Why Do We Keep Voting in a Rigged Game? The Unseen Cost of Citizenship in America

We are told that our voice matters. We are told that our vote is our power. But how true is that when, decade after decade, Black people in America are denied the fruits of their labor, citizenship, and civic engagement? We vote, work hard, pay taxes, and build communities despite a system designed to keep us at the margins. Yet, what do we get in return?

We get a country that continues to ignore our cries for justice.

When Black people vote, we do so against a backdrop of voter suppression, gerrymandering, and systemic barriers that make it clear: our participation is tolerated, but not welcomed. We are met with closed polling stations, purged voter rolls, and new laws designed to make it harder for us to exercise our most basic democratic right. And when we do cast our votes, those we elect often do not represent our interests. They pay lip service to our communities, all the while upholding the same systems that oppress us.

The Cost of Citizenship for Black Americans

Being a Black citizen in America is a constant battle. It’s a struggle to be seen as fully human, let alone as a valued participant in the democratic process. We have paid for our citizenship with blood, sweat, and tears. Our ancestors fought against slavery, marched against segregation, and continue to stand against injustice. And yet, in the face of our labor and sacrifice, this nation still questions our right to be here, to have a say, to exist with dignity.

Every time a Black person steps into a polling booth, they do so carrying the weight of generations who were denied that right. Yet, even with this legacy of struggle, we see the returns on our citizenship dwindle to almost nothing. Our schools are underfunded, our neighborhoods are over-policed, our children are criminalized, and our voices are ignored.

What does it mean to be a citizen if the nation you help to build continues to deny you basic rights and opportunities?

America’s Selective Democracy: Who Does It Really Serve?

The reality is that America's democracy has always been selective. It was never designed to include us. It was built on the backs of enslaved people and has thrived on the systemic exclusion of those same people and their descendants. When the Constitution was written, Black people were counted as three-fifths of a person, a compromise that reflected a brutal truth: this country was never meant to see us as equals.

Fast forward to today, and while the laws have changed, the intent has not. Our communities remain deliberately underrepresented and systematically marginalized. Politicians promise change but often fail to deliver anything beyond token gestures. They fear our true power—the power to disrupt, to demand, and to reshape this nation. So, they keep the game rigged. They make us fight harder for every right, every inch of progress, knowing that the more exhausted we are, the easier it is to ignore us.

No True Representation, No True Democracy

Representation is more than a seat at the table; it's about whose voices are heard and whose needs are met. When Black communities have no true representation, we are left with a democracy in name only—a hollow shell that fails to protect and uplift its most vulnerable.

We watch as others benefit from the systems we helped build, and yet we are still waiting for the promises made to our ancestors. The schools in our neighborhoods crumble while prisons are built in record numbers. Our health outcomes lag, our economic opportunities are stifled, and our lives are still devalued. This isn’t a democracy; it’s a system of control.

A Call to Action: Beyond Voting, Toward True Liberation

So, what do we do? We recognize that voting is only one tool in our arsenal. We must demand more—more accountability, more justice, more of what we are rightfully owed. We must build our own power bases, support leaders who genuinely represent our interests, and push for systemic changes that go beyond empty rhetoric.

We must challenge the idea that our role in this democracy is limited to being silent participants. We will no longer beg for rights that are inherently ours. We must call out the hypocrisy of a nation that preaches freedom while practicing exclusion. We must remind America that without our labor, our culture, our resilience, it would not exist.

We do not need to ask for what is already ours. We demand it. We demand representation that truly reflects our voices. We demand justice that goes beyond lip service. We demand a country that lives up to the ideals it so proudly claims.

America cannot continue to profit from our existence while denying us our full humanity. The time for half-measures is over. It’s time to stop playing a rigged game and start demanding the system work for us or be dismantled.

We have played by the rules long enough. Now, we make our own.

🔁 Share this if you believe in justice, equality, and the true meaning of citizenship.