Message from the Associate Editor: Stand, rep, vote

Stand for Black fathers

With college football cooking, the NFL moving into the second quarter of its season, and the NBA throwing up the first jump ball of the 2026-27 season, it’s also another season we need to be aware of—Black Father misinformation season. Sportscasters (and their networks) seem almost bound by law to mention “50-‘leven million” times when an athlete grew up with a single mom. Big shout-out to the single moms. But when this narrative is preached like gospel, as if good Black fathers don’t exist, the world believes it, including us. What’s crazy is that research conducted by the U.S. government has shown that Black fathers are the most active and engaged in their children’s lives than any other fathers. But because this misinformation is preached religiously (especially when watching sports), we accept it as fact—even when we see Black fathers all around us taking care of business, loving, protecting, teaching, and providing for their children. So, the next time you hear a sportscaster bring up the “He/she was raised by a single mother” line as if that fact is critical to that athlete’s ability to make game-changing plays, remember: They’re not going to stop with the misinformation. We’ve got to be louder with the truth.

Tangibles differences

Some people swear the Democrats and Republicans are different wings on the same bird, or different sides of the same coin. But, there are real, tangible, “impact you personally in your wallet” type differences. Folks, how many people in Texas are without healthcare coverage because this Republican-led state didn’t expand Medicaid? About five million. How many dropped their coverage at the beginning of 2026? Roughly 1.5 million. Under the Biden/Harris administration, Black people in Lowndes County, Alabama, had reached a settlement they had been fighting for since long before that administration, to make sure their backyards weren’t going to be swimming in sewage from the entire community every time it rains. The Democrats approved the deal and funding to fix the problem, but the Republicans came in and killed it, calling it “woke.” Thanks to the Democrats, Black farmers were able to get a $5 billion set-aside to help confront the myriad of issues they’ve faced for decades due to racist U.S. Department of Agriculture policies. Then Republicans organized white farmers to sue to block that relief. Right now, we have a whole crop of Gen Z students begging online for money to help them finish their degrees because those educational funds that the Dems fought for were cut by the Republicans, pricing tens of thousands out of a viable future. Young grads hoped to start businesses and buy homes when Dems canceled student loan debt. But Trump and crew came in and ended that, so the rich could get richer. There are Blackfolk galore who don’t have access to housing under Trump’s rule, while Kamala Harris had $25K waiting for anyone in need of a down payment or closing cost assistance. Harris also planned to invest in the construction of an additional three million housing units. Conversely, the Republicans are allowing private equity and corporations to buy up all the single-family housing so they can then turn around and rent them to us at unaffordable prices. Under Biden/Harris, the Child Tax Credit was enacted, giving every family below a certain income level a monthly check per child to feed them. And Harris said, if elected, she’d give people with newborns $6,000 in the first year of life, and continue the Child Tax Credit because it cut the poverty for Black children in half. The GOP, however, killed that.

Vote

There are real-world differences between the parties. So, when you go to vote (early voting starts Oct. 19), vote for the candidate that is going to help your community the most or hurt your community the least. Your vote hires the person who decides which neighborhoods get the best resources, and which ones get garbage.

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