"We mean that you [African Americans] need to vote, or you need to come to the realization that your child may soon need to wear a vest just to be safe in their own community."

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Controversial Ad Tells Voters Head to the Polls or Buy Your Kid a Bulletproof Vest
By Britni Danielle, October 31, 2014

With just days until the next election, campaigns across the country are looking for ways to get supporters to the ballot box. According to most pollsters, Republicans are projected to win the Senate, giving them control over two-thirds of the federal government. But with many races still within the margin of error, plenty of Democrats are looking to African American voters to help them hold onto their jobs.

The battleground states are primarily in the South, where Democrats are looking for victories in Georgia and Florida and hope to fend off GOP challengers in North Carolina. Activists in all three states have been working hard to register new voters and remind people to go to the polls. Most groups have taken a traditional approach, going door-to-door. But in Florida, the Dream Defenders, an activist group led by black and brown youths who are out to “confront systemic inequality by building our collective power,” has taken a more radical tack.

In early October, the organization kicked off the #VestOrVote campaign, which provocatively informs voters that on Nov. 4 they have the power to elect leaders who won’t vote in favor of Stand Your Ground laws or support questionable law enforcement tactics that negatively impact the well-being of people of color.

The group launched the powerful initiative by releasing a video PSA and placing a billboard near Florida’s state capital building in Tallahassee that advertises bulletproof vests for black children. The campaign is inspired by Malcolm X’s 1964 speech “The Ballot or the Bullet,” in which he implores black Americans to “wake up” and demand freedom. Dream Defenders political director Ciara Taylor says #VestOrVote is meant to ruffle feathers.

“What we’re trying to do, and I think that we’ve done, is spark conversation around the importance of voting and how it directly correlates to our everyday lives,” Taylor said.

In other parts of the South, other organizations are invoking the death of Trayvon Martin and the recent events in Ferguson, Mo., to get black folks to the polls. A flier in Louisiana, where Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu is trying to hold onto her seat, reads, “Ferguson has taught us that when African Americans do not vote, local police departments are not accountable to our community.” In Arkansas, supporters of Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor sent mailers declaring, “Enough! Republicans are targeting our kids, silencing our voices and even trying to impeach our president.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s political action committee also released advertisements in North Carolina accusing a Republican Senate candidate of supporting laws that “caused the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.”

Efforts to inspire African Americans to get to the polls have the potential to dramatically alter the nation’s legislative landscape. In June, former NAACP president Ben Jealous authored a report for the Center for American Progress that examined how registering voters of color could change the political complexion of Southern states, which he calls the “Black Belt.”

“Registering just 30 percent of eligible unregistered black voters or other voters of color could shift the political calculus in a number of Black Belt states, helping blacks elect candidates who share their concerns or alternatively, forcing all candidates to pay attention to the community’s concerns,” wrote Jealous. “Registering 60 percent or 90 percent would change the political calculus in an even greater number of states.”

Jealous was at the helm of one of the largest door-to-door voter registration efforts in the nation in 2012. Over the past few months, many organizers have been inspired by Jealous’ report—and by recent events in Ferguson—to take action. In Georgia, the nonpartisan New Georgia Project aimed to sign up a chunk of the state’s 700,000 unregistered African American voters. In September, the group said they had registered more than 100,000 voters, but they subsequently accused Georgia Republicans of causing approximately half of new voters to disappear from the rolls.

Whether or not the efforts of the Dream Defenders and other organizations are successful remains to be seen. If African Americans do flood the polls and help Democrats hold the Senate, then what? If history is any indication, not much will change.

“Democrats take black voters for granted,” Dorian Warren, a political science professor at Columbia University, said this week on MSNBC. Warren explained that every four years politicians pander to black voters because they know the GOP’s policies are unattractive. Once Election Day is over, those politicians forget about the many African Americans who helped put them in office. This is how elected officials on both sides of the political spectrum are able to endorse laws such as Stand Your Ground and remain in power. It’s also one reason white men continue to be overrepresented in politics when the population of America is far more diverse.

As America becomes more diverse, both parties will have to work harder to stay relevant by addressing the concerns of voters of color. So far, Democrats seem to have successfully tapped into this segment, with 93 percent of blacks, 71 percent of Hispanics, and 73 percent of Asian Americans voting for President Obama in 2012. But if Republicans can find a bigger tent, champion policies that are more progressive, and stop pushing racially insensitive narratives, they may have a chance to appeal to voters of color who feel like they only matter to Democrats come election time.

In the meantime, although some critics have called the tactics of Dream Defenders and other organizations that are focused on driving African American voter turnout by connecting voting to preventing tragic murders “race-baiting,” Taylor says her group’s message is not just hyperbole.

“When we say #VestOrVote, we mean it,” she explains. “We mean that you need to vote, or you need to come to the realization that your child may soon need to wear a vest just to be safe in their own community.”
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