A St. Petersburg, Florida millennial says it’s time for politicians to listen to young people, but only young African Americans.
In a letter to the editor of The Weekly Challenger, Mouhamadou Diagne says it is time for local officials to focus specifically on what African Americans want and ways to advance the black community. A few of these requests are that local leaders give the black community control of the police force, the school systems, and more affordable housing.
“Failing to provide genuine economic development, affordable housing, black community control of the schools or black community control of the police are all ways the status quo has worked against the African community’s ability to be self-determinate,” Diagne said.
In his 825-word article, he pledged his support behind multiple local candidates that are running on the platform for black control in the community. A 20-year-old St. Petersburg woman is running for city council advocating for reparations and black community control of the police force, even though the St. Petersberg police force is currently led by an African-American Police Chief.
Going on to address millennials’ reputation for low voter turnout, Diagne claims that it’s not millennials who are failing politicians it’s the candidates who are failing their generation.
Diagne said young people’s lack of excitement for voting is “due to our generation’s general disunity with the status quo and the status quo’s pattern of attacking and investing at the expense of the African community.” He continued to say that millennials recognize politicians are working against their agenda. In his op-ed, he also criticized former President Barack Obama for not doing enough for the black community, saying that voters were fooled by his message.
“We are a generation that was sold a message of hope and change only to be betrayed by the status quo of a corrupt system that had been turned against the interests of the people,” Diagne said.
But Diagne is not alone in the fight for black control of the city. Jesse Nevel, a young white candidate for St. Petersburg mayor, is running his campaign on the slogan, “unity through reparations.” Nevel’s campaign proposes large reparation taxes on businesses to uplift the black community that makes less than a quarter of the city’s population. In the article, Daigne supports raising reparations on whites to pay for the African-Americans community’s interest, endorsing Nevels campaign. These types of campaign promises are what Diagne see as examples of politicians finally understanding the millennial agenda.
Daigne suggests that economically crippling whites to advance the black power in communities are ways to get millennials to turn out on election day.
