In the national reckoning that followed the police killing of George Floyd three years ago, about 2,000 protesters took to the streets in a St. Louis suburb and urged the mostly white Francis Howell School District to address racial discrimination. The school board responded with a resolution promising to do better. Now the board, led by new conservative board members elected since last year, has revoked that anti-racism resolution and copies of it will be removed from school buildings. The Francis Howell district is among Missouri’s largest, with 17,000 students, about 87% of whom are white. In 2021, the PAC described the anti-racism resolution as “woke activism” and drafted an alternative resolution to oppose “all acts of racial discrimination, including the act of promoting tenets of the racially-divisive Critical Race Theory, labels of white privilege, enforced equity of outcomes, identity politics, intersectionalism, and Marxism.”
The pertinent lesson to be learned here is that democracy (especially non compulsory voting democracy) is about engagement. It’s not just about political conversation (although that’s important too) but getting out and doing something. Don’t just assume someone will do the hard yards for you. Register and go out and get others to register. If necessary join a political organisation that reflects your politics or start one. Be involved in local politics. In short: get off your arse and do something.