingering anxieties or thoughts we may want to discuss. ZOOM MEETING HERE
Meeting ID: 876 0323 8781
Passcode: ELECTION
OUR WEEKEND READS
- A Campaign of Voter Subtraction – Dr. Ibram X. Kendi investigates the ways that Trump supporters subtract and suppress votes from the total numbers in order to get their desired outcome. This piece is a heavily investigated, hardline explanation of all of the acts of voter suppression that have accompanied voter suppression efforts we’ve seen thus far in this election and those before.
- America Is About to Choose How Bad the Virus Will Get – Ed Yong talks about the risk of Trump’s reelection to our national pandemic response.
- The Appeal: New Tool to Explore Criminal Justice on the Ballot – a helpful tool for tracking crucial racial justice outcomes by tracking some of the biggest prosecutor, judge, and sheriff elections next week, particularly those that’ll have massive impacts on the future of criminal punishment policy.
- Police union used photo of Black toddler in Philadelphia unrest as ‘propaganda,’ lawyers say – how a police union exploited a photo of a toddler that they took moments before an officer assaulted his mother
- Working Educators’ Statement on Walter Wallace – a list of resources in support of protestors in Philly who are protesting the murder of Walter Wallace Jr., a Black man having an episode related to his mental illness who was shot by the police earlier this week. With that, we remind our readers of this powerful explanation of how we can reduce our reliance on policing and increase funding for crisis intervention alternatives to keep all of our community members safer.
Finally, some words from Stacey Abrames on the SmartLess podcast this week (per usual, shouts to the Whelmednewsletter + Bridget Gamble for sharing this quote with us):
“[Voter suppression] can be a U.S. Supreme Court telling you that you have to go and vote in the middle of a pandemic if you live in Wisconsin or Texas or Alabama. Voter suppression is when there is an attempt made to throttle your ability to vote. Most voter suppression activities have been perpetrated by Republicans because they find themselves on the losing end of an expansion of who can participate in our democracy. Typically the strongest predictor of political leanings is race, which means that whether they think they’re racist or not, most of the voter suppression actions are targeted at people of color because we are the most likely to vote Democratic. Their second favorite target is students. … The architecture of voter suppression is the same no matter where you live: Do they make it hard for you to register and stay on the rolls? Do they make it hard for you to cast a ballot, meaning, do they make it hard for you to get an absentee ballot or get to a polling place? Third, does your ballot count?”
Some last minute plugs for you as we head into our last weekend before the election:
- Phonebank for your favorite candidates: Swing Left, Indivisible, & Grassroot Dems are a great place to start your search.
- Sign up to be a poll observer. Don’t want to volunteer in a formal capacity? Make sure to plug in 866-OUR-VOTE into your phone in case you see issues at the polls. (Biden Campaign, League of Women Voters Toolkit)
- Go to BallotReady.org and pull up your ballot. Research 5 positions on your ballot that you hadn’t heard of before.
- Sign up to volunteer with the Election Protection Hotline if you’ve already voted, your neighbors/family members/other people you could give a ride to the polls have already voted, and are free all day on election day.
- DONATE to grassroots causes who will be most affected by the outcome of this election (stay tuned – we will feature some Monday’s newsletter!)
We made some graphics over on Instagram with more ways to gear up for election support this year. Go check them out and share them!
Remember to be culturally considerate if you are dressing up for Halloween tomorrow! If you have to justify why your costume “isn’t racist,” maybe that’s a sign you shouldn’t wear it.
Okay friends, see you Sunday with zero agenda and all the space you need to process the week ahead. Until then, we’re blaring Arianda Grande, Sam Smith, and Busta Rhymes’ new albums (it’s called self care? Okay?) and also this playlist of protest songs as we ride to the polls (it doesn’t include Emily’s favorite from 2015 and beyond, FDT Pt. 2, but that’s probably for the best).
We love you! We’re cheering for you! We can’t wait to see your Halloween costumes for your Zoom Halloween parties and socially distanced trick-or-treating!
In Solidarity,
Ellie, Emily, and Hayden
PS – remember Emily’s friend “R” in our newsletter Monday? She posted a more in depth instagram post about her voting experience, if you are interested in watching her talk about it.
