Why We Must Keep Fighting To Help Our Communities Fully Realize The Political Power They Already Possess

By: Terrance Woodbury

Terrance Woodbury is a partner at HIT Strategies where his research focuses on people of color and millennials who have become the driving force of rapidly evolving consumer and electoral trends in both the United States and abroad. Terrance conducts polling and focus groups for candidates in local, state, national and international elections and for innovative companies such as Uber and Google. You can follow him @t_woodbury1. Woodbury is a founding partner at HIT Strategies, a public opinion research firm targeting young people and communities of color.

On the eve of election day, I published an article about Black voters’ anticipation of white violence in the event of Donald Trump’s defeat. In our late-cycle research, we discovered that nearly half of Black voters feared violence following the November 2020 election’s conclusion regardless of the winner. I wrote that piece to raise awareness of the fear and urge political leaders to reject inflammatory rhetoric ahead of the election cycle.

On January 6, Black voters’ predictions became reality when thousands of white supremacists attacked the United States Capitol to disrupt democracy and halt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election. And the threat of continued violence remains more prevalent than ever. This palpable threat and fear are central to Congress’s swift action to impeach President Trump for a second time, one week before the inauguration.

The insurrection at the Capitol was, in part, a repudiation of Black political power. In the days leading to the Capitol attack, Black Georgians and other diverse communities delivered the final blow to Trump and Republicans, shifting the balance of power in America.