Conservatives represent a minority of African-American voters

03/03/2019

The scene was disheartening. There I was standing in front of the Center for Civic Engagement on campus and hearing students say things about Quanita May, the newly elected Zone 3 City Commissioner for Daytona Beach. Hearing someone say "I'm not voting for her. She's Republican" was disappointing, to say the least because while I am a registered Democrat, I campaigned and voted for May. Party aside, however, my disappointment in these young black men and women turned into confusion. Several questions flooded my mind such as do they even know why they are making these comments? Does he understand the fundamentals of politics? Does she know the history behind the Republican Party? That is when I realized that there are so many things that college students, including myself, are unaware of when it comes to politics. After the campaign was over, I decided I needed to come up with a plan to raise student awareness about the fundamentals of politics. But, in order to do that I needed to first do the thing that I was urging every young voter to do--research. I think that we, as the young minds who are going to one day lead this country, have either forgotten about or do not care enough to learn about the things that affect us every day in terms of government. While I did my own research on basics like U.S. Constitutional Amendments, I started to wonder why there was a social stigma against the Republican Party in the black community. I have come to think of it as a ramification of what has happened over the centuries involving African-Americans in the United States.