
“For me, voting is part of how we care for ourselves and our community in real time,” Washington told attendees at the 7th annual event held at Black Love’s headquarters in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 12. “These decisions impact our lives.”
The session began with Washington asking listeners how they feel about the upcoming presidential election, with audience members throwing out words like “scared,” “petrified” and “in limbo”—adjectives Washington said demonstrate a healthy fear for the future of democracy in our country.
Washington has been boots on the ground in crucial states around the country, going door-to-door in Arizona, phone banking in Nevada, and meeting with grassroots voter organizations in Michigan, using her celebrity to galvanize others— actions that fly boldly in the face of naysayers who would say entertainers such as her should just shut up and act, Hill pointed out.
“I don’t show up and talk about voting because I’m an actor. I show up and talk about voting because I’m an American,” said Washington. “And I shouldn’t have to give up my political voice because of what I do for a living because all of us have the right to vote. That’s literally what a democracy is. It’s supposed to be by the people, for the people. And when people tell me that their vote doesn’t matter, part of what I say to folks is, if your vote didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be coming for our vote the way they are.”
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Further addressing dissenters who assume the rich and famous have less at stake at the polls than everyday citizens, Washington added, “People that I know that have a lot more power than I do, and a lot more wealth than I do, they care very deeply about elections. They’re in those rooms having those conversations, trying to impact who wins elections because they know how important voting is. And so for us to give up the power that we do have is just— I want more for us. I want us to know how much we are worth. I want us to know how much we matter.”
Still, there are very real emotional barriers for our community when it comes to showing up at the polls, Washington acknowledged. Obstacles that go beyond the historic attempts to disenfranchise Black voters and poke at an unfortunate reality many of us are taught we’ll have to contend with for the entirety of our lives.
“I think sometimes as Black people, we don’t want to engage in politics because it’s painful. It’s hard to know that we are working as hard as we are working to beat that guy and it’s so close,” Washington said referring to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “It brings up all that stuff about how we have to be twice as good to get half as much. How extraordinary do we have to be? And that’s their best? That’s what they’re bringing forward as the best possibility?”
Sharing that she’s known Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for some time and does truly believe she’s the right person for office, Washington encouraged audience members to let go of the idea of finding their perfect match, so to speak, when it comes to choosing who gets their vote.
“I know that we are at the Black Love Summit, but part of what I want you to know is that this isn’t about loving a candidate. It’s about loving yourself and your community enough to vote on the values because you’re not going to be in love with every candidate, but you don’t have to be,” she said. “They’re not sleeping in your bed. They’re not at your Christmas dinner. They’re making decisions about policies that impact your life. So let’s not worry about whether somebody’s got a cool vibe or not. That’s not what I’m looking for in a president. I want a president that’s going to make decisions that are best for me and my community.”
Added Hill of the similarities between picking a romantic partner and choosing a candidate, “We know love requires sacrifice, and a lot of you are in relationships, so you understand that every day is not a sunny day. But the days that matter more are the days where you make the willing choice to love somebody and love the person next to you. That is essentially what love is. So voting and love are very much tied to that.”
Echoing early sentiments shared by Washington about the pain that’s tied to voting within the community, Hill added, “As Black people, we’re deep patriots when you think about how much we as a people give this country with no guarantee of our own agency, no guarantee of our own rights, and we’re still fighting for this place anyway. We’re fighting for the soul of this entire nation, and we always have. That’s been our legacy despite how we have been treated by this very country. The reason sometimes there’s resistance to when we are outspoken about our rights is because we remind this country to live up to the brochure. And that is love.”
Tying in the element of accountability that underlies all forms of love, Washington stated, “I want us to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror and look at the people we love and say, ‘I’m gonna show up for you because I love you and I care about what happens in our community. I care about the schools we go to. I care about the jobs we have. I care about the food we eat. I care about how we drive, where we live, whether we have healthcare, whether our parents are able to have social security. I care about the planet.’
“It’s hard to care because sometimes we get our hearts broken,” Washington added. “But I don’t want to be like a four-year-old kid at the playground who takes my marbles and leaves just because things don’t always go my way. Democracy is a game, I gotta stay in the game if I want to have a say, if I want to win. And I want us here at the Black Love Summit, I want us to win as a people.”
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