{"id":2853,"date":"2021-03-10T17:37:10","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T22:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=2853"},"modified":"2021-03-19T11:47:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T15:47:47","slug":"electoral-politics-%e2%89%a0-black-liberation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2021\/03\/electoral-politics-%e2%89%a0-black-liberation\/","title":{"rendered":"Electoral politics \u2260 Black liberation"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>ur world is experiencing an unprecedented wave of social, political, and economic turmoil. A global public health crisis has altered life as we know it. COVID-19 has resulted in a catastrophic 2.5 million deaths<\/a>. The United States remains ground zero for infection rates and casualties resulting from the coronavirus\u2014horrifically surpassing 500,000 deaths<\/a>. Many heaved a collective sigh of relief when the second season of Donald Trump\u2019s administration was cancelled. However, we deserve infinitely better than the moderate complacency of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to transcend capitalist exploitation and confront America\u2019s original sin: white supremacy.<\/p>\n

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In a world that is crumbling\u2014literally burning\u2014before our eyes, all signs point toward radical political leadership embracing these myriad crises as an opportunity to challenge systemic racism and a neoliberal status quo that foments injustice. The cascade of social challenges and environmental crises we face are the most defining our planet has ever confronted. COVID-19 illustrates how capitalism is unable to sustain humanity\u2019s collective safety and security.<\/p>\n

Last summer morphed into a season of revolutionary uprising following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and countless other Black victims of police brutality, galvanizing calls to defund and abolish police<\/a> as institutional bastions of white supremacy and state violence. As 2020 came to a close, Walter Wallace, Jr., a husband and father who lived with mental health challenges in West Philadelphia, became yet another casualty of police terror. This year began with Trump concluding his presidency by inciting an angry, racist mob to take matters into their own hands, violently storming the U.S. Capitol and destroying federal property, as Congress certified Electoral College ballots declaring Biden his successor. Five people died as a result of the unrest. Since Biden\u2019s inauguration, many have vociferously hailed the new administration as a beacon of progress, hope, and social justice. Not being Donald Trump is now acclaimed as a transcendent political ideology.<\/p>\n