Your Vote Your Voice

Paula Thornton Greear
Paula Thornton Greear

Your Vote Your Voice

By Safiyyah P. Muhammad

As the November 8th presidential election draws near, the Chicago Citizen Newspaper Group Inc. recently sat down with Paula Thornton Greear, senior vice president of external affairs at the Chicago Urban League to discuss the upcoming election, voting and the issues that matter most to blacks.

CCNG: While I understand the Chicago Urban League has a nonpartisan position towards the election, how would you characterize the upcoming election?

PTG: I think it’s one that has been predicated on a negative tenor with the discourse. Unfortunately, I also think that this has been an election where it’s been hard to delineate where candidates stand on socio-economic issues. These issues have an importance to people around the country. Again, I think it has been an unprecedented election that has been largely focused and brought to light by the (already) existing systemic, racial issues that we face in our country.

CCNG: What issues in this election do you see being most important to blacks?

PTG: As in past elections, I think that issues important to the African- American community include employment or the lack thereof, health care and certainly, issues around our criminal justice system. (Another troubling issue) is the unfortunate narrative that we find ourselves in and the unfortunate realities where many young black men and women are being killed around the country. So I think those are major issues. Certainly underlying all of that is poverty. A lot of these issues stem from the disproportionate level of poverty that African-Americans face in this country.

CCNG: Have the candidates addressed those issues satisfactorily?

PTG: No. I don’t believe so. In looking back at the debates and looking

back at the town hall (meetings), again, the negative tenor of the discourse that is taking place seemed to have overshadowed any dialog that has been tied to race and violence in this country. So, there’s not been, I think the level of attention needed during this election cycle to make a decision. These are issues that are very important, not only to the African-American community, but to our country as a whole, and again due to the negative tenor of discourse that we’ve seen in this election cycle, it’s been hard for people to understand what plans the candidates have around these issues.

CCNG: How do you think this election will shape America in terms of who wins?

PTG: Well, you know, it’s very interesting, because every time when there is a national election, people tend to say, ‘”this is the most important (presidential) election in history” and I would argue that they all are. This is particularly important, because this election is a reflection of not only where we’ve been, but where we want to go as African-Americans, and as citizens of the United States. I think that we’re going to have to have a real conversation, a very difficult conversation (from a) local, regional and national level about the racial history in this country.

CCNG: Why should a person feel like their vote matters?

PTG: It’s so important that everybody get out and vote. Again, to the negative tenor of discourse in this election, I think it has disenfranchised a lot of people. There are people who feel that their vote won’t count or feel like they are not specifically tied to one candidate. Our ancestors have fought long and hard for us to have the right to vote. So it is very important not to throw that vote away. We have enough happening right now where African-American voters in many parts of this country are faced with an attempt to suppress their vote. This is happening now. We recently saw something for example in Indiana, where I think 45,000 registered voters may not be allowed to vote. Voter suppression is a real thing. The fact that so many people gave their lives; they put themselves in jeopardy so that we can have the right to vote. This is our voice and we have

got to raise our voices, both individually and collectively. It does makes a Difference, and it is not just only in terms of (one) voting day. It is important that you register to vote. It is important that you get out to vote, but it also important that we sustain this push; that we hold our elected officials accountable after they win.

CCNG: Because of the homicides that we see that continue to grow in the inner cities, do you think that the president-elect should revisit gun laws to perhaps curb the sale and distribution of crime guns?

PTG: I do. Gun violence is a huge issue in this country and I think that the president-elect needs to look at common sense gun laws that will potentially lessen the prevalence of guns in communities. This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment, where people having the right to bear arms; but we’ve really got to take a look at this for example, in the City of Chicago, the sheer number of guns that are trafficked into this city. Common sense gun laws are going to be critical for the next president-elect to deal with when they are in office.

CCNG: What do you think about Donald Trump’s statements in terms of his unwillingness to accept the results of the election?

PTG: It certainly was an interesting statement and I certainly won’t try to figure out why he made that statement. What I will say is that the election is critical, and what we’ve seen over the past eight years with respect to the instruction that is taking place in D.C. with the current President trying to move some things forward. Particularly, the candidates have a responsibility to pull our nation together, because this has been a very divisive campaign. Once the country has made a decision about who will take that office, the person who becomes the next president of the United States has a moral and ethical responsibility to work toward uniting the country.

CCNG: Police misconduct is a growing concern across the country, particularly in urban areas like Chicago. What type of accountability needs to be put in place from a national level to bring down the number of unarmed youth, who are dying at the hands of police and how should the new president show concern regarding police misconduct?

PTG: I think whoever is elected into this office needs to make the issue of violence a top priority. I think that certainly violence stems from a number of different areas. Certainly, we’ve seen time and time again, that we are losing young black men and black women at the hands of law enforcement and I want to be clear that it’s not all law enforcement. Certainly, I believe that the majority of law enforcement around the country are doing the job that they were sworn in to do--to serve and protect, but very clearly we have a crisis that needs to be addressed. I think that the person elected into this office has to locally address these issues and put them forth. These issues aren’t elevated conversations, nor do they have an elevated direction about what needs to done in order to right this crisis if you will. I think that the person who takes the office should continue this conversation and (create) action around reducing poverty in this country because violence is a symptom of poverty. We have not adequately addressed the issue of poverty in this country.

CCNG: Jobs and unemployment are high in our communities as compared to other communities. Do you think that the new president-elect will deal with the issue of unemployment by providing job opportunities and programs for blacks?

PTG: I would hope so. I think the president elect has to deal with the issue of unemployment and underemployment. Again, I think it is going to take the power of all of our voices to ensure that we hold all of our elected officials--from the presidential level and at the local level accountable for addressing these issues that they said they understand are important to the people that they serve.

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