Some people don’t vote because they’re lazy or uninformed.

Some people don’t vote because they have studied the system and believe voting inside that system only gives it legitimacy.

Here’s the stronger version:

People didn’t just wake up one day and decide not to vote. That was built over time.

One side says voting is still power. If you don’t vote, decisions still get made. Judges still get appointed. School boards still decide policy. City councils still control zoning. Commissioners still move money. Police budgets still get approved. And if your community stays home, somebody else’s priorities fill that empty seat.

That side is not wrong.

But the other side says stop acting like voting alone is freedom. Black people have voted for decades and still watched schools fail, neighborhoods decline, banks deny loans, hospitals disappear, wages stay low, and politicians show up every election cycle with the same speeches.

That side is not wrong either.

This is how we ended up here.

One group keeps saying, “Show up and vote.” Another group keeps saying, “We showed up, and what changed?”

That frustration created space for people to influence others not to vote. Some did it out of pain. Some did it out of strategy. Some did it because outrage gets attention online. And some did it because lower turnout benefits somebody.

The truth is, both things can be true.

Voting without organizing is weak. Organizing without political power is limited.

If all we do is vote, we get used. If we don’t vote at all, we get ignored.

The question is not just “should Black people vote?”

The real question is, what are we demanding before, during, and after the vote?

Because the system does not stop when people check out.

It keeps moving. Money keeps moving. Policy keeps moving. Power keeps moving.

And if we are not organized enough to make voting mean something, then the problem is bigger than turnout.

It’s power.

And y’all cool with that?