a vignette of the other america

I tremble from the feeling American politics gives me. I am one with it, under it, wanting to disregard it. It's a lot. It has me without words. But it always brings me back to writing. To foster this feeling into a voice that makes the unheard known.

Talking about politics can come with the replies of "I don't want to get political," to which we feel like we don't have a place to talk. This is because not wanting to get political is just telling of how people are in a position of privilege because they are not politicized to the depths of other people, and are indifferent to the fact that others are.

It is not enough that more BIPoC are being included or are the ones holding positions of power. That is different from being heard, which is confirmed by our Black South Asian American woman as VP who also does not have de facto civil and political rights. This has also been everywhere when it comes to who can really vote. How it takes hours to vote, restrictions for when and where you can vote, and more are preventing millions of BIPoC from voting. This is why I say de facto. Because while our civil and political liberties are written into laws, the United States is based on judicial precedent and interpretation of the law which has done a whole lot to be against BIPoC and womxn.

I come here to write that our voices are not scarier than what is being done to us. Voicing this is different from directing it towards everyone. However, white power upholds all white people, whether or not you are upholding white power. We protest and you don't hear us. We don't protest and you won't hear us. Is it how we are saying it or is it really our point that will make you look at who you are voting for more deeply?