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Women's Equality Day

On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote became law.

Get Ready

Election Day is 97 days away. What are you doing to get ready?

Election Day is 100 Days Away

Back to the Future

Three months ago, I transitioned back to natural hair.

The assault on voting rights is an organized effort to turn back the clock and impose new barriers to the ballot box. We must stand our ground and fight back.

Then as now, ain’t nothing wrong in keeping your mind stayed on freedom.

Voter Protection 2.0

I am in New York City for Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference that focuses on the intersection of technology, civic engagement, politics and government. I’m attending as one of nine Tumblr Fellows.

As the chief evangelist for the Cost of Freedom Project, a citizen-led initiative that’s powered by we the people, I’m particularly interested in the “We Government” breakout track. Speakers will present ideas and tips on “the variety of ways the people and their governments are using data to make civic life smarter and more responsive to public needs.”

With the voter suppression schemes in place across the country, voting rights advocates must work harder and smarter to remove barriers to the ballot box and ensure all votes are counted.

During a recent broadcast of “Hour of Power,” Al Sharpton said:

This is not a normal election. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.

That’s true. But we do know that True the Vote will be out in force challenging voters’ eligibility and causing confusion at the polls. They’re crowdsourcing voter suppression; we must crowdsource voter protection.

Yo! Philly Votes will aggregate, visualize and contextualize multiple sources of real-time Election Day incident reports so that problems can be addressed and corrected in real time. We’re leveraging the power of Web 2.0 to fight Voter Suppression 2.0.

Who Voted in 2010

As day follows night, black voters are blamed when Democrats lose an election. The 2010 midterm election was no exception.

Election after election, reports show African Americans turn out on Election Day. Democrats’ problem is with white Democrats who don’t show up or white independent voters who abandon them as they did in 2010.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports African Americans increased their share of the electorate, from 11 percent in 2006 (the last midterm election) to 12 percent in 2010. It is noted that black turnout was “not statistically different from the record high in 1998.”

In 2010, the overall turnout rate was 45.5 percent. White turnout was 46.7 percent compared to 43.5 percent for blacks.

There was a gender gap in black voter participation. Black female turnout was 43.5 percent. For black men, the turnout rate was 37.2 percent.

Hispanic and Asian turnout was 31.2 percent and 31.7 percent respectively.

As for Hispanics being “the largest and fastest growing minority,” those numbers don’t mean a thing if they can’t swing an election. And if you can’t vote, you don’t count.

The Census Bureau reports that 33.8 percent of Hispanics age 18 and over are registered to vote.

Tellingly, of the 32,457,000 voting-age Hispanics, 21,285,000 are citizens. Of those eligible to vote, 51.6 percent – 10,982,000 – are registered to vote.

Read more: Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2010 - Detailed Tables

Ask a Woman Who Knows

Last week the leaders of two civil rights organizations, Marc Morial and Benjamin Jealous, met with President Obama to discuss job creation and economic growth.

The readout of the meeting notes that Obama “congratulated the leaders on their upcoming conventions.”

As expected, my post about black female civil rights leaders being left out of the meeting sparked accusations that I am a “hater.” My response: Guilty as charged.

I hate that Wells Fargo was the “Lead Sponsor” of the NAACP’s 101st annual convention. And they’re still hooked up in Los Angeles.

The predatory lender was a “Principal Sponsor” of the National Urban League’s centennial conference, and will be back on board when the League kicks off its annual conference this week.

Now check this out: On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Board ordered Wells Fargo to pay an $85 million fine for steering borrowers with good credit into subprime loans. I hate when that happens.

The order reads:

The $85 million civil money penalty is the largest the Board has assessed in a consumer-protection enforcement action and is the first formal enforcement action taken by a federal bank regulatory agency to address alleged steering of borrowers into high-cost, subprime loans.

[…]

The order addresses allegations that Wells Fargo Financial sales personnel steered borrowers who were potentially eligible for prime interest rate loans into loans at higher, subprime interest rates, resulting in greater costs to borrowers. The order also addresses separate allegations that Wells Fargo Financial sales personnel falsified information about borrowers’ incomes to make it appear that the borrowers qualified for loans when they would not have qualified based on their actual incomes.

I have been asked to identify the black women leaders who should have been invited. I will not name names because that would be a betrayal of their trust. Although they know their stuff, they would be ostracized and penalized for breaking the silence.

And I would really hate for that to happen.

UPDATE: The Huffington Post reports the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Wells Fargo for “allegedly preying upon African American borrowers during the housing bubble and steering them into high-cost subprime loans.”