A Toast: To More Strides, and Less Moore

What better way to end my two month long hiatus from content creating than discussing the defeat of the ogre of Alabama himself, Roy Moore. During the months and weeks leading up to the Alabama senate elections, I had been twiddling my thumbs waiting to see if yet another white, bigoted, male would be put in power. Alas, my twiddling ended when I was awoken by the sound of CNN during one of my daily car naps. “Did he win,” I asked my dad. “Nope, he lost.”

I don’t think I’ve ever sighed so heavily before. This was a sigh of relief though, not the usual one of frustration, like when I’m trying to explain that reverse racism doesn’t exist or the negative effects that the animal agriculture industry has on the environment. Climate change isn’t a hoax, by the way.

Roy Moore represents absolutely everything that I do not stand for. He is a racist; using his position as chief justice to continue to keep minorities oppressed, inherently eliminating their chances of escaping, or combatting, an already unfair criminal justice system. He is also sexist and guilty of objectifying women; preying on, and sexually assaulting, young girls, and undermining their value, which was already threatened due to unfair societal expectations. In addition to these things, he is also homophobic and xenophobic: attempting to deny these groups of the rights that they deserve and have fought for for hundreds of years.

Essentially, Moore was just another white, rich, male who could feel his artificial superiority and privileges, provided to him by his race, slipping out of his ashy, wrinkly, liver spot ridden fingers.

Naturally, I found his defeat to be a victory for these groups that he tried so hard to eliminate. And when I found out that his defeat was due to hundreds of thousands of black women who voted for Doug Jones (98% of the population of black women to be specific) your girl felt even better.

Black women, who once were only valued for their physical features, are spearheading the change that we see in America. The founder of the #MeToo campaign: a black woman. The most influential FLOTUS in History: a black woman. Yet, the most objectified, hyper-sexualized and devalued group in America, and arguably the World: black women. Don’t sleep on us. We’ve overcome everything to be where we are today. And we’re just getting started.

Besides this election being representative of the power of black women, it also births major implications as far as the future of tax reform, and other initiatives that are being proposed by the Trump Administration. With the introduction of another Democrat into senate, the divide between the two parties is minimized. In other words, Doug Jones has helped to narrow the gap between Republicans and Democrats in Senate, from 54:44 seats to 51:49 seats. This means the democrats have more representation, and thus more influence. 

However, as a peer noted today during a feminist club discussion on the matter: “This [Roy Moore’s defeat] is a victory for everyone.”

And this peer is right. This defeat is a victory for ALL marginalized people. If Alabama, a state that has leaned red for hundreds of years, is able to elect a democrat into Senate for the sake of eradicating bigotry, then, perhaps, America as a whole is ready to accept its inevitable demographic shifts.

Mark this day on your Calendars: “December 12, 2017. The Day that white turned black, and red turned blue.”