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As candidates make final attempts to win over voters before polls close Tuesday night, some Black students at Syracuse University expressed frustration with the voting process. 

Representatives and leaders of various campus multicultural organizations told The Daily Orange that, while they believe voting is an important step toward progress, they remain skeptical that voting alone will change systemic issues. Some also said they have grown tired of politicians’ tactics to win over Black voters.

Yasmine Goring, president of the Student African-American Society, said it is especially frustrating when politicians make false promises to gain popularity among Black voters. She has taken words from incumbent President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden with a grain of salt, she said.

Goring also criticized what she sees as inauthentic attempts by two white presidential candidates to appeal to Black voters. She recalled Biden saying, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”

She also recalled how Trump set up meetings with Black celebrities, such as Ice Cube and Lil Wayne, to earn their endorsements. 

“This can be especially frustrating as the push to vote is oftentimes emphasized to oppressed people,” Goring said. “(Politicians) understand the power of the Black vote.”

Hillary Clinton’s Electoral College defeat in 2016 — despite winning the popular vote —  has left some voters from underrepresented groups skeptical of the election process and feeling as if their vote doesn’t matter, said Osatohanmwen Onaghinor, president of SU’s chapter of the NAACP. 

Voting concerns among Black people often run deeper than Trump or Biden or the outcome of the 2016 election, though, Onaghinor said. Their concerns center on politicians who either deny that systemic inequality exists or are slow to promote policy that addresses it. 

In local elections, voters have an opportunity to directly affect their communities in terms of poverty, housing and crime — and they need people who look like them in positions of power, said Brandon Hollie, external community outreach chair of Syracuse’s Black Graduate Student Association. 

“It is hard to understand the struggles of the oppressed without having been through it,” Hollie said.

Onaghinor said local elections, in some ways, are more important than national ones for Black voters. Although it can be difficult to become familiar with local candidates and their platforms, doing so allows voters to elect people who will have a direct impact on their communities, she said. 

But while elections are important, especially for individuals from marginalized backgrounds, they aren’t the only way to create change. People need to go beyond the ballot box to fight for change, Goring said. 

“We must still do the work on the ground and support one another collectively by continuing to build strong community for when these systems ultimately let us down,” she said.

Published on November 2, 2020 at 11:08 pm

gfpagano@syr.edu