If you think voting in Joe Biden will solve Black people's problems, you're not listening

Over the last week, Black people around the country have made our collective voice heard through protest and unrest, telling everyone that our lives matter and we will not continue to accept the killing of our people at the hands of the police.

We have not been met with the responses of elected officials, community outreach officials, or non-Black communities hoping to listen to us; instead, we have been met with the responses of the police, the National Guard, and (as the case was last night in our nation’s capital) the Department of Defense.

It has been five days since Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct was taken over and burned. It has been five years since the protests over Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore. It has been just under six years since the unrest in Ferguson over Michael Brown’s death. It has been eight years since Trayvon Martin’s death and the consequential outrage. Decades of outrage and activism preceded this moment, trying to persuade those in power to install reform or to abolish the current structure of policing.

Unfortunately, there are too many people still not listening.

Instead of being heard, the Black community is met with the very badges and uniforms that we take issue with — and rather than listening, a majority of our elected officials have instead granted unequivocal support to these forces with reinforcements, curfew orders, and endless platitudes about how our police are, in their eyes, still protecting and serving us. Meanwhile, they go home and military leaders such as Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley (put “in charge” by Donald Trump) take to the street to “oversee” protest response.

Many celebrities, prominent figures, and organizations have used the opportunity to speak out to promote their own agendas and brands — which, again, shows they have not listened. And while protesters face a paramilitary response in defense of our community, others — rather than addressing the actual concerns set forth — have whittled this down to an issue of voting.

Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for president, held a meeting with Black community members and leaders at a Wilmington, Delaware church that was broadcast online. During that meeting, the former vice president suggested something “that could change” would be training for police officers to “shoot [unarmed people] in the leg instead of in the heart,” which would be less likely to be fatal. While Biden’s willingness to meet with members of our community and discuss these issues was leagues more courageous than the current commander-in-chief, his attempt to seize the moment to gain political traction does not help our fight. His dehumanizing statement trivializes the brutality we face — but in the end it’s a separate issue, because he doesn’t speak for us.

As former DNC Adviser Zac Petkanas pondered on Twitter: “When are we going to start asking whether the country can make it to the election?”

Voting is important, especially for the Black community, because our influence is more respected and addressed in the civic arena. Black Lives Matter has launched the #WhatMatters2020 campaign, which “aims to vigorously engage underrepresented communities in the electoral process” and “promote voter registration.” Black people should absolutely take an active part in exercising rights that we helped to provide for the citizens of this country.

What’s at issue here, however, is not something that is social or political at heart. Our right to live without facing brutality and death at the hand of police is a civil one — really, a human one. The continually growing list of victims to police officers and agents of the government cannot wait for the country to vote in officials who may or may not recognize their humanity. Those who may face death cannot wait for us to educate and persuade the American public that we don’t deserve persecution.

The fight for our lives cannot wait for an election date because, by itself, voting cannot save us. We cannot wait to turn in our ballots, because the wait for police forces to exercise their violence is much shorter.

Voting in a new president, or voting any progressive into office, will not prevent police brutality and extrajudicial killings — and it is a tried and failed technique. Minnesota, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Louisville all have Democratic mayors, governors, legislatures and/or district attorneys, yet our lives are just at risk at the hands of police here than they are anywhere in the country, just like they were under Democratic President Barack Obama.

Furthermore, Biden is not a guaranteed success this fall: assuming he earns the majority of the popular vote, the electoral college can prevent his election, as we have seen before in five previous general elections.

While it is still necessary to vote out Trump, doing so does not offer a substantial solution to the persecution of Black people. There is no singular ballot that will do so. The solution will take a committed upheaval of, and withdrawal from, the system that was designed to control and punish Black people from its inception.

The fight for our civil right to life doesn’t begin or end with Donald Trump. If you think removing him will completely resolve our community’s fight, you have not listened.